The shelfish gaze

[larryhammer]

My reflex on entering any house or office is to look through the bookshelves. Which is a little bit of "hey can I borrow that" and, okay, a little bit of snooping, but it's also a personal introduction -- your books show a contour of your mind. I justify that mixed-motive claim by noting that the shelf I most want to check out is the most private of all: the nightstand. What does this person end the day with, intend to get to, keep by for comfort?

We call our nightstand the Heirloom: originally made in the 1940s by my grandfather (the town cabinetmaker and policeman) for my aunt when she went to college, it somehow ended up with my grandmother in the nursing home; it was my inheritance when she died. It's more a small set of shelves than a nightstand, but that's how we use it. On top is a revolving stack of (semi)current reading. The lower two shelves are the permanent bedside collection.

In the spirit of seasonal of self-examination, here's what's there now. Middle shelf is poetry:

• The Oxford Book of Travel Verse: poets' impressions of the world, ordered by region; has Hughes's and Plath's poems on a bullfight they watched during their honeymoon


• The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse: a fascinating, thematically arranged anthology of Tudor through Restoration poetry, with an introduction bettered only by that of ...


• The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse: has "Goblin Market" and "The City of Dreadful Night" and "Amours de Voyage"; which would be enough even without the introduction


• The Oxford Book of English Verse (Gardner edition): one of the two best single-volume general poetry anthologies I've met; and no, the other is not the Ricks edition, but ...


• The Penguin Book of English Verse: a volume that continues to delight, after a few years' grazing; arranged not by birth date of poet, but publication date of poem


• The Portable Poets of the English Language: a five-volume anthology with introductions by Auden, a co-editor; if the gatekeeper to the desert island lets you count this as a single book, take it instead -- you won't be sorry


• Complete Shakespeare: a compact edition used as a textbook by Betty Jobleigh in 1924

The bottom shelf is general reading:

• Montaigne's Essays: always good for a dollop of wise and witty


• Plutarch's Lives: though, actually, neither of us has touched this in several years; it's probably due for rotation out


• The Book of a Thousand Nights and One Night (Burton, 3 volumes): naughty line-art -- 'nuff said.


• Nicomedian Ethics: one day I'll read it straight through and, like, have finished a book of Aristotle


• The Practical Cogitator: an anthology of moral/ethical philosophy; also due for cycling out


• Bible (NRSV)


• Song of Songs: a facing-page translation by two Jewish poets


• Faith and Practice (Pacific Yearly Meeting): Quakers don't go in for doctrine, but they do like to document what they do and say


• Tao Te Ching (Le Guin): yes, Ursula Le Guin translated Lao Tzu, with help from a pony -- graceful English, dubious accuracy

So what do you keep by the bedside?

---L.

Comments

[bdenz.livejournal.com]

We both have nightstands and we have a headboard with a top shelf. All are full. David also has a stepping stool with books on top that are as tall as I am. In those piles of to-be-read stuff, we have: Irish class notes [D], fantasy, sci-fi, historical novels, myth and stories from 5 different cultures [Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Maori, and NW Indian] [me], the complete Farside Comics, texts on SGML and XML [me] and bone carving [D], and books on writing [me]. I think that's all. I'm currently reading Pandora's Star and Guided Imagery [alternating]. D's reading Kushiel's Avatar for coffee in the morning, reading on the ferry, and putting-to-sleep at night.

You'd love our house [and we yours]. We have 3 bookshelves in the living room packed to overflowing, 2 in each of our studies and a bunch more books in storage that there's no room for. Until the holidays, books were piled on every flat surface. We've been striving to make that stop. Instead of head-high, they're only waist high now.

Shelves closest to the door have garden, auto repair, foreign language [about 1/2 the books we actually have on language and learning] and history of all kinds. Next batch has travel [picture books of places we've been; National Geographic maps; guidebooks], grad school books I chose to keep [broadcasting and organizational communication mostly]; final batch in the living room has cookbooks, self-improvement books, religions of the world, and all my yearbooks. In my study, there's mostly computer manuals, sci-fi and fantasy I can't part with, and multiple copies of the books my stories are in. And the rest of the language manuals. In D's study is poetry, music theory and notation, more travel, class notes of both, home improvement, dance, archery, and a smattering of medieval history.

But we're culling. I think I rival Mary for near-bed eclecticism.

[larryhammer]

We're up to 10 full-size bookselves and a handful of half-heighters, all stuffed. We're hopeless. Though to be fair, one of those bookcases has our Sometimes Roommate's books. But still.

---L.