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Sunday, April 27, 2014

Stacking the Shelves - April 27, 2014 - Project Time

Project 117: Organize my Wedding Album by adding the remaining photos.  I only got married 14 years ago.
Project 118: Alphabetize the book case in the living room.  The books were basically just shoved on the shelves to figure out spacing.  I only moved into the house three years ago.
Project 119: Catalog Anthologies and short stories.  Ummmm...Project still in process...

I have been trying to  take care of some projects, but am finding I am (a) tired, (b) lack the time and (c) am unmotivated.  Sometimes, though, something happens that makes it impossible for me not to address.  In this instance, I ordered an anthology  that I realized weeks later I already owned.  I at least bought a used copy, but still.

I have found that I buy a lot of anthologies that have short stories by Neil Gaiman, for example, as well as other favorite authors.  The issue I have is that I have never tried to track what stories I actually own.  For instance, I have Neil Gaiman's Troll Bridge in about four or five collections.

In order to stop buying anthologies that contain stories by authors I like, but do not need, I have decided to undertake this massive project which is to document the short stories and anthologies I own.  Easy peasy, right?  So, so wrong.

I found I had anthologies on almost all my book cases.  Some authors, like Charles DeLint, have a lot of collections.  So, I started one book shelf at a time.  I documented the author, the short story and the collection.  I had them on my phone, on my iPad and on paper.  I have anthologies in the library, in my bedroom, in my niece's room, in the attic and on my Kindle.  I have stand alone short stories on my Kindle.  I have Fantasy magazines with short stories (I had at least 50 magazines to sort through, if not more).  For weeks, I was compiling this data.  I transferred the data from my iPhone, iPad and notebooks to a spreadsheet on my computer which is organized by author, short story and anthology.

If nothing else, I am a completest.  Oh not in the traditional sense that I finish everything I start.  I am a completest in the sense that I need to collect everything for my favorites, whether it be an author, a musician an actor or a character.

To that end, I spent a lot of time looking up anthologies on Amazon, most particularly fantasy collections.  From there, I compiled a list of short stories for my favorite authors that I do not have organized by author, anthology and price.  I created a new tab on my spreadsheet and copied it all next to the tab with the short stories I have already.  To make searching my wish list easier, I took all the anthologies from my book wish list and my Kindle wish list and loaded them all under one list titled 'Anthologies'.  This way I could keep track easier.

From that point, I looked at the prices of the collections, how many stories from that collection I needed, who the authors were and started purchasing some of the collections on Kindle.  The problem is that not all of the anthologies I found have a view-able table of contents, so I have to Google search to try to find the table of contents.

So while I am not done with the project and it is still a work in progress, I am confident that this will prevent my ordering anthologies I already own or ordering an anthology because of a short story I already own in another collection.  On top of the book I found I ordered twice, I also found a book I ordered that hubby already had.  Again, I bought it used at least, but I am just getting too frustrated with this happening frequently enough.

As a result the majority of my Kindle acquisitions are anthologies or short stories as well as some of my physical copies.  I will continue to search for the collections I want to buy, but now I have something to work with.

I realize it has been a month since I wrote a STS, so this will encompass all my acquisitions since then.  So please don't freak by the number of titles.



Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews.


Books Purchased:
The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle

Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Kissing in Italian by Lauren Henderson

Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas

Legacy of the Clockwork Key (The Secret Order) by 
Kristin Bailey
The Sworn Sword: The Graphic Novel (A Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back (William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Trilogy) by Ian Doescher

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images and Stories edited by Jeff VanDerMeer

Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The School for Good and Evil 2: A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

The Mammoth Book of Fantasy edited by Mike Ashley

In the Shadow of the Gargoyle edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and Thomas S. Roche

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

Mythspring edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Genevieve Kierans




Kindle Books Purchased:
Taste Test by Kelly Fiore – Kindle Daily Deal 


Sleepy Hollow; The Secret Life and Legend of Ichabod Crane.___An New American Tale by A. Van Kraft, Allyson Barnes – Kindle Countdown Deal

Dark Weaver (Weaver Series) by Dena Nicotra – Kindle Countdown Deal

Unpredictable by Eileen Cook – Kindle Countdown Deal

A Royal Match by Tyne O’Connell – Kindle Monthly Deal 

A Royal Mess by Tyne O’ Connell – Kindle Monthly Deal

Revenge of the Cheerleaders by Janette Rallison – Kindle Monthly Deal

Insatiable by Meg Cabot – Kindle MatchBook

Overbite (Insatiable) by Meg Cabot – Kindle MatchBook

It's a Mall World After All by Janette Rallison – Kindle Monthly Deal

Fanmail by Mia Castle – Free Kindle eBook

Chapters) by Jennifer E. Smith

Adversity (Cursed #2.5) by Claire Farrell


Once Upon a Prince (Royal Wedding Series) by Rachel Hauck – Kindle Daily Deal

      A Room with a View by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster - Free eBook

      Born of Illusion by Teri Brown - Kindle Daily Deal


      Doon (A Doon Novel) by Lorie Langdon, Carey Corp



      To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts

      The Book of Tomorrow: A Novel by Cecelia Ahern

Splintered by A.G. Howard



      No Knight Needed (Ever After) by Stephanie Rowe



Gilded Ashes: A Cruel Beauty Novella (HarperTeen Impulse)

Austenland: A Novel by Shannon Hale

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

Desperately Ever After by Laura Kenyon




Wings of Fire by Jonathan Strahan


Unfettered edited by Shawn Speakman
Too Fond: A Tor.Com Original by Leanna Renee Hieber








Wings of Fire edited by Jonathan Strahan

Happily Ever After edited by John Klima


Year's Best Fantasy 3: Vol 3 edited by David G. Hartwell

See Me by Wendy Higgins

Year's Best Fantasy 4 edited by David G. Hartwell

Year's Best Fantasy edited by David G. Hartwell


Tails of Wonder edited by Theodora Goss and Ellen Datlow

Year's Best Fantasy 5 edited by David G. HartwellKindle Edition

Year's Best Fantasy 2 edited by David G. Hartwell

I Put A Spell On You, A Halloween Anthology by Codi Gary, Jaclyn Hatcher and April Oglesbee 




Patterson and Chris White – Free eBook




Manga Purchased:
Sweet Rein 2

Happy Marriage? 5

Voice Over! Seiyu Academy

Library Wars: Love & War 11

Bleach 60

Dawn of the Arcana 12

Phantom Thief Jeanne 1


Giveaway Won:


Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel courtesy of GoodReads and mackids.com