(Thanks for the inspiration, ML!)
I don't think I've posted photos of my own book and toy shelves in a long time, just those at work. So here's an annotated round-up of some of my shelves where books 'n' toys 'n' stuff live together.
BELOW: Books from (mostly) my childhood. A few, like Toot & Puddle, I only read as an adult. I didn't keep any from childhood––I've slowly gathered them when they're donated to the thrift store. Amazing how many of the exact editions I had will come in.
The framed photo of the girl archers (at summer camp!), also from the thrift store.
I brought home the Penguin Michael Innes books (green spines) for their cool covers--thought I'd try one--my mother loved his books--but I don't really care for mysteries.
^ Girlettes Spike & Low
BELOW: I don't like GK Chesterton, I just love the painting on the cover of that book, "Landscape from a Dream" (1938) by Paul Nash (at the Tate).
Gold-framed artwork by my friend S. Barrett Newhall (1934–2011).
Far right: George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass--I remember my mother buying that when it came out, in 1970.
^ Girlette: Fight Club.
BELOW: Sixteen-year-old me took that square snapshot, below left, of 21-y.o. Chuck Harding driving on spring break to Alabama––with three little boys—his two cousins and my brother––in the back seat. Chuck was family of a woman my father was dating.
I always hoped I'd see him again––it'd been several decades—and then I learned that he had died, at 56.
This spring it came to me forcefully what a good friend he'd been to me. In many ways because of what he didn't do. Mostly, he didn't do anything but be kind and calm and generous.
I was surrounded by adults who were driven by their emotions--looking back, what a cast of characters! We could have been a Fellini circus.
Chuck was the calm at the eye of that storm.
I wish I could ask him now--how did he maintain that???
Anyway, if you feel unappreciated by someone you've been consistently kind to--just wait! A dozen years after you're dead, they'll weep and wish they could thank you.
(Thank you, Chuck.)
BELOW: TALK WeRK was donated that way. Inside, it's a normal dictionary. It reminds me of Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, a favorite book I do not have a copy of! (I do have his Turtle Diary and one of his Francis the badger books for children though.)
Sticking out towards you is a conductor's baton in a narrow box--it belonged to my musician grandfather, presented to him at the birth of his daughter, my mother.
BELOW: Two of my favorite Edward Gorey covers for Anchor paperbacks. The pile behind them are all his too. (I've read the Aeneid but not A Hero...)
The little green bear was a present from Marz's friend Quill.
I almost never use recipes--I just eat sandwiches and like that.
BELOW: I love mid-century tins made in England, like this Byzantine one with the gold knob on the bottom shelf.
I imagine Barbara Pym (or one of her 'excellent women' characters) strictly rationing confectionery or biscuits out of such a one, in a post-war London bedsit.
"I allowed myself a caramel for tea."
BELOW: Framed photo of a fellow peregrino helping me get water from a fountain on Camino in Spain.
The reading rat was once the base of a lamp, but has come free.
What is Rat reading out loud? Sci-fi, like the books on this shelf?
I don't think so. I think... something about heroic bears.
BELOW: Firefly, the brown bear, is the first vintage mohair bear I repaired, and one of my favorites. Next to her sits Fog City, another top favorite.
The little black bears (also favorites!) were made in the 1960s in Japan for sale in Yellowstone (and other US National Parks). Decorations added by me.
BELOW: Fiction shelves, with, standing, my re-cover of the first of the Murderbot Diaries. (The soldier was a member of a UN security team.)
Several people have told me how good the current Apple TV show of Murderbot is, and I don't doubt it. But
I'm not replacing my hard-won image of Murderbot as written: gender-
and sex-less (pronoun: "it"). And of indeterminate race, but likely not
Scandinavian (as the actor is).
I worked hard not to envision Murderbot as a white male storm trooper (Star Wars style), and to
find images that suited it better, in my opinion.
And then they cast it as a white male, storm trooper style.
This kills me, such a missed opportunity.
BELOW that--basket and suitcase of bears and friends look down. I'm pretty sure they all scramble down to play when I'm not around.
