The books on the shelf

I like books a lot. In fact I like books more than I like reading books, if that makes sense? For me having good literature on my bookshelves is as interesting as displaying great artwork on my walls. One of our dreams is to one day have a room that is wall-to-wall books, the kind you see in the movies where you have a step ladder that has to be wheeled around to get at the really high ones. And there’s something about the direction that books are going in that kind of gets me down. I’m not against these e-book readers like Kindle or Nook but they totally lack character, which is kind of depressing as that’s all a book really has to offer. Isn’t it fun to read the book inscriptions years later? Even when they’re not from anyone you know but it was already there on the second-hand book you picked up at a jumble sale all those years ago. Isn’t it so great to look back through old books and see the words you underlined cos you didn’t know what they meant at the time? (and had every intention of looking them up in a dictionary) Or the phrases you underlined cos you found them so powerful and related so when you read them that first time around? All the scribbles you left in the footnotes and margins that define who you were then, a little time capsule of your former self randomly hidden within tightly bound hardbacks or softcovers. Even the nicks and dents the books picked up over the years, the coffee stains and the folded pages, each one telling a magnificent story of the books journey with you during your life.

So I thought it would be interesting to capture the books on our shelves. It’ll be nice to look back and remember when those books were on our shelves in that order. Or my kid can look back and realize that his parents weren’t always total embarrassing dorks. Or whatever. These are the books on one of our shelves:

1. La Cuidad De Las Bestias – Isabel Allende
2. La Casa De Los Espiritus – Isabel Allende
3. The Diary of Frida Khalo
4. The Revolution – Ron Paul
5. How To Be Good – Nick Hornby
6. 211 Things A Bright Boy Can Do – Tom Cutler
7. Wonderful Tonight – Pattie Boyd
8. Smoke And Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
9. Dirty Havana Trilogy – Pedro Juan Guiterrez
10. The Girls Guide To Hunting And Fishing – Melissa Bank
11. Molly Saves The Day – Pleasant Company
12. An Ear To The Ground – An Anthology Of American Contemporary Poetry
13. Making Ideas Happen – Scott Belsky
14. Septuagenarian Stew – Charles Bukowski
15. The Bride Stripped Bare – Nikki Gemmell
16. Parenting With Love And Logic – Cline & Fay
17. The Inmates Are Running The Asylum – Alan Cooper
18. The Best Of Mrs Beetons Household Tips
19. Perfume – Patrick Suskind
20. The Beautiful and Damned – F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. Marabou Stork Nightmares – Irvine Welsh
22. The Shoes Of Salvation – Edward Monkton
23. 20 Poemas De Amor Y Una Cancion Desesperada – Pablo Neruda
24. Interworld – Gaiman and Reaves
25. Something Borrowed – Emily Griffin
26. Loving Frank – Nancy Horan
27. CACERES cuidad historico-artistico – Antonio Rubio Rojas
28. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
29. The Law Of Similars – Chris Bohjalian
30. Coraline – Gaiman
31. Relato De Un Naufrago – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
32. The Warriors – J. Glenn Gray