Inventory of the tomes

My mother saved the table legs. They're somewhere in the kitchen now. And she complains about my dad being a packrat...

Paperback series
I have several books from some popular science fiction and/or fantasy series, all of them in paperback. So it makes sense to have this as a category. These books are individually rather small, but there are so many of them that they take up a lot of room. I have...

• 7 books from the Battletech series. I got into these after I started playing Mechwarrior II. I forget how many books from the series I read over the years. Some of them, particularly the Michael A. Stackpole ones, are actually quite good. These seven are pretty much random ones that I got as a Christmas gift in, I think, 1999. I had already read two or three of them, as it wasn't like my parents kept track of which ones I had and hadn't read.
• 4 Darksword books. The complete original trilogy and the odd companion book, Darksword Adventures. All I'm missing is the sequel, Legacy of the Darksword. Got into these because they were written by Weis & Hickman.
• All 7 books of the Death Gate Cycle. As before, got into it because it was the same authors that originally did Dragonlance. Easily their best work, though.
• 2 of the Star of the Guardians books. The Death Gate Cycle aside, these books seem to be convincing evidence that Margaret Weis wrote better without Tracy Hickman than with him. Their fans will be sending assassins after me right about now. But it's true.
• All three volumes of the Rose of the Prophet trilogy. Weis & Hickman's second best work, probably.
• 15 Dragonlance books. I have no idea how many Dragonlance books I've read. Dozens, easily. Maybe a hundred. Nothing particularly good about the ones I happen to own, except for what seem to be first editions of the Legends trilogy and the first volume only of the Chronicles. Also, I just remembered that I read one of these before I read the Chronicles. Presumably the same copy sitting on the desk now. I wonder where I originally got it. I didn't really get into this series until J.T. loaned me the Chronicles back in 1998 or so.
• 1 Redwall book. I am not positive, but I'm pretty sure that I read every single Redwall book that was published up to this one, although I'm sure there are a lot more now.
• 2 volumes of His Dark Materials. Missing the first one.
• 2 Magic: the Gathering novels. The concept of books based on a card game just seems too silly to me to bother with. But I have to say that back in the day, they actually got some good authors to write these things. You'd think that they'd just exploit the popularity of the game to make a quick buck, which of course they've done, but there are some real gems to be found here. Not anymore, of course. That's why I said "back in the day." Now the books are tied to the sets as part of their storyline. Some of the old books were good. These two, unfortunately, are not among them.
• 1 of the Chronicles of Prydain. I read the whole series in 1996 or 1997. The last one is pretty bad. This is the first one.
  

Science fiction and fantasy
Asimov: The End of Eternity, Prelude to Foundation, Nemesis, I, Robot
Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Podkayne of Mars
Other: The Complete Chronicles of Conan, Cyberdreams, Thor's Hammer, Man Plus
"Classics" that are also at least kind of sort of science fiction: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Brave New World, 1984

Classic literature because I have class
John Steinbeck's two best books, two Poe books (one of which is complete works, so the other is redundant, but it does look nice), and then two others, one Russian and one French, both translated into English because I am too lame to know more than one language.

Ostensibly classics, but they suck
Three books. Should I say which ones, or would that mean more assassins?

Kind of miscellaneous
This old King Arthur book for children or some such creatures and also The Lovely Bones.

Picture books
Watchmen and Quick as a Cricket. We used to have more Audrey Wood books, but somehow this one ended up safe with me and the others have probably been ruined. Personally, my favorite is The Big, Hungry Bear.

Drama
Picnic (ugh), Hamlet, and three books of George Bernard Shaw plays. My great grandma got me those when I was really into Shaw. I don't think I've read anything by him in years now, but I still think they're some of the best plays ever.

Non-fiction
Eight or so books. No particular theme.

Useful reference texts that I should store somewhere easily accessible
Dictionary, calculus cliff notes, organic chemistry lab manual, old microbiology textbook, statistics textbook, biology textbook, plant identification books, general and organic chemistry textbooks, organic chemistry solutions manual, book of quotes, calculus textbook.

Not so useful reference texts that might still be of some use
Microbiology textbook from microbiology class, old chemistry textbooks, psychology textbook, American history textbook that was never for any class I ever took but it looks mediocre, newsletter production manual (huh?), books from philosophy of science class (all bad), books of photographs, my dad's old torn up book of frontpages from the Los Angeles Times, English textbooks, ancient zoology book.

Books that I have not yet read, but might some day
Logic puzzles, a strange book about mathematics, a 1940's mystery novel, a 1960's science fiction anthology, an Isaac Asimov book, a Colette book, King Lear, a book of Mark Twain quotes, Othello, a Neil Gaiman book, another anthology, Gravity's Rainbow, some book about science and politics, the complete works of Jack London, The Dilbert Principle, another Carl Sagan book, a Fyodor Dostoevsky book, a book of Dryden poems that is 110 years old, Henrik Ibsen plays, a Charles Dickens book I was supposed to read a while back but never did, Moby Dick (I've read part of it but never finished it).

Not really books
Or perhaps books intended for me to write in them or something. I found four lab notebooks and an old spiral notebook from junior high. Oh, there are also some instruction manuals, like the one for my globe and for my chemistry model set thing. Also, computer game manuals.

For the lulz
Books that I don't really intend to actually read, but that I do find amusing and happen to have for some reason include some funny self-help books, this really bad book that I don't know how to describe exactly, a book about IBS that someone must have given me because of my intestinal spasms, a book about how to become a millionaire by starting a mail-order business, and this awful fantasy trilogy that someone must have given me.

Do not want
Do you want any of these? Now is your chance...

• Patriot Games by Tom Clancy. Ugh, Tom Clancy. How could I ever have tolerated him?
• Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. Seriously?
• Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Mission of Honor. Not even actually by Tom Clancy. Stupid, really. Glad I never read this one.
• The Charm School by Nelson Demille. Looks like a wannabe Tom Clancy book. Ugh.
• The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. Not sure why I used to like H.G. Wells either. I was young and stupid.
• 4 resume guide books or whatever. Not that I'd read a book written by a total stranger for help with my resume. My sister got them when she graduated from college and she didn't want them, so she gave them to me. I don't want them either.
• Some algebra workbooks.
• An old Christian apologetic book. Oh, I guess this is my dad's. I'll just sneak it onto one of his shelves or something. He probably wanted me to read it, but I'll bet he never read it himself anyway. Besides, I read the first bit of it and it was really boring and pointless.

And that's it, aside from five books that I threw away because of extensive mold damage. Now I just need to figure out how to make this stuff take up less space...