The first thing I do when I go into someone else’s house for the first time is peek at their book shelves. If they HAVE no book shelves or books, this is immediately obvious to me. It’s on the same level of obvious-ness that, say, black-painted window panes or Christmas decorations in August would be.
But it is true that books can tell you more about a person than a rambling “this is my life-story” monologue from that very same person.
I went on 3 dates with a guy last summer who had only one book in his sprawling ridiculous bachelor pad: The Art of War. (He’s the one I considered using for his air-conditioning during the heat wave.) There is nothing wrong with having The Art of War. I have read excerpts of it myself. It is fascinating. But it was the only book he had EVER OWNED. Call me a snob. I admit it freely.
To me, it SAID something about this person that that would be his only book, the only book he ever needed to own. He said he liked to use the precepts in business (again: there’s nothing wrong with that – but titles like Catch 22 and Confederacy of Dunces floated through my head, helplessly. I didn’t know how to talk to this person about one of my greatest passions – reading. He didn’t get it.)
Obviously, I called the thing off with him for reasons other than The Art of War, but that was a definite contributing factor.
If you think I’m an elitist snob, I have nothing to say to defend myself, and I basically freely admit it.
I like people who read. There. I’ve said it.
All of this was brought on by this post – compiling reading lists, listing the last 20 books you have read.
It reminds me of John Cusack’s monologue in High Fidelity about – the NON-trivial nature of knowing what someone likes, in terms of books and music.
Cusack says something like, “It is more important to know WHAT they like than what they ARE like.”
I very much agree. How many friendships have begun because of a shared love of certain bands, or certain authors? I became friends with Meredith, one of my best high school buddies, because of a shared love of this kind of stuff: Star Wars, What’s Up, Doc, Steve Martin, etc.
Erin lists the last 20 books she read in reverse chronological order. Much Dickens!
Here is my list of the last 20 books I have read (I think – this is off the top of my head):
— Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington
— H.W. Brands, Ben Franklin: The First American
— Nancy Lemann, Malaise
— Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life
— Willard Sterne Randall, Alexander Hamilton: A Life
— John and Abigail Adams, The Book of Abigail and John
— Bruce Feiler, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
— CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
— Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari
— Henrik Ibsen, Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler, An Enemy of the People (I’ll count those together.)
— Stella Adler, Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov
— JRR Tolkien, The Letters of JRR Tolkien
— Humphrey Carpenter, JRR Tolkien: Biography
— JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings trilogy
— JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit
— Stephen Lowenstein, My First Movie: Twenty Celebrated Directors Talk About Their First Film
— Tennessee Williams, Collected Letters, Volume I
— Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (re-read)
— Can’t remember author – he writes for “The New Yorker”, Dot Con – the story of the dotcom internet speculative bubble
— Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture
Damn. I have certainly moved away from fiction. Gotta get that going again.
What are the latest books you all have read?
I always snoop people’s book shelves – it’s a compulsion. And then I check out their music collection. I am also OC enough about reading to have kept yearly list since 1990 or so of all the books I’ve read.
Um yeah, I’m a freak.
I’d add my last 20 but it’d pretty much be a recap of a recent post.
And if you’re thinking of going fiction, try the Furst!
I kept a list for one year, actually – but I gave it up.
I should start it up again, because it was kind of interesting.
Last under-twenty (do plays and re-read books count?)
–The Thief’s Journal – Jean Genet
-Finally made it through A Secret History of the IRA – Ed “Baloney” (I will admit here that I have actually thrown this book across the room on more than one occassion, hence the bastardization of the author’s name.)
-“The Maids” – by Jean Genet
–MI-6 by I Completely Forget, but it SUCKED so it doesn’t really matter.
–Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy. I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.
–Our Lady of the Flowers – Jean Genet (psss…gee, ya think she likes Jean Genet?)
–Satori in Paris – Jack Kerouac
-After a 15 year search for a book too long out of print, finally…FINALLY…got to read The First Third by Neal Cassady. It was worth the wait.
–The Birthday Letters – Ted Hughes (er…does poetry count as well?)
-Re-reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (note to self – write hate letter to producers of recent film for grotesquely changing the ending.)
Those are the only ones I can recall at the moment.
And Bill, I promise I will get around to reading The Second Rebellion very soon so that it may be returned to your library.
And what did you think of The Screwtape Letters, Sheila?
Emily – I owe you a report on The Screwtape Letters and you owe me a report on The Maids!!
I tore through Screwtape in one night. It was horrifying, and brilliant.
-ongoing “Kandinsky: complete writings on art” ed. Lindsay and Vergo and “Renovation: a complete guide” Litchfield
-just started “Confederacy of Dunces”
-just finished “Pattern Recognition”
-“Wicked” by Gregory Maguire
Then, I just realized, a whole slew of “How To” books concerning my money pit. Bathrooms and kitchens and plumbing and electrical and gardening. Good grief.
Sheila – I’m actually working my way through a long ass post about “The Maids” and more specifically, the Papin Sisters.
Am I sick because Screwtape in parts made me laugh out loud? I love the subtle way C.S. Lewis points out human weakness and Screwtape’s instructions to his young apprentice on how to exploit it. (cue evil laughter, wringing hands, wide grin – muaaaaahahahahahahaha!)
“Cryptonomicon” Neal Stepehnson — well, finishing
“Open Society And Its Enemies (Plato)” Karl Popper
“Skeptical Environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg
“Road to Serfdom” Hayek
“Archie’s Double Digest #112” Various
“Screwtape Letters” C. S. Lewis
“The Nazi Seizure of Power” William Allen
“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” Rowling
“The Pastons and Their England” Bennett
That’s all I can recall. Forgive any misspellings.
“A Short Guide to a Happy Life”
by Anna Quindlen
Superb!
I’m reading “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel and loving it.
Emily – I found Screwtape Letters to be a very enjoyable read – not grim or holy or sanctimonious at all. It’s very devilish. (and rightly so, I suppose!)
I liked how the two Devils KEPT losing their grip – bit by bit … I also liked when Screwtape finally lost his temper so completely that he turned into a centipede.
HA
-The Persian Boy(about Alexander the Great)by Mary Renault
-All About All About Eve(just what it says)
-The Amazing Adventures of kavalier and Clay
-Light in August-William Faulkner
-The Namesake-Jhumpa Lahiri
-Sexual Outlaw(diary of a gay hustler in LA)
-Othello
How dare you put that name on my blog.
Oh, and have we actually discussed Kavalier and Clay??
Diary of a gay hustler in LA???!?!? Who wrote that?!?!?! I MUST HAVE IT. NOW.
Mitchell, meet Emily. Emily, meet Mitchell.
Let’s talk about gay hustlers.
it’s a great book by John Rechy…its quite graphic and is also quite an angry political opinion about repression and sexuality. Fascinating and really honest…the whole title is The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary
Kavalier and Clay!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE..nice to meet u Emily!!!!
From an Amazon-dot-com review: “Those looking for explicit sex will find it in abundance here.”
Oh, pleeeeaaase, payday arrive fast.
Likewise, Mitchell!
The last twenty books I’ve read tell me that I have a major fixation on historical fiction. The next twenty will likely be even worse.
Emily,
Damn, I forgot all about it. No need to rush, when you get around to it, you do.
After Lewis published “The Screwtape Letters,” he got a letter from a country clergyman saying that the advice seemed to him to be very bad…the guy didn’t get it at all.
I’m like Bill. I keep a running list on my site, based on a nonsensical challenge I made to myself.
My attention span’s been for shit lately. I haven’t been able to get more than a few pages into anything, even the really light stuff, lately.
Hey, add me to the “Kavlier and Clay” love train.
Listing the last twenty books I’ve read is easy. I ran out of bookcase space about two years ago, so I’ve started a teetering pile next to my desk. Going from top to bottom (and reverse-chronological order) I have:
“Animal Farm” George Orwell
“Are We There Yet? Perfect Family Vacations and Other Fantasies” Scott Haas
“1421: The Year China Discovered America” Gavin Menzies
“Almost America” Steve Tally
“The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked” David Benjamin
“Farenheit 451” Ray Bradbury
“Radio On” Sarah Vowell
“40 Watts From Nowhere” Sue Carpenter
“Death’s Acre” Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson
“Five Finger Discount” Helene Stapinski
“Orphans Preferred” Christopher Corbett
“City in the Sky” James Glanz and Eric Lipton
“The Victorian Internet” Tom Standage
“Notes From a Small Island” Bill Bruson
“How To Be Good” Nick Hornby
“High Fidelity” Nick Hornby
“I, Robot” Issac Asimov
“The Meaning of Everything” Simon Winchester
“The Professor and the Madman” Simon Winchester
“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” Michael Chabon
Do graphic novels count? If not, my list shortens considerably, or just reaches back further in time! “Kavalier and Clay” is one, thanks for reminding me. “Documentary: a History of the Non-fiction Film.” “This New Ocean” by William E Burrows. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” “The Buying of the President 2004.” “My First Movie” edited by Stephen Lowenstein. And I re-read “Catch-22” and I still don’t get it. Doh!
Popskull:
I might have to kill you for not getting Catch-22. But I will kill you softly. With my song.
Graphic novels … hey, have you read one called … something like: Jimmy, the smartest boy in the whole world? It is haunting. Although I can’t remember the title.
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
I prefer Wigu: The Bravest Boy in the World.