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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/i>. (He’s the one I considered using for his air-conditioning <\/a>during the heat wave.) There is nothing wrong with having The Art of War<\/i>. 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/i> and Confederacy of Dunces<\/i> 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.)<\/p>\n Obviously, I called the thing off with him for reasons other than The Art of War<\/i>, but that was a definite contributing factor.<\/p>\n If you think I’m an elitist snob, I have nothing to say to defend myself, and I basically freely admit it.<\/p>\n I like people who read. There. I’ve said it.<\/p>\n All of this was brought on by this post<\/a> – compiling reading lists, listing the last 20 books you have read.<\/p>\n It reminds me of John Cusack’s monologue in High Fidelity<\/i> about – the NON-trivial nature of knowing what someone likes, in terms of books and music.<\/p>\n Cusack says something like, “It is more important to know WHAT they like than what they ARE like.”<\/p>\n 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<\/i>, What’s Up, Doc<\/i>, Steve Martin, etc.<\/p>\n Erin lists the last 20 books she read in reverse chronological order.<\/a> Much Dickens!<\/p>\n Here is my list of the last 20 books I have read (I think – this is off the top of my head):<\/p>\n — Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington<\/i> Damn. I have certainly moved away from fiction. Gotta get that going again.<\/p>\n What are the latest books you all have read?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading
\n— H.W. Brands, Ben Franklin: The First American<\/i>
\n— Nancy Lemann, Malaise<\/i>
\n— Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life<\/i>
\n— Willard Sterne Randall, Alexander Hamilton: A Life<\/i>
\n— John and Abigail Adams, The Book of Abigail and John<\/i>
\n— Bruce Feiler, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths<\/i>
\n— CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters<\/i>
\n— Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari<\/i>
\n— Henrik Ibsen, Doll’s House<\/i>, Hedda Gabler<\/i>, An Enemy of the People<\/i> (I’ll count those together.)
\n— Stella Adler, Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov<\/i>
\n— JRR Tolkien, The Letters of JRR Tolkien<\/i>
\n— Humphrey Carpenter, JRR Tolkien: Biography<\/i>
\n— JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings trilogy<\/i>
\n— JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit<\/i>
\n— Stephen Lowenstein, My First Movie: Twenty Celebrated Directors Talk About Their First Film<\/i>
\n— Tennessee Williams, Collected Letters, Volume I<\/i>
\n— Joseph Heller, Catch-22<\/i> (re-read)
\n— Can’t remember author – he writes for “The New Yorker”, Dot Con<\/i> – the story of the dotcom internet speculative bubble
\n— Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture<\/i><\/p>\n