Tuesday, September 16, 2008

My New Bookcase



I'm happy to finally have a place to store all my chess books and magazines. :)

How's my studying going? Not so good. After work, exercise, and playing with / reading to my daughter I haven't had the energy to dig into tactics problems. For the past week I've focused more on productivity and eating right, and now my doctor wants me to run some tests for diabetes, thyroid issues, etc.

Studying chess has its ups and downs. I hope to hit my stride again soon!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice bookcase, nice trophy!

Sometimes chess has to take the sideburner because other things in life become more important.

Hope the healt issues are minor and you will be declared healty as a fish.

Anonymous said...

Nice!

tanch said...

Great looking bookcase+trophy!

I can't help but notice the following endgame books on your bookshelf:-

Dvoretsky Endgame Manual
Mueller's Fundamental Chess Endings
Glenn Flear's Practical Endgame Play
Mueller's How To Play Chess Endgames

and is that Rueben Fine's Endgame book I see as well?

I recognise quite a number of books from the binders like the NIC Yearbooks and Vukovic's etc. as well.

Polly said...

Funny how life seems to be getting in everyone's way chess wise. I really should rearrange my book cases and get all my chess books in one place. Maybe I'm afraid of knowing just how many chess books I own, and am not currently reading.

likesforests said...

@chesstiger - I should know by tomorrow morning. :)

@e - thanks!

@ happyhippo

Yes, my favorites! The rest are:

Secrets of Pawn Endings
Secrets of Rook Endings
Starting Out: Rook Endings
Starting out: Pawn Endings
100 Endgames You Must Know
Capablanca's Best Chess Endings
A Practical Guide to Rook Endings
Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov
Pandolfini's Endgame Course

@polly - My wife was quick to point out what 40 books cost. If only I could say I had studied 10 of them intensively. ;)

Banatt said...

There's that trophy!

Don't worry, You get into your stide.

likesforests said...

My doctor ruled out diabetes, heart disease, and thyroid problems... from their perspective I'm healthy.

I guess that's good news! Although it doesn't answer why I'm sleepy. My doctor said to get more cardio and my nutritionist used to tell me to make sure I eat some protein and fruit in the morning so I guess I will try those things out.

Blue Devil Knight said...

It's sad, even after my great purge, I still have more books than you but you are still better than me at chess.

Chessaholic said...

Glad to hear you're healthy! I can second the comment on cardio. When I go running 3-4 times a week, my energy levels are much higher during the day. Sometimes I get too busy to run that much, and I notice an immediate drop in my overall energy levels. As soon as I go running again, it gets better. There is a direct correlation.

Nice book collection btw! :)

Glenn Wilson said...

My chess books are currently strewn all about and have been for months. Which also describes my recent study habits. A little of this, a little of that...

Maybe you're sleepy just due to working very intensely and/or not enough sleep? How's your vision? In the past I have found that a factor when doing lots of intense computer work and/or reading...

Good luck with the sleepiness.

likesforests said...

Dr. Glenn, I think your diagnosis may be on-target. I bought a new monitor (for work and chess) not too long ago. I just discovered the brightness and contrast were not set at very eye-friendly levels. I fixed that and turned on "Clear Type". Heh... we'll see if that helps. :)

likesforests said...

bdk - It's like chessloser's tattoo. These things will spur us to play stronger chess so we don't feel so silly about having a library! Amazingly, super-GM Nakamura claims he only remembers reading two chess books: Fischer's 60 Memorable Games & Tarrasch's Game of Chess. ;)

chessaholic - Check! I'm getting back into the exercise groove and I think I found the cause of my fatigue... hopefully the chess energies will follow. :)

Blue Devil Knight said...

What is "clear type"?

likesforests said...

BDK, Clear Type tells Windows to use anti-aliasing, which on many (but not all) monitors makes the text easier to read (10% faster reading rate and supposedly less eyestrain). Click here to see a before and after example... and if you go there using Internet Explorer you can turn on/off and tune your clear type settings right from the webpage. :)

transformation said...

lovely post.
keep on truck'n!
warmly, dk