A good article at the Smart Set: The New Memory Theater wonders if the book disappears what will become of the marvelous bookshelf? The article is long, but good and also touches on memory and the importance of libraries. There is also a sort of reader’s/book/bookshelf manifesto:
…for-life, liberatedness, and the pursuit of eclecticism. They’re all related. “For-life’ means the right to keep one’s books as long as one lives and, just as importantly, to pass them on to one’s descendants. They must not be take-away-able by the fiat of a far-away corporation. They must be in a medium and format that will be readable in a hundred years and, if we know what’s good for us, in five thousand. “Liberatedness” means that the texts are truly ours to do with as we please, short of harming others. We can lend them to enemies and friends. We can mark them up or damage them. We can move them around wherever we like, and wherever the technology allows, freely organizing and categorizing them to all the limits of our private compulsions. Finally, “the pursuit of eclecticism” means that there should be no limit on the breadth of our collections. Plainly, no censorship. These are all things that my shelf of paper and cardboard do quite well and that the most celebrated digital alternatives, so far, do not.
Wouldn’t it be a shame to not be able to browse other people’s bookshelves anymore? I would totally have nothing to decorate my house with either. The bare walls and pile-free floors would leave me feeling rather bereft and depressed. I always imagine that a zen-like living space would be peaceful, but I would certainly go insane after a day or two. And without bookshelves what would the cats sit on? They aren’t allowed on tables but we don’t give them a hard time for walking on the bookshelves. I don’t want to think about it anymore.
Posting will be sporadic for the rest of the week. Thanksgiving is Thursday and I am so looking forward to our “traditional” vegan enchiladas, beans and rice. And of course homemade pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin for dessert. I’ll also be working on my final project for class this quarter, hoping to get a big chunk of it done. The weather is going to be cold, freezing rainy/sleety/snowy and windy. Good incentive to stay indoors! In case a post doesn’t happen tomorrow, happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating!
I am headed to the store to get ingreds for the pie recipe you sent! Yum!
I can’t bear to think about a world without bookshelves. Way too depressing.
This is interesting, because we actually ran that exact piece in Open Letters Monthly a few months ago:
http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/in-defense-of-the-memory-theater/
I don’t know the publishing etiquette here, but it seems like it would be nice if OLM were acknowledged as the original venue!
Wow, after what happened recently to Cooks Source after it lifted someone’s article with asking or crediting the original source, I’m surprised anyone would be so foolish. I think some strongly worded letters and lessons in copyright are in order.
See http://illadore.livejournal.com/30674.html for the original story plus useful links.
Last I checked, Cooks Source’s online presence had been completely shut down and outraged bloggers spammed their Facebook page so much they had to shut that down too.
Well, I think the situation is a bit different here, since I’m assuming the author offered the piece to Smart Set. Still, since we put in editorial time on it at OLM and saw it through to publication, I do think we should get some credit, somewhere!
It would be awful to lose the bookshelf! How would I know how to judge other people’s homes if I couldn’t peruse their bookshelves, or shudder at the lack of them?
I like the passage you posted — there’s so much about the codex that’s wonderful and would be a shame to lose.
Daphne, Enjoy your pie!
Rohan, you know, the essay seemed really familiar and I couldn’t figure out why. I looked for credits at the end to see if it had been published elsewhere before but when I didn’t see anything I figured I was just having a major deja vu moment. Now you have solved it for me because I read it at Open Letters! They really should have acknowledged the piece had been published elsewhere already.
“The bare walls and pile-free floors would leave me feeling rather bereft and depressed”
Yeah, totally agree. Check out this classic picture of ‘Zenner than thou’ Steve Jobs at home in 1982. No buttons. No bookshelves. No furniture.
http://bit.ly/i2ZaNc
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you too Stefanie.
Happy vegan Thanksgiving! At least one more turkey will be thankful to be alive! Who needs turkey when there are all those lovely vegetable side dishes!
I really liked the quote – I think it put a finger on something I keep feeling but haven’t managed to say: that books DO things, provide things, that we don’t want to lose, no matter what some big corporation or abstract economic argument might say. Digital does different things, things we need, and that’s great, too, but it is not a perfect substitute.
Have a very happy Thanksgiving, Stefanie! Raise a toast to your lovely bookshelves!
Another reason to abandon the Kindle, the iPad, the Nook, etc. The physicality of the printed book, the sheer presence on that bookshelf of yours and every other reader is one of its miracles.
Colleen, I’ve heard about the Cook’s source fiasco. It even came up in a library school class when we were discussing copyright and the internet. It’s an interesting case because I think quite a few people out there have the same attitude, if it’s one the web it must be free for the taking.
Dorothy, I know! Bookshelves and the books upon them reveal so much. I can’t imagine casually asking, so do you have an ereader? Can I browse what books you have on it so I can get a sense of the kind of person you are?
Michael, oh dear. That photo is a little too zen. Jobs doesn’t even appear to be living there and if he is it seems like is is packed up and ready to leave at any moment.
Catharina, thank you!
Joan, thanks! Yeah, with all the yummy side dishes, who needs a turkey?
Litlove, and what would we have to complain about if we weren’t always running out of shelf space? There is no telling what our devious minds might do if they had to turn to things other than trying to figure out how to make room for just a few more books. And thanks! Hopefully I will get at least a little time to enjoy the pleasures of my bookshelves.
Richard, not to mention what the kind of bookshelves you have says about you. Milk crates? Cinder blocks and boards? Real wood, artsy, utilitarian?
Happy thanksgiving! Love the quote. Life without bookshelves would be too dismal to contemplate. When Frances blogged about Books Do Furnish a Room I felt so validated – they’re my favorite decoration medium!
I can’t imagine my house without books and bookshelves! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy your yummy enchilada feast!
happy thanksgiving to you as well! I love the line “without bookshelves, what would the cats walk on?” – so very true.
If bookshelves disappear how can you judge your acquaintances when you go to their homes and scan their shelves?!
Enjoy your thanksgiving – your dinner sounds like it will be very delicious!
Having so many books is a big problem for us – but what a lovely problem to have. I spend a lot of time scanning my own bookshelves and piles searching for particular books, but even that is a joy because I always discover a treasure which I’d lost or forgotten about. A home without books is a house with no soul.
First of all, I wouldn’t say that bookshelves are disappearing, just like print books are certainly not disappearing. Alternatives are not necessarily replacements!
More to the point, though: what about online bookshelves? Wouldn’t you define Goodreads or LibraryThing (or any other book social networking site) as far more accurate representations of our bookshelves? When someone walks up to my bookshelves (which doesn’t happen all that often, seeing as they are situated far away from anything that would draw a person to my home…), they can’t know if these are books I’ve read, books I’ve purchased, books I’ve received as gifts, books I’m going to read soon, books I’ve inherited, and so forth. Online, friends and acquaintances can know exactly what I think of a book all organized, sometimes even including where I got it and who I recommend it to.
Is this a good thing necessarily? I’m still on the fence. I have no intention of giving away my books or my bookshelves, but the idea of someone browsing my “bookshelves” (though obviously not my books… hmm…) isn’t going to disappear if people make a full move to eBooks. It will all just move to the computer as well.
Funny, I never even contemplated the “end of book shelves,” and it does give me pause (and sends a shiver down my spine). Of course, I can’t truly imagine the end of books, and as I gave my daughter a Kindle yesterday, I also loaded her up with print books I’d finished.
So…you’re visiting and there are no bookshelves. What do you do, ask to brows their e-book reader? No, no, no! That would never do.
I like having an e-book reader (have both a Kindle and a Nook), but I don’t really see them as replacements for the book. Bookshelves are a visual representation and a physical resource that real readers will always love.
I know I’m biased but I really do think books are irreplaceable. I think there is a place for Kindle and Nooks, but it seems like a supplementary sort of place. Like Jenclair I’d never even thought so far as to consider a house with no bookshelves! What a thouht…no bookshelves? And here I need More bookshelves! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving–your enchiladas sound yummy!
Emily, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
Kathleen, my house would be so empty without shelves. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
Courtney, LOL, because you know the cats can’t walk on the ground like the rest of us.
Iliana, I know, the crucial ability for readers to judge others would disappear without bookshelves. Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!
Katrina, I love browsing my shelves for the same reason! I don’t remember everything I have and it is so much fun to rediscover books!
Bibliobio, you are right, as long as there are books on paper there will be bookshelves. I must disagree with you about browsing someone’s books online. It isn’t quite the same as walking into someone’s home you have never visited before and seeing a shelf of books. I know my friends don’t look at my librarything shelves but when they come to my house they do look at the books on my real shelves.
Jenclair, “Bookshelves are a visual representation and a physical resource that real readers will always love” well said!
Danielle, I need more bookshelves too. But it is the best problem to have, isn’t it? I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!