Thanks for all the well wishes regarding my wrist. It is doing better today but it still feels fragile.
Now that school has begun my reading time has been drastically reduced, but I’m still managing to squeeze in a page here and there. The Raw Shark Texts continues to be delightfully bizarre. Glimpses of the Moon is Edith Wharton being her marvelous self.
And Library at Night is like crack for the bookish. I just read about Aby Warburg and is huge library. The most unusual thing about it is how it was organized. Warburg arranged his books so they talked to one another, in other words by association rather than a call number or subject or alpha order. Manguel suggests it is a visual representation of the man’s mind. I am almost tempted to try something like it on a smaller scale. Almost. The problem is, I am certain that my associations will change from day to day and book to book and I will always be arranging and rearranging and never quite sure where a particular book is. I do believe Warburg had the problem but he didn’t see it as a problem at all more like a constant visual arranging of his thoughts.
Another video for you. This one is a PSA Neil Gaiman did for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. What Gaiman says about the First Amendment makes me glad I live in America in spite of the current weenies running this country. And I can call them weenies and a whole bunch of other things too if I want. The First Amendment rocks!
Having lived overseas for almost 2 years now, I can tell you, when I get back to the US I will never take the Bill of Rights for granted EVER AGAIN.
I’m intrigued to know where boxofbooks is living that the situation is so dire. Who’s stifling your self-expression?
Oooo, I just love Neil Gaiman. I would so much like to have him over to dinner (a key criterion for me, with authors.) I suspect things would become riotous rather quickly. Thanks for this!
I’m intrigued by Warburg’s organization method, but I would definitely have the same problem as you — the books would never seem to be in quite the right place. They don’t seem to be in the right place now, and I have them organized very simply by genre and subject.
Warburg’s organization sounds really fascinating. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. And like you mentioned, my associations would be changing all the time. I recently put up two new bookshelves and went through the dilemma of how to organize everything, so far nothing is organized except loosely by time period and country…
I’m definitely going to have to get Library at Night, its sounds fabulous.
And to think Gaiman is British.
Glimpses of the Moon is adorable.
So far, I’ve liked every single Wharton book I’ve read – and I’ve read most of them.
Ella, I can only imagine. Perhaps all Americans should have the experience of living somewhere that doesn’t have the rights we take for granted.
Maggie, Ella–box of Books–is currently living in Dubai.
Jenny, I would love to have Neil Gaiman over for dinner too. He’s such an interesting person.
Dorothy, it would be interesting browsing someone’s books organized like Warburg’s were. I wonder what it would tell us about the person?
Verbivore, I think you would like Library at Night very much. Two new bookshelves to organize is a delicious thing
Dark Orpheus, I know what you mean. He’s been living in the US for quite some time so maybe he embodies the best of both?
Amber, it is a marvelous book