anonymous

"Others live before us so that they may be before us now for us."

eva syrovy

Life without my books, or without my bike, might not be totally unbearable - but it would be very challenging. And I live in a tiny, tiny house, and I'm not about to park my baby out in the weather. So my two loves share pride of place.
And yes, my books are a mess. Always have been, always will be.





[sue's note: be sure to click on these photos... they're quite large and you can really voyeur in!]

anne armentrout

We moved into a new and smaller house about four months ago. I have had to purge -- again! -- my collection of books; however, my loss is gain for The Book Thing in Baltimore, for Friends of the Library books sales in Abingdon and now in Staunton, Virginia, as well as for friends in sundry locations.

I also had to make choices about what would go in the wall unit in my study, where I spend most of my time. Mostly, it's plays and books related to theatre and drama. There are some literature and grammar. Up top is most of my collection related to the arts and fine crafts I presume to practice, winnowed from a larger aggregation of volumes: books concerning any art or craft with which I was not already deeply engaged have been shown the door as a concession not only to limited space but also to the realization that my life's time and my ability to accomplish is also limited.


Poetry, fiction and pretty much everything else now reside in bookcases in that part of the house to which my spousal unit has chief claim, and so far, there is pretty much a place for everything even if every book is not as yet in a proper and artfully arranged place. Even though available space for books is at a premium, I am still unable to stop buying; but I try to follow the rule that for every book that comes in, at least one (and if possible, two) goes out.

linda gresham, at the dock in tacoma, washington

Here you have the main bookshelf as well as an adjunct shelf on our sailboat home. To remain on the shelf a book must prove its value year after year, for there is not a lot of room to keep a dull book. Some are always in transit with us, but others are always trying to find a place of importance. Throughout the boat are scattered so many books trying out for a more permanent place, but sometimes they get left at the thrift shop or library book sale where others are invited for a stay on the lovely "small rain".



PS After a day sailing the books rearrange themselves and must be hardy to survive.

bruce harris bentzman

Shelf 1 - shelves behind my desk:

Shelf 2 - shelves I face when at my desk:

Shelf 3 - shelves next to reading chair:


As to who Bruce is, you can read his essays (Suburban Soliloquies) in the poetry webzine, Snakeskin.

jessy

I estimate there are about 2000 books in my house. I'm a librarian so you'd think there's be a strict ordering system, and actually there is but it's not something easy to articulate. This particular bookshelf is for poetry, and for a few other things as space allows. For example, the five books on the far left of the second-to-the-bottom shelf are the five books that have been most important and inspiring to me, poetry-wise, in the last few years, even though they are not poetry: Lynda Barry's The Greatest of Marlys!, John Porcellino's King-Cat Comics, Maira Kalman's The Principles of Uncertainty, Julia Child's My Life in France, and Calvin Tomkins's Off the Wall: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg.


Jessy is a local Colorado Springs poet and also serves as the Curator of Special Collections for Colorado College's library.

jaime (jay-me, not hi-me)

From Mililani, Hawaii.... a haiku:

Neighborhood info
Reflects new career, Realtor
Passed down from Mother