Annotated
Old Julia Wallace once suggested that the Co-op blog (which I administer) carry "annotated bookshelves." Sometime more recently, The New Yorker's Book Bench blog started running "The Subconscious Shelf," an unfortunately useless feature that, nonetheless, compelled me to photograph things in my apartment today. Without further ado, a series of annotated bookshelves.
Here, we have a disgusting scented candle (pumpkin?), a discarded glove, and some books. Red to Black is a thriller that didn't thrill me immediately. The boxed set of Beckett is simply beautiful, even if it duplicates a number of other books I own. I once resolved to read the complete works of Beckett and, well, didn't. There's also a DVD of Kafka's The Castle. I borrowed it from a coworker almost six months ago. Yikes. The red book under the light switch is a book on American empire written by Eric Hobsbawm. It was highly recommended by a fellow named John who I couldn't regard more highly. And hey! There's that copy of The Museum of Eterna I was looking for! The Barbara Ehrenreich comes from my bizarre notion of what Jessica might like to read. I think I'm doing better now because, well, here's another picture.
Here's a copy of The Condemnation of Blackness, a book I think Jessica actually likes. I was working the author event (lots of people!) and it sounded like the kind of thing she might be interested in, interested as she is in iniquities and inequality and so on. The Elias Khoury book there is forthcoming from Archipelago and I've agreed to review it for Three Percent. I'm counting on all of you to hold me to that. The Arts & Crafts book? What? Let's look at another shelf.
On the top shelf, we have a rarely functioning modem and a totem of some kind. Canadian, I think. Also, a few CDs: Dengue Fever, Ethiopiques, Dianne Reeves, and some Numero Group releases. Beneath that, a translation of War & Peace that I have never read, an empty dust jacket (for Every Man Dies Alone), some books that one of my employers published, and Foucault's Pendulum. Which is awesome. Between the Somekh book and the DVD of The Lives of Others, there's a copy of my undergrad lit journal. I understand that none of this has been overwhelming or even interesting, but bear with me. The next shelf is much BETTER.
Maybe "much more" is an overstatement, but this shelf is chock-a-block with nominees for the Best Translated Book Award. And some other stuff, like an autographed copy of Simon Winchester's The Man Who Loved China, and an old Linksys router. Next to that, there's a copy of Goldberg Variations, a great book by Gabriel Josipovici.
Unfortunately for you, Katie-Anne and Reese-Anna have reminded me of how self-absorbed blogging can and should be. More of this in the future, in the meantime, here's most of the rest of 'em:
Here, we have a disgusting scented candle (pumpkin?), a discarded glove, and some books. Red to Black is a thriller that didn't thrill me immediately. The boxed set of Beckett is simply beautiful, even if it duplicates a number of other books I own. I once resolved to read the complete works of Beckett and, well, didn't. There's also a DVD of Kafka's The Castle. I borrowed it from a coworker almost six months ago. Yikes. The red book under the light switch is a book on American empire written by Eric Hobsbawm. It was highly recommended by a fellow named John who I couldn't regard more highly. And hey! There's that copy of The Museum of Eterna I was looking for! The Barbara Ehrenreich comes from my bizarre notion of what Jessica might like to read. I think I'm doing better now because, well, here's another picture.
Here's a copy of The Condemnation of Blackness, a book I think Jessica actually likes. I was working the author event (lots of people!) and it sounded like the kind of thing she might be interested in, interested as she is in iniquities and inequality and so on. The Elias Khoury book there is forthcoming from Archipelago and I've agreed to review it for Three Percent. I'm counting on all of you to hold me to that. The Arts & Crafts book? What? Let's look at another shelf.
On the top shelf, we have a rarely functioning modem and a totem of some kind. Canadian, I think. Also, a few CDs: Dengue Fever, Ethiopiques, Dianne Reeves, and some Numero Group releases. Beneath that, a translation of War & Peace that I have never read, an empty dust jacket (for Every Man Dies Alone), some books that one of my employers published, and Foucault's Pendulum. Which is awesome. Between the Somekh book and the DVD of The Lives of Others, there's a copy of my undergrad lit journal. I understand that none of this has been overwhelming or even interesting, but bear with me. The next shelf is much BETTER.
Maybe "much more" is an overstatement, but this shelf is chock-a-block with nominees for the Best Translated Book Award. And some other stuff, like an autographed copy of Simon Winchester's The Man Who Loved China, and an old Linksys router. Next to that, there's a copy of Goldberg Variations, a great book by Gabriel Josipovici.
Unfortunately for you, Katie-Anne and Reese-Anna have reminded me of how self-absorbed blogging can and should be. More of this in the future, in the meantime, here's most of the rest of 'em:
posted by jw at
4:29 PM
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