Live and learn, part two.

So I've been spending a lot of time on my couch.

This is all right. I love my couch. It is purple, and very, very comfy. You pair my couch with a nice quilt and a pillow and you've got a recipe for cozy joy. I also like my couch because when you're napping on it, you get a good view of Mr. CR's bookshelf. As I lay around last week, basically staring into space, it struck me that I've never really looked at Mr. CR's bookshelf. I had a vague idea of what was there, but last week I studied it more carefully:

Back issues of Science Fiction & Fantasy magazine; Rads, by Tom Bates (which I've always wanted to read, by the way), Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin; Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Paradise Lost; Christopher Priest's The Prestige; The Riverside Shakespeare; and a couple John Grishams.

I loathe sentimentality, but I'd be lying if I said carefully studying that bookshelf didn't make me think very kindly on Mr. CR (not to mention the fact that he's been doing the laundry and feeding the cat, as well as helping me off the purple couch). So, are you sick of your significant other? Annoyed at something they did lately? Skip the counseling. Study their bookshelf instead.

Comments

The last time I had anything resembling a significant other--almost a year and a half ago--looking at the books lying around her bedroom (she didn't actually have a bookshelf) depressed me: Anne Rice's "Sleeping Beauty" books, Chuck Palahniuk, and, inexplicably, a book on learning Latin. I think that looking at her books and, for the first time, considering the ramifications of her taste, made me realize that she was fuckin crazy. That fact that she only had all of Palahniuk's and Rice's books was pretty weird, I thought.

Then again, I actually own "Mein Kampf" and display it--not proudly, mind you--in my bookshelf (along with my Nietzsche books). I always figure, when I have company over, I might as well just leave it there, rather than trying to hide it. I'd be more troubled at someone hiding "Mein Kampf" than "showing it off," as it were.

Incidentally, no one who's looked at my bookshelf has ever commented on "Mein Kampf." My one graphic novel--"Watchmen," a book I highly, highly recommend--seems to get the most comments, the one people always flip through and ask about. Go figure.

[Citizen Reader]

Well, I was thinking, it wouldn't have to be a significant other. Really, I'm a fan of eyeballing anyone's bookshelves. And if they're people who have built-in shelving or big bookshelves, and all they have on them is knick-knacks, well, then, I get out of that house. I know it's snobby, but hey, time is finite in this life.

Did your almost significant other get points for reading, at least? I'd award some. I'd also have to ask some questions about the mix of Rice and Palahniuk, which I find very, very, interesting, to say the least.

Anybody who understands history and the study of history will not be weirded out by your copy of Mein Kampf. I'll give you a pass on that one if you excuse my copy of the Communist Manifesto next to my books about Catholic saints.

Hm, Watchmen. That IS interesting. I've always wanted to read that...

[Care]

Ah, what a sweet lovey-dovey post! I adore my hub but I can't say much for his reading habits. He impresses me in many other ways. He mostly reads management books that his work gives him. I do have to give him credit for finishing OIL by Mr. Upton.