Comments on: The Archeology of my Bookcase http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/ A Mormon Blog Fri, 01 Jun 2012 21:35:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Mary Fagan http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107158 Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:08:06 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107158 Your bookcase tour was very nostalgic for me. I grew up in a house that was more library than home. Now my husband and I are close to creating the same thing! You would find me a rather dull guest, I fear. I would head straight for your shelves and lose myself therein until you were obliged to remind me of your bedtime. It was also a wake-up call! I’m heading for the front room right now to figure out what those bookcases say about me!

]]> By: No Name This Time http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107157 Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:21:01 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107157 I used to have a shelf in my front room where I put the books I wanted people to see. Then I stopped giving a damn what people thought and I cherish them all to myself in my back room.

Judge away.

]]> By: Mark B. http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107156 Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:35:50 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107156 I’ll show you my bookcases if you’ll show me yours.

]]> By: Rgate http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107154 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:59:08 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107154 I have similar habits – a bookcase in the living room for bait and the good stuff elsewhere in the house. I also write a note in each book I acquire telling the date and where I was when it came into my hands and I also place my children’s drawings and notes in books and also notes from friends and art opening and funeral announcements. When I go back and browse through my books I find surprises that I had forgotten about and in theory my children, when I am gone and they are old, could reconstruct a life of where I was and what I was thinking – if they care to……..

]]> By: AHLDuke http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107155 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:50:03 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107155 Other people’s bookshelves are the first thing I look at when I am in their home. Oh you don’t have any books or bookshelves in the “public” areas of the house? I am silently judging you.

No I’m serious.

]]> By: C. L. Hanson http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107153 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:44:05 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107153 I’m sometimes sloppy about organizing my own bookcases, but I love looking at other people’s bookcases to see what they’re interested in (and if they have any books I’ve read or have been meaning to learn more about). Checking out the booksheves was my first stop on my recent visit to my parents’ house… ;)

]]> By: JennyW http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107152 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:11:49 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107152 Yes. Thank you. No one close to me seems to understand why this month has been difficult—it’s the month I started selling my books online to pay the bills. Nothing too drastic, just ones I know I’ll never read again, but still …

]]> By: JA Benson http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107151 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:14:39 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107151 Thank you Steven P. Youur essay made my day. I too jump around creating a wide variety of thin layers of knowledge in my brain. Some information stays tucked away in my mind and most just passes on out the other side. Thanks for sharing. You gave me something to mull over today.

]]> By: bfwebster http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107150 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:36:52 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107150 We’ve lived in our current house (rented) for 3 1/2 years. This is the first time in my adult life that I’ve actually had both the room and the bookcases to have all of my books out, rather than stashed in boxes in a garage, attic, storage locker, or closet.

It’s wonderful.

They’re almost all downstairs, in some 18 bookcases. I have a shelving/categorizing system that allows me to find any given book within a matter of seconds. And I still buy books at a regular clip, perhaps more than I should (I have about 20 books on my nightstand that, in theory, I’m currently reading).

Sandra (my sweet wife) likes to tell the story of an incident several years after we married. Our oldest son moved out of the house (ok, he was kicked out, but I gave him [sigh] my ’67 Mustang to he’d have transportation and a place to sleep). The room he had been using as a bedroom was actually designed to be a small mainfloor office and had built-in bookshelves. Once the room was cleared out, I went out to the garage and pulled in a dozen or so boxes of books, unpacked them, and put them on the shelves. Sandra came walking by a little bit later and found me looking at the newly-liberated books and smiling.

And, yes, I like it when people ask to go downstairs and see my books. ..bruce..

]]> By: kevinf http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/01/21/the-archeology-of-my-bookcase/#comment-107149 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:02:41 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/?p=4580#comment-107149 SteveP, A kindred spirit, perhaps, because you know Richard Brautigan. I read Tolkien for the first time in the late 60′s as I was finishing high school, including devouring all the appendices. No bookshelves in my living room (that space is taken up by guitars), but a large pile on the coffee table, a large pile by my side of the bed, and then bookshelves in the study, the family room, a couple of the bedrooms, and boxes of books in the garage and all the closets. My wife finally has come to understand that most of these books are like pets, and I can’t bring myself to breakup the litter, even the runts.

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