First shelf: This one is the closest, and reachable from the couch. I was only able to take a picture of the top half as a result. The top shelf is mostly an assortment of Greene, Maupin and noir masters Chandler and Macdonald. The second shelf is the first part of my anthropological/museum/historic preservation collection. Below this, not pictured, are the large architecture books and the collected "Love and Rockets." And of course, there is the deer skull, which I found and cleaned myself.
Second shelf: This shelf is of equal importance to the previous one, and is also reachable from the couch. It has my historic books, some really great literature (Beattie, Barker and Waugh), my Rivers collection, and my China collection with Guy's book signed to me. Boy, is that geeky! There are more China books and some L&M readings not pictured below.
Third shelf: Some of these books I like, and some of them I could do without. Classmate Dan thought having Foucault next to Neil Gaiman was funny. Percival Everett is on this shelf, and he rocks. On top, you can see a large piece of obsidian which I pilfered from Mono Lake on the border of California and Nevada, and a couple of other desert rocks. There are also two old Mickey Spillane paperbacks.
Fourth shelf: Some of these are pristine history books which I didn't like the first time around, and might never read again... but you never know! Of course, there are a few old favorites. And then there's the coyote skull up top, obtained in New Mexico, but found and cleaned by someone else. Oh, and there's an old hand plane and spokeshave too. I put those there to redeem a lackluster shelf.
2 comments:
I'm always intrigued by how people (especially those who love books) organise their bookshelves. I think it says a lot about us. I have friends who have to have everything in a library-like state, alphabetical and categorised. I have another friend who keeps the most important/most used books in the middle of the bookshelves. Justin hates any kind of order - he loves the surprise of finding a book he forgot he owned (happens quite a lot!). And - not wanting to disturb his treasure hunt, but needing to have some idea of where useful books are - I've arranged our shelves in a system only I seem to understand, roughly categorised by the different courses I've taken, essays I've written, and sermons I've preached. It's a constantly evolving process!
That's kind of cool! Yeah, my order is sort of in my head, and probably doesn't look too logical. But it makes sense to me. On the other hand, I like knowing where my books are--it's frustrating when I can't find something. I do like Justin's approach in theory though!
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