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Booked Solid: Some Readers' Cherished Collections Have Nowhere to Grow
The Washington Post ^ | March 23, 2006 | Annie Groer

Posted on 03/23/2006 11:53:14 AM PST by Physicist

Law librarian Rick Ramponi's collection of 3,000 regional cookbooks --including "Talk About Good" from the Lafayette, La., Junior League and "Shalom on the Range," which celebrates southwestern Jewish cuisine -- was manageable while he lived in a large house in Kalorama.

But when he moved to a one-bedroom Dupont Circle apartment with a partner who collects large art and architecture books, Ramponi had to exile those cherished culinary texts to a pair of rented storage units several blocks away.

Since 2002, he has spent more than $5,000 to keep them there, which "may be more than they are all worth," he concedes. "But there is a sentimental attachment and I associate them with places I've been, people I know."

Accountant Jennifer Kimball, who is studying for a master's degree in English, and policy analyst Matt Cail, who has a pair of master's degrees, call themselves "huge bibliophiles." Thus their chief requirement when condo shopping two years ago was enough wall space for shelves to hold their books. Already they have run out of space in their Alexandria flat. "Next year we will start looking for a house to buy that has room for children," she says. And books.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bibliopath; bibliophile; gentlemadness; hobbyanddisease
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To: TalonDJ

Hmmm... ping... give it a few more years and we'll have this problem I think...


61 posted on 03/23/2006 12:22:12 PM PST by JenB
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To: js1138

My wife refuses to go "garage saleing" with me anymore because I always buy several books.

On those rarer than rare occasions that we actually do go to a garage sale, she adminishes "No books! Gottit?" before we get out of the car.

It never works.


62 posted on 03/23/2006 12:22:15 PM PST by Skooz (Chastity prays for me, piety sings............Modesty hides my thighs in her wings......)
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To: Hildy
I move alot and I had to give up schlepping books everywhere I went.

I had to force the wife to at least dump the paperbacks. It was difficult, but when the truck is half taken up with heavy boxes of books, you gotta put your foot down.

63 posted on 03/23/2006 12:22:23 PM PST by numberonepal (Don't Even Think About Treading On Me)
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To: Physicist

When my wife and I married nine years ago this summer and moved to our new home, it took over two one-ton flat bed truck loads to move our books to the new house from our two previous houses. Since then, I've gotten rid of some old paperbacks from thirty years ago, but we have gotten around to some serious purchasing. I have no fear of tornados -- our home can't be lifted from its foundations.


64 posted on 03/23/2006 12:22:25 PM PST by KC Burke (Men of intemperate minds can never be free....)
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To: Physicist
But when he moved to a one-bedroom Dupont Circle apartment...

I was immediately and subconsciously suspicious...

...with a partner

My suspicions were confirmed three words later.

65 posted on 03/23/2006 12:22:58 PM PST by Young Scholar
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To: tbird5
Thank you Cliff Janeway. ;-)
66 posted on 03/23/2006 12:23:17 PM PST by Quilla
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To: goldstategop

Penguin paperbacks suck. I'll find a copy of the book I'm looking for online in a used bookstore in the UK before I purchase a new one here.


67 posted on 03/23/2006 12:23:55 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: wideawake
Have you read 'Summa Theologica'? A Professor friend of mine calls it one of the great 'Boring Works' of Western Civilization along with Augustine's City of God.
68 posted on 03/23/2006 12:24:54 PM PST by Borges
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To: Physicist
Three letters come to mind

O C D

69 posted on 03/23/2006 12:25:08 PM PST by tx_eggman (Islamofascism ... bringing you the best of the 7th century for the past 1300 years.)
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To: Physicist
"Any other confirmed bibliopaths out there?"

I used to be. However, years ago I was running out of shelf space and starting thinking that it was a shame these good books were sitting on a shelf and not being read. (I had already read all of them). So, I decided to donate them to my local library. I delivered about 2000 books and they were thrilled to get them. Now I know lots of people are getting the enjoyment out of the books that I got and I can still go check out any of them whenever I want. A win/win situation. Now I deliver a couple of boxes to the library ever two years or so, whenever shelf space starts getting tight.

70 posted on 03/23/2006 12:25:36 PM PST by joebuck
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To: goldstategop

Those Penguin editions collapse after one or two readings.


71 posted on 03/23/2006 12:25:40 PM PST by Borges
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To: Physicist

Bookcases in every room with books appropriate to the room (like 200 plus cookbooks in the kitchen, art books in the living room, garden books in the sun room, how too books in the bathroom etc).

File boxes of books under beds clearly labeled.

MORE file boxes of books in the attic (cheap paperbacks, but I browse through them all the time for fun reads).

Oh yeah, and walls of books in my office.

And the horror is books are really cheap at Goodwill. And I really do need one more cookbook...


72 posted on 03/23/2006 12:26:11 PM PST by najida (I hate bullies- God, man or beast, it doesn't matter.)
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To: RikaStrom
I bought 2 more bookcases and filled 1 of them with the books I had on the coffee table. ,/i>

I bet that was one of those "you gotta be kidding me" moments.

73 posted on 03/23/2006 12:26:16 PM PST by numberonepal (Don't Even Think About Treading On Me)
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To: twigs

I am in an apartment and do not have the space for all of the shelves I would need for my books. I need to box up those I am not referencing regularly.

Good thing is I can always rotate what are on the shelves and rediscover some books I've bought but haven't had time to read. Or want to reread.


74 posted on 03/23/2006 12:26:22 PM PST by weegee ("Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15.")
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To: Skooz

My wife considers any garage sale Saturday a waste if we don't find a few books. We just gave away several hundred and it didn't make a dent.


75 posted on 03/23/2006 12:26:30 PM PST by js1138 (~()):~)>)
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To: Physicist

That's what The Lock Up is for.


76 posted on 03/23/2006 12:26:39 PM PST by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: trimom
Erasmus was the famous someone who penned that quote.
77 posted on 03/23/2006 12:26:40 PM PST by Physicist
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To: Malacoda
"The Bookworm" available in color here.
78 posted on 03/23/2006 12:28:26 PM PST by Quilla
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To: goldstategop
Books may age but they never cease to give one pleasure.

Well put. I have books stacked two deep on shelves in my house. Very relaxing to pick up an old paperback on a rainy day.

Easier to find time to read now that the kids are getting older. When they were little, my book collection sat unread for quite awhile. Just no time then.

79 posted on 03/23/2006 12:28:43 PM PST by IndyTiger
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To: Quilla

I love Dunning's books! I would love to have his first book in a 1st. I have the other's signed and in 1st. Don't tell me you have his 1st book because I would be really jealous. Dunning has a web page and a book store online.


80 posted on 03/23/2006 12:29:41 PM PST by tbird5
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