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My Ideal Bookshelf
The books that we choose to keep --let alone read-- can say a lot about who we are and how we see ourselves. In MY IDEAL BOOKSHELF, dozens of leading cultural figures share the books that matter to them most; books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world. Contributors include Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Keller, Michael Chabon, Alice Waters, James Patterson, Maira Kalman, Judd Apatow, Chuck Klosterman, Miranda July, Alex Ross, Nancy Pearl, David Chang, Patti Smith, Jennifer Egan, and Dave Eggers, among many others. With colorful and endearingly hand-rendered images of book spines by Jane Mount, and first-person commentary from all the contributors, this is a perfect gift for avid readers, writers, and all who have known the influence of a great book.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 13, 2012
85 people are currently reading
6471 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 405 reviews
April 22, 2013
I LOVE reading about what other people love to read. I want to know what everyone's favorite books are. That's the main reason I joined Goodreads, after all.
The writer of this book asked over 100 "creative" people to compile lists of their favorite books; all the titles that would be displayed proudly on their "ideal" bookshelves. The artist, Jane Mount then lovingly rendered the spines of the selections in what appears to be watercolor and ink. The resulting colorful paintings are very eye-catching and fun to peruse.
Many familiar names talk happily about their book choices - Judd Apatow, Michael Chabon, Simon Doonan, Dave Eggers, Malcolm Gladwell, Tony Hawk, David Sedaris, Patti Smith, Alice Waters - and many more people - chefs, architects, and fashion designers - I'd never heard of. (Apparently, I don't get around as much as I thought.)
It's fascinating to learn why everyone picked the books they did. Surprisingly, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye are missing from most shelves. Books by David Foster Wallace, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Roberto Bolano, John Updike, Raymond Carver, and Lorrie Moore show up frequently, though it's rare to see the same book on too many shelves.
I'm kind of torn about the illustrations. Looking at all those titles lined up is pure joy for any book lover, BUT I would have been satisfied just to read what some of my favorite authors had chosen, WITHOUT the artwork, AND the book would have been a fraction of the price.
If this is your kind of thing, the book will provide you with many happy hours of enjoyment. Just be prepared - your "to-read" list will grow by leaps and bounds.
The writer of this book asked over 100 "creative" people to compile lists of their favorite books; all the titles that would be displayed proudly on their "ideal" bookshelves. The artist, Jane Mount then lovingly rendered the spines of the selections in what appears to be watercolor and ink. The resulting colorful paintings are very eye-catching and fun to peruse.
Many familiar names talk happily about their book choices - Judd Apatow, Michael Chabon, Simon Doonan, Dave Eggers, Malcolm Gladwell, Tony Hawk, David Sedaris, Patti Smith, Alice Waters - and many more people - chefs, architects, and fashion designers - I'd never heard of. (Apparently, I don't get around as much as I thought.)
It's fascinating to learn why everyone picked the books they did. Surprisingly, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye are missing from most shelves. Books by David Foster Wallace, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Roberto Bolano, John Updike, Raymond Carver, and Lorrie Moore show up frequently, though it's rare to see the same book on too many shelves.
I'm kind of torn about the illustrations. Looking at all those titles lined up is pure joy for any book lover, BUT I would have been satisfied just to read what some of my favorite authors had chosen, WITHOUT the artwork, AND the book would have been a fraction of the price.
If this is your kind of thing, the book will provide you with many happy hours of enjoyment. Just be prepared - your "to-read" list will grow by leaps and bounds.
November 16, 2012
Not only am I comfortable judging books by their covers, but I'm also comfortable judging writers by their bookshelves and books by their spines.
December 4, 2012
I have my very own personalized Ideal Bookshelf painting heading my way early January (SO hard to choose the books!) so of course I had to read this book! For those of you who don't know what it is, please visit http://www.idealbookshelf.com. Such a genius idea! Art + books + unique, personal concept = love! It's a way of making a statement, "Hey, I know I have about 300 books crowding my apartment but these are the ones that REALLY matter!"
I was a little disappointed by some of the essays. Some shelves had 10 or more books but their owners didn't talk about more than one or two books. Some shelves they really didn't discuss any one book at all; they more discussed their view of books and the world as a whole. Some shelves had books with no binding or spine at all, to represent how used and loved it was in their life! And still not much about it in their essay!? Which was nice, but I also was thinking I was going to hear more about each book as opposed to an essay on reading. I guess the intent was to let the bookshelf art of each person speak for itself and they kind of write their essay however they want. I guess if you made them write in a certain way or with a goal in mind, it may be too limiting or forced and not really what they wanted to say. Still. Maybe not the way I would have done it. The nice thing though, is there is a list of all contritubtors and lists in the back.
Random thoughts on the book:
-Some of the most chosen books (I didn't actually count) seem to be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, anything by Lydia Davis (who I have never heard of till now and now need to read), and poetry by Wallace Stevens. Interesting.
-Nancy Pearl, the famous librarian, had a shelf in which I did not recognize a single book or author. So many books! So little time! I trust her taste, so now I pretty much have to add them all to my "to-read" shelf!
-I tried very to be interested, but I found the fashion, cookbook, and design book shelves extremely boring.Certainly not anyone's fault but mine. I like that they were trying to be inclusive and showcase books in their every genre and medium and not just approach it from a literary vein. Still. Boring to me.
-Lots of contributors were very worried about their shelf being "pretentious" or how it made them seem. Funny and understandable.
This is the perfect coffee table book (if only it was bigger in size!) and the perfect book for...more book recommendations! Had some minor complaints with it, but overall very enjoyable.
I was a little disappointed by some of the essays. Some shelves had 10 or more books but their owners didn't talk about more than one or two books. Some shelves they really didn't discuss any one book at all; they more discussed their view of books and the world as a whole. Some shelves had books with no binding or spine at all, to represent how used and loved it was in their life! And still not much about it in their essay!? Which was nice, but I also was thinking I was going to hear more about each book as opposed to an essay on reading. I guess the intent was to let the bookshelf art of each person speak for itself and they kind of write their essay however they want. I guess if you made them write in a certain way or with a goal in mind, it may be too limiting or forced and not really what they wanted to say. Still. Maybe not the way I would have done it. The nice thing though, is there is a list of all contritubtors and lists in the back.
Random thoughts on the book:
-Some of the most chosen books (I didn't actually count) seem to be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, anything by Lydia Davis (who I have never heard of till now and now need to read), and poetry by Wallace Stevens. Interesting.
-Nancy Pearl, the famous librarian, had a shelf in which I did not recognize a single book or author. So many books! So little time! I trust her taste, so now I pretty much have to add them all to my "to-read" shelf!
-I tried very to be interested, but I found the fashion, cookbook, and design book shelves extremely boring.Certainly not anyone's fault but mine. I like that they were trying to be inclusive and showcase books in their every genre and medium and not just approach it from a literary vein. Still. Boring to me.
-Lots of contributors were very worried about their shelf being "pretentious" or how it made them seem. Funny and understandable.
This is the perfect coffee table book (if only it was bigger in size!) and the perfect book for...more book recommendations! Had some minor complaints with it, but overall very enjoyable.
June 2, 2019
[3.5] I loved "Bibliophile," also illustrated by Jane Mount, so had high hopes for this volume. This book does have pretty illustrations of book stacks owned by various artists and I enjoyed gazing at them. But it pales next to Bibliophile. The illustrations even seem more washed out. When I put it side by side with Bibliophile, it turns out that it is not the pictures - but the subjects.
It seems that when famous (or not so famous) people are asked about their books, their choices tend to be self-conscious and not nearly as interesting as the curated lists in Bibliophile. So many repeats - do all artistic people love David Foster Wallace? Each book stack is paired with a lackluster essay - only a few are worth reading. But I'm rounding up because I just love Jane Mount's art.
It seems that when famous (or not so famous) people are asked about their books, their choices tend to be self-conscious and not nearly as interesting as the curated lists in Bibliophile. So many repeats - do all artistic people love David Foster Wallace? Each book stack is paired with a lackluster essay - only a few are worth reading. But I'm rounding up because I just love Jane Mount's art.
February 27, 2013
I thought it would be really interesting to see what a bunch of different people would put on their bookshelves. And it was. Sort of. Sometimes.
This book is a fun idea, but there were two big disappoints for me.
The first was that, as with any collection where multiple writers contribute, the writing was really uneven and the reading experience suffers.
Half way through this book, it hit me: Is this why people are always telling me that they don't get into short stories? Is part of the problem that most people are reading collections based around a theme or distinction (Best Southern Women with Yankee Husbands Written Exclusively in October Short Stories) as opposed to a collection by one author?
If you do that:
No. Bad! Bad reader!
I'm not one to say how one should read all that often, but trust me on this, almost every collection by different authors is going to delight and frustrate you in equal measure.
This book, having one page by all different people, was like reading one of these collections.
If you haven't done it, pick a collection by a short story author. One voice comes through, and you'll probably feel differently. I can highly recommend Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower, and the Ice at the Bottom of the World by Mark Richard.
Okay, back to the bookshelves.
The biggest surprise? The part I probably enjoyed most?
James Patterson.
Yep, old Mr. Ampersand himself.
I know he gets a mound of shit because he writes what many of us consider garbage. When he even writes it himself. However, given one page and talking about books, the man was entertaining, made me laugh a little, and impressed me. If the assignment was, "Here's a couple hundred words. Use them to convince someone to pursue your work" he would have made the top of my list.
Now, I'm not going to go read any of his stuff because I'm confident that I wouldn't enjoy it much because thrillers don't do a lot for me, and I'm already reading Modelland by Tyra Banks. I can only read one book that I'm hating at a time. But if I hadn't heard of any of these people, I might have considered him near the top.
The other thing is, the other problem I had with the contributors to this book? They basically convinced me that anyone who considers him or herself a designer is kind of a shithead. Oh, and chefs.
Maybe Shitheads is a bit strong. What I mean to say is, their perspective on books is very boring.
What kind of books did most of the designers have? Books about design. What kind of books did the chefs have? Cookbooks. Instructional materials related to their trades.
Now, this sort of makes sense, but what did writers have on their shelves?
Novels. Books that exist as books as opposed to a means of communicating information.
For the most part, the writers didn't seem to feel that instructional, how-to books belonged on their ideal shelves. That made a lot of sense to me. You get good at writing books not by reading about books, but by reading books.
A fun game I played was to flip through this book and see, without looking at the author name, if you could determine whether the person was a writer or not. I went about 90% accuracy. A few editors threw me off, and a couple other creative types were also very impressive in their reading.
The designers were the worst. A lot of them would point out a book and then talk about what an inspiration this or that Swiss guy was. Boring. Then they would expound on their own design philosophy. Double Boring.
It was disappointing, really. To go the other way, me being a book person, if you asked me about my favorite design work, I don't think I would point to book covers right off just because that's the world I'm in. If you asked me about my favorite movies, they wouldn't be ones that are about books just because I deal in books all the time.
I would think that designers would want to draw inspiration from a variety of sources, but instead it seemed like they only wanted to talk about design.
And I'm sure that some of the designers in this book are highly respected and classy and all that horseshit. But I'd probably still take James Patterson's ideal bookshelf over most of theirs.
This book is a fun idea, but there were two big disappoints for me.
The first was that, as with any collection where multiple writers contribute, the writing was really uneven and the reading experience suffers.
Half way through this book, it hit me: Is this why people are always telling me that they don't get into short stories? Is part of the problem that most people are reading collections based around a theme or distinction (Best Southern Women with Yankee Husbands Written Exclusively in October Short Stories) as opposed to a collection by one author?
If you do that:
No. Bad! Bad reader!
I'm not one to say how one should read all that often, but trust me on this, almost every collection by different authors is going to delight and frustrate you in equal measure.
This book, having one page by all different people, was like reading one of these collections.
If you haven't done it, pick a collection by a short story author. One voice comes through, and you'll probably feel differently. I can highly recommend Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower, and the Ice at the Bottom of the World by Mark Richard.
Okay, back to the bookshelves.
The biggest surprise? The part I probably enjoyed most?
James Patterson.
Yep, old Mr. Ampersand himself.
I know he gets a mound of shit because he writes what many of us consider garbage. When he even writes it himself. However, given one page and talking about books, the man was entertaining, made me laugh a little, and impressed me. If the assignment was, "Here's a couple hundred words. Use them to convince someone to pursue your work" he would have made the top of my list.
Now, I'm not going to go read any of his stuff because I'm confident that I wouldn't enjoy it much because thrillers don't do a lot for me, and I'm already reading Modelland by Tyra Banks. I can only read one book that I'm hating at a time. But if I hadn't heard of any of these people, I might have considered him near the top.
The other thing is, the other problem I had with the contributors to this book? They basically convinced me that anyone who considers him or herself a designer is kind of a shithead. Oh, and chefs.
Maybe Shitheads is a bit strong. What I mean to say is, their perspective on books is very boring.
What kind of books did most of the designers have? Books about design. What kind of books did the chefs have? Cookbooks. Instructional materials related to their trades.
Now, this sort of makes sense, but what did writers have on their shelves?
Novels. Books that exist as books as opposed to a means of communicating information.
For the most part, the writers didn't seem to feel that instructional, how-to books belonged on their ideal shelves. That made a lot of sense to me. You get good at writing books not by reading about books, but by reading books.
A fun game I played was to flip through this book and see, without looking at the author name, if you could determine whether the person was a writer or not. I went about 90% accuracy. A few editors threw me off, and a couple other creative types were also very impressive in their reading.
The designers were the worst. A lot of them would point out a book and then talk about what an inspiration this or that Swiss guy was. Boring. Then they would expound on their own design philosophy. Double Boring.
It was disappointing, really. To go the other way, me being a book person, if you asked me about my favorite design work, I don't think I would point to book covers right off just because that's the world I'm in. If you asked me about my favorite movies, they wouldn't be ones that are about books just because I deal in books all the time.
I would think that designers would want to draw inspiration from a variety of sources, but instead it seemed like they only wanted to talk about design.
And I'm sure that some of the designers in this book are highly respected and classy and all that horseshit. But I'd probably still take James Patterson's ideal bookshelf over most of theirs.
December 18, 2012
At parties, you can find me inspecting the host’s book collection. If someone’s reading on a bus, I must see the book’s cover. When television interview subjects sit in front of their bookshelves, I don’t hear a thing because I am reading the shelves. So obviously My Ideal Bookshelf is the perfect book for a nosey, what-are-you-reading person like me! The authors have chosen more than 100 writers, artists, musicians, designers and others and asked them to share lists of the books that mean the most to them (some of them quite surprising). Each contributor shares a short essay; each essay is accompanied by a painting of the books. The essays are thoughtful, the paintings irresistible, the paper high-quality. It’s a great gift for book lovers!
May 23, 2013
It's interesting to see what others consider their must-read books. I got some ideas for books I want to add to my list (as if I don't have enough on there as it is)! I enjoyed reading the lists of people I had heard of such as authors and entertainers the most. The illustrations of the book spines are well done. It's fun to see why people love to read. If I'm not reading I feel a huge void in my life.
Some favorite quotes include:
"A room is not a room without books." - Mira Nair
"I think books find their way to you when you need them." - Roseanne Cash
"I believe in libraries. Everyone who enters the library is equal. You have a right to be there." - Nancy Pearl
Some favorite quotes include:
"A room is not a room without books." - Mira Nair
"I think books find their way to you when you need them." - Roseanne Cash
"I believe in libraries. Everyone who enters the library is equal. You have a right to be there." - Nancy Pearl
July 28, 2013
This book has a cute concept. A bunch of distinguished (to varying degrees) people were asked to list the books they would put on a small ideal bookshelf, and artist Jane Mount created paintings of the spines of the books. The paintings are charming, and somehow seem to make the books more like living presences than a photograph of the spines would. A goodreads friend of mine in the UK complains that 3/4 of the contributors are not known outside of the US. I would say that at least that many are also obscure to most of us inside the US as well, and this is a weakness. There are plenty of writers here, which makes sense, but chefs and designers of various sorts are overrepresented. I started out intending to read the book cover to cover, but quickly got bored. The excerpts of interviews, opposite each selection of books, so often don't mention the books at all, or only one or two of them. More often the text is along the lines of "how I became a writer/chef/designer." Also the vast majority of the books people chose were not of interest to me. So I changed my reading tactic, and pretended I was at a party where I didn't know anyone. Instead of trying to make small talk with strangers, I allowed myself to drift over to the bookshelves, and scanned them, thinking, "is this person a potential kindred spirit?" and "are there any books here I would ask to borrow if this person were my friend?" Only after scanning a shelf would I glance at the name of the contributor, and only sometimes would I stop to read the interview excerpt. It turned out that of all the contributors, the one who came closest to being a kindred spirit based on her books was...Stephenie Meyer...hmm. Some male ballet dancer also came close, mostly because he had a copy of Tales from Moominvalley. Two books I would have pulled off the shelf to look at more closely had I been my anti-social self at this imaginary party were The Idler Book of Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places to Live in the UK, and Art Deco Bookbindings: The Work of Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler.
The artist has a website where people can order paintings of their own ideal bookshelves, http://www.idealbookshelf.com/, which were I a good deal richer would be a temptation.
The artist has a website where people can order paintings of their own ideal bookshelves, http://www.idealbookshelf.com/, which were I a good deal richer would be a temptation.
July 26, 2013
This is a fun coffee-table book for book lovers to dip in and out of. I spent as long examining the illustrations as I did reading the text.
April 21, 2013
An artist illustrates the "ideal bookshelves" of a bunch of famous people. Definitely a fun coffee-table book. I have a full page of new book recommendations now. And I'm looking forward to thinking up my own list of books that have changed my life and made me who I am.
But holy crap, did this book ever point out how much people love male authors. Seriously, people (esp men) would have 15-20 books with only 1 or 2 by a woman, if even that many.
**************************************
OK so after 10 minutes of looking through my Goodreads, here are the books that have had a profound influence on me:
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Are Prisons Obsolete?
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
A Monster Calls
Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book
Invisible Man
Trauma and Recovery
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity
Infinite Jest
Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape
The Bluest Eye
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Eating Animals
Unwind
But holy crap, did this book ever point out how much people love male authors. Seriously, people (esp men) would have 15-20 books with only 1 or 2 by a woman, if even that many.
**************************************
OK so after 10 minutes of looking through my Goodreads, here are the books that have had a profound influence on me:
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Are Prisons Obsolete?
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
A Monster Calls
Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book
Invisible Man
Trauma and Recovery
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity
Infinite Jest
Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape
The Bluest Eye
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Eating Animals
Unwind
December 8, 2012
When I won this book through the First Reads program here on the site, I was really excited - and now I'm just disappointed. I really like the idea of this book, but the execution left something to be desired. Another reviewer wrote on here that this book is "more sentimental than useful in identifying new books to read," and that is pretty much the heart of the problem. The main audience of this book is going to be people looking for new books to read and I wish the little essays had focused more, or in some cases at all, on telling me just why it was they loved these books. I understand that they had limited space, so it would have been fine if they talked about just two or three, but a lot of the others just talked about themselves, sometimes why they loved reading, and only a little about the actual books.
The book itself is absolutely beautiful and I like flipping through it to look at the different covers, but if I wanted to pick books at random by cover and/or title and then have to go look the book up to find out what it's about, I can do that online for free - or better yet at a bookstore, where at least a summary for the book will be right there on the back cover.
Bottom line: the book is beautiful to look at (makes a nice coffee table book) and was entertaining for a short period, but I never would have paid for it.
The book itself is absolutely beautiful and I like flipping through it to look at the different covers, but if I wanted to pick books at random by cover and/or title and then have to go look the book up to find out what it's about, I can do that online for free - or better yet at a bookstore, where at least a summary for the book will be right there on the back cover.
Bottom line: the book is beautiful to look at (makes a nice coffee table book) and was entertaining for a short period, but I never would have paid for it.
December 7, 2012
It's a nice idea and the art is pretty but... it's just pictures of books and people talking about their influences and I found that interesting but wanted... more, wanted the book to be less literally tied to the title.
July 1, 2016
OK so you may have heard recently that I just won a goodreads giveaway of the Rook sequel, Stiletto! In fact I am starting to read it…just as soon as I finish typing this in. So I got an email a couple weeks ago telling me I won it and it arrived today. AWESOME! SO excited.
So the last time I won a giveaway… I didn't know. I didn't get an email that time or if I did, I overlooked it. So when the book, this book, The Ideal Bookshelf, arrived in the mail, I couldn't figure it out. I thought I had ordered it and forgotten. Or that someone had gifted it to me but forgot to tell me. And I read it. And read it. Over and over. It was seriously about six months later that I thought Oh WAIT A SECOND, I think I entered a giveaway for that book. So I guess at that point, I just figured my review would be wasted. But that was dumb so HERE I AM people. Enjoy.
It's a lovely book, with one-page essays by writers and other creatives (some VERY famous, some lesser so, all interesting choices) on the books that would be on their ideal bookshelf and it's paired with an illustration of said shelf by Jane Mount. It's really quite charming. All the essays are completely unique. Some people's choices seem exactly right, some really surprise you. And if you are a lover of all things books (hello have you met me?), there is nothing to not love here.
The back of the book has a blank page (with book outlines) for you to add your own. I'm thinking of sending copies to all my friends and asking them to do it (with an accompanying one-page write-up) that I can then bind in a book to keep on the shelf next to this one.
So there, four years late, is my review of a giveaway book that I got but didn't know I had won. :)
So the last time I won a giveaway… I didn't know. I didn't get an email that time or if I did, I overlooked it. So when the book, this book, The Ideal Bookshelf, arrived in the mail, I couldn't figure it out. I thought I had ordered it and forgotten. Or that someone had gifted it to me but forgot to tell me. And I read it. And read it. Over and over. It was seriously about six months later that I thought Oh WAIT A SECOND, I think I entered a giveaway for that book. So I guess at that point, I just figured my review would be wasted. But that was dumb so HERE I AM people. Enjoy.
It's a lovely book, with one-page essays by writers and other creatives (some VERY famous, some lesser so, all interesting choices) on the books that would be on their ideal bookshelf and it's paired with an illustration of said shelf by Jane Mount. It's really quite charming. All the essays are completely unique. Some people's choices seem exactly right, some really surprise you. And if you are a lover of all things books (hello have you met me?), there is nothing to not love here.
The back of the book has a blank page (with book outlines) for you to add your own. I'm thinking of sending copies to all my friends and asking them to do it (with an accompanying one-page write-up) that I can then bind in a book to keep on the shelf next to this one.
So there, four years late, is my review of a giveaway book that I got but didn't know I had won. :)
January 12, 2014
Who knew that Stephenie Meyer's ideal bookshelf would be so close to my own ideal bookshelf? I certainly didn't.
I really love the concept of Jane Mount's breathtakingly beautiful art and the many ideal bookshelves she has created over the years. While Jane Mount only paints books and writes book titles she always manages to portray the person behind the bookshelf as well. The books we choose to represent ourselves can sometimes be arranged into something extremely revealing and deeply personal.
This book is filled with Jane Mount's gorgeous artwork and Thessaly La Force's well written interviews with authors, musicians, journalists and designers. The book varies between well-known names and persons I've never heard of.
Of course it was most interesting to read about people I actually knew (Daniel Handler, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Dave Eggers and Patti Smith for instance), and I ended up skipping a few unknown names along the way. I just have no interest in reading about cookbooks authors who only put cookbooks on their ideal bookshelf.
All in all, this is a beautiful book and a lovely concept. It is kind of fun to judge people by their favorite books.
I really love the concept of Jane Mount's breathtakingly beautiful art and the many ideal bookshelves she has created over the years. While Jane Mount only paints books and writes book titles she always manages to portray the person behind the bookshelf as well. The books we choose to represent ourselves can sometimes be arranged into something extremely revealing and deeply personal.
This book is filled with Jane Mount's gorgeous artwork and Thessaly La Force's well written interviews with authors, musicians, journalists and designers. The book varies between well-known names and persons I've never heard of.
Of course it was most interesting to read about people I actually knew (Daniel Handler, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Dave Eggers and Patti Smith for instance), and I ended up skipping a few unknown names along the way. I just have no interest in reading about cookbooks authors who only put cookbooks on their ideal bookshelf.
All in all, this is a beautiful book and a lovely concept. It is kind of fun to judge people by their favorite books.
December 6, 2012
I really liked the idea of this book, and it of course made me want to choose my ideal bookshelf!!! The problem is I would have several bookshelves, and the one I would want the world to see would be vastly different than the one that truly illustrated my reading interests. I was growing increasingly upset when I couldn't name one book that "changed my life" or "made me who I am". Then I figured it out-my love of reading is my life and who I am. Many books have moved me to tears and laughter(sometimes at the same time), scared the holy crap out of me, expanded my mind and view of the world, made me fall in love with strangers, made me hate the world, but then love it again. Books have made me think; maybe, just maybe vampires and werewolves do exsist, and they are all hot men who love plain ole Janes, just like me (seriously where are these men????)
My Ideal Bookshelf would have a never ending supply of books, all books, every book ever written. No book would be denied or ignored, but all loved and read with the passion they deserve.
My Ideal Bookshelf would have a never ending supply of books, all books, every book ever written. No book would be denied or ignored, but all loved and read with the passion they deserve.
March 19, 2014
My Ideal Bookshelf is for book-lovers what reading The National Inquirer is for the celebrity-stricken. This visually fun and surprisingly readable compilation gives you an illustrated bookshelf and notes for a variety of people--an opportunity to crush on your favorite cultural icons without feeling like you've been reduced to reading People in your dentist's office. Find out why Mary Karr loves To Kill A Mockingbird, why Season on the Brink meant so much to Chuck Klosterman, and what motivated Judd Apatow to start writing comedy.
Lots of writers in this collection, but also app designers, musicians, graphics designers and typographers, artists--a nice group. Each person's "shelf" is a quirky graphic, so this is fun to look at as well as skim.
This book won't change your life--but you'll feel good that you and James Franco could belong to the same book club.
Lots of writers in this collection, but also app designers, musicians, graphics designers and typographers, artists--a nice group. Each person's "shelf" is a quirky graphic, so this is fun to look at as well as skim.
This book won't change your life--but you'll feel good that you and James Franco could belong to the same book club.
April 5, 2013
I am smitten with this book. The concept. The paintings. The featured cultural figures :: writers, foodies, artists, photographers. This is book-porn for bibliophiles. LOVE.
July 7, 2021
I love this book so much. The art style is gorgeous, and hearing folks talk about books they love and were influenced by is just so enjoyable. I'm particularly intrigued by the books I've never heard of that keep cropping up on many shelves-- it's time for me to hunt down some obscure titles and authors!
October 1, 2017
This book was very different. The read was good, but I felt disconnected at times if I didn’t know who the artist or writer was.
February 25, 2013
I love to check out people's bookshelves whenever I go to their houses, so this book was a deliciously fun read - a collection of various artists'/writers' "ideal bookshelves," illustrated beautifully by Jane Mount, and a short description accompanying each shelf. The bookshelves themselves were uneven - some really did give me a sense of why this person had the shelf she did, but others talked about something else entirely from their bookshelf. It is overall a book I'd recommend for those who love books (especially the physical book - one person in this collection actually presented his ebook shelf, which I thought was kind of sad).
This book was, like many books about books, a springboard for adding even more books to my to-read shelf. Raymond Chandler, Wallace Stevens, DFW, Proust, Salinger (Nine Stories), Flannery O'Connor, Lydia Davis, John Cheever, William Trevor (on Yiyun Li's recommendation): I am sorry to say that I have not read much or any of your writing at all. I hope to remedy this in the coming years.
This book also inspired me to think about some books I would want to put on my ideal bookshelf. As reflected in the below, I'm a very sentimental reader, and these are some long-time favorites:
***
Ex Libris (Anne Fadiman): the book that all bibliophiles should read.
A Lantern in Her Hand (Bess Streeter Aldrich): It's a wonderful novel of a pioneer woman in Nebraska in the late 1800s and one of my cherished books. I think my love for old, old books comes from owning books like these. My American grandmother gifted this to me in fifth grade. She'd been gifted the book from a national sorority in 1931 (!) and read it while she was crossing Nebraska by train. My own parents came from Korea, so American pioneer history was not part of my family history, but I think this was the book that gave me a way to connect to the American soil, and it (along with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books) is probably why I have a soft spot for books about pioneers and the west.
Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner): a masterpiece of American literature. I love books about the American West (see above).
The Little Prince (St Exupery): I read this in high school French class and have reread it various times since (in various languages - sadly, I would not be able to do so now). It is easy to read, language wise, but with such deep lessons.
The Collected Stories of Alice Munro: This collection is how I first discovered Alice Munro on a month-long roadtrip with my boyfriend (now husband) in 1998. I have read many Munro stories since then and have been amazed at how Munro manages to plumb similar themes/territory yet create different, authentic stories, nary a dud among them. I think I love this collection so much not only because of the amazing stories but because I associate it with wide-open spaces, camping our way across 7500 miles of country (both US and Canada), and reveling in being young and cheap (e.g., my boyfriend/husband's Geo Metro had no air conditioning, so we misted each other with a spray water bottle, which gave us 1 microsecond of relief from the 90-degree weather).
***
Goodreads friends, please feel free to comment with books from your ideal bookshelf!
This book was, like many books about books, a springboard for adding even more books to my to-read shelf. Raymond Chandler, Wallace Stevens, DFW, Proust, Salinger (Nine Stories), Flannery O'Connor, Lydia Davis, John Cheever, William Trevor (on Yiyun Li's recommendation): I am sorry to say that I have not read much or any of your writing at all. I hope to remedy this in the coming years.
This book also inspired me to think about some books I would want to put on my ideal bookshelf. As reflected in the below, I'm a very sentimental reader, and these are some long-time favorites:
***
Ex Libris (Anne Fadiman): the book that all bibliophiles should read.
A Lantern in Her Hand (Bess Streeter Aldrich): It's a wonderful novel of a pioneer woman in Nebraska in the late 1800s and one of my cherished books. I think my love for old, old books comes from owning books like these. My American grandmother gifted this to me in fifth grade. She'd been gifted the book from a national sorority in 1931 (!) and read it while she was crossing Nebraska by train. My own parents came from Korea, so American pioneer history was not part of my family history, but I think this was the book that gave me a way to connect to the American soil, and it (along with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books) is probably why I have a soft spot for books about pioneers and the west.
Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner): a masterpiece of American literature. I love books about the American West (see above).
The Little Prince (St Exupery): I read this in high school French class and have reread it various times since (in various languages - sadly, I would not be able to do so now). It is easy to read, language wise, but with such deep lessons.
The Collected Stories of Alice Munro: This collection is how I first discovered Alice Munro on a month-long roadtrip with my boyfriend (now husband) in 1998. I have read many Munro stories since then and have been amazed at how Munro manages to plumb similar themes/territory yet create different, authentic stories, nary a dud among them. I think I love this collection so much not only because of the amazing stories but because I associate it with wide-open spaces, camping our way across 7500 miles of country (both US and Canada), and reveling in being young and cheap (e.g., my boyfriend/husband's Geo Metro had no air conditioning, so we misted each other with a spray water bottle, which gave us 1 microsecond of relief from the 90-degree weather).
***
Goodreads friends, please feel free to comment with books from your ideal bookshelf!
January 12, 2013
Not as pleasurable as I wished it. At first I thought it was the heavy hipster/New York/Significance quotient, with the "one hundred leading cultural figures" having rather similar tastes for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, David Foster Wallace, Lolita, and Raymond Carver. There's some of that, but then there are the chefs and designers and app developers and musicians--and even writers--who add some unhip and/or idiosyncratic choices. We could've used more of that: how about the uncool and the uncultural--don't some of them read?
The illustrations, while lovely, are a little samey, and most of the selecters (or is it the editor?) didn't seem to have the time or space or talent to create a significant page of explanation, which is all they get. The exceptions are fun, though--Stephin Merritt's is my favorite, and David Sedaris makes some sharp points. And there are surprises. I had never heard of Atul Gawande, but comments about him made me want to read him, and his own bookshelf reminded me of William Carlos Williams's Doctor Stories, which I've always been curious about.
And Thessaly La Force is a great name.
The illustrations, while lovely, are a little samey, and most of the selecters (or is it the editor?) didn't seem to have the time or space or talent to create a significant page of explanation, which is all they get. The exceptions are fun, though--Stephin Merritt's is my favorite, and David Sedaris makes some sharp points. And there are surprises. I had never heard of Atul Gawande, but comments about him made me want to read him, and his own bookshelf reminded me of William Carlos Williams's Doctor Stories, which I've always been curious about.
And Thessaly La Force is a great name.
November 15, 2012
Interesting. I would have liked some background on how the editors chose the participants. There were a lot of husband/wife ex-husband/ex-wife submissions (were they afraid to ask one and not the other?), Pulitzer Prize winning types, a ton of chefs and artists and...Stephenie Meyer.
This is not a knock on Ms. Meyer AT ALL because frankly, her contribution was one of the more interesting ones. (There were at least a dozen "I picked this book because of the way it looked" choices.) It was easy to see who was picking books for show or because they thought it would be impressive. The essays explaining their choices usually ended up being more about their own work or kissing up to other contributors. (Ayelet Waldman, I'm looking at you! Guilty on both charges, madame.)
Still, the book is worth having in your collection of books about books. Wait, you don't have one of those? Hmm. I found the illustrations to be lovely, especially since the illustration of my #1 book happened to be of my favorite addition of said book.
This is not a knock on Ms. Meyer AT ALL because frankly, her contribution was one of the more interesting ones. (There were at least a dozen "I picked this book because of the way it looked" choices.) It was easy to see who was picking books for show or because they thought it would be impressive. The essays explaining their choices usually ended up being more about their own work or kissing up to other contributors. (Ayelet Waldman, I'm looking at you! Guilty on both charges, madame.)
Still, the book is worth having in your collection of books about books. Wait, you don't have one of those? Hmm. I found the illustrations to be lovely, especially since the illustration of my #1 book happened to be of my favorite addition of said book.
December 5, 2012
Interesting concept for a book, but perhaps is more sentimental than useful in identifying new books to read. The essays are short (one page) and succinct and the book's layout is very attractive.
A great many of the books mentioned are old which means most libraries and book stores don't carry them any more though you could probably find a copy with diligence. Quite a number of titles are specific to an industry such as food preparation. Quite a few "classics" are listed which I always question seeing because too many classics are simply no fun to read at all. Perhaps the book they "really loved" was something like "The Flame and the Flower" (racy) by Kathleen Woodiwiss.
Finally, who are these people? They are not your average person on the street and a great many have nothing to do with writing. That somehow comes through to disadvantage.
A great many of the books mentioned are old which means most libraries and book stores don't carry them any more though you could probably find a copy with diligence. Quite a number of titles are specific to an industry such as food preparation. Quite a few "classics" are listed which I always question seeing because too many classics are simply no fun to read at all. Perhaps the book they "really loved" was something like "The Flame and the Flower" (racy) by Kathleen Woodiwiss.
Finally, who are these people? They are not your average person on the street and a great many have nothing to do with writing. That somehow comes through to disadvantage.
Read
June 5, 2015More of a reference book than something I feel comfortable rating. My favorite part was surprisingly James Patterson's contribution. Not his bookshelf, but his explanation, if for no other reason than this quote:
"I think it'd be disastrous if everyone wrote the way I do. But I think it's good that somebody does."
"I think it'd be disastrous if everyone wrote the way I do. But I think it's good that somebody does."
August 3, 2013
I have a confession to make - I am a bookaholic. I cannot stop adding titles to my TBR list. It is obscene, here on GoodReads the list is officially at 588 but I also have another list here at home, another in the notebook I carry in my purse, a list in Notes on my cell phone, and even photos on my phone AND camera. I cannot stop!! My decorating mantra is “Less is more” except for books. But on my birthday last month I decided that I would really should behave and finish 3 of my reading goals this year. So, Wednesday night I made ANOTHER list and this would be it for the year. I wrote down all the titles from my 2013 goals and added the few that I knew were being released before the end of the year, and the rereads I had to fit in before I saw the movie, I came up with 55 and felt proud. It was a bit ambitious, I was at 55 for year so far, have a family that does not like to be ignored (although, they know the top of my head far better than my face already) and a job so I thought if I behaved it would be fine. But I have to behave.
I was so proud of myself. I opted out of hitting the used bookstores downtown on my day off and I even decided to skip Barnes and Noble when Keith went in to get his newest magazines.
Last errand – the library, I thought that I was safe, I am in the middle of a book on my list and I was picking up 3 on my Wednesday list. Keith wanted to browse but I had my 3 books so I sat and started reading the book on top. I heard a noise looked up and then I saw it, taunting me from the top shelf of a display. My Ideal Bookshelf Obviously, it came home.
This quirky title is the work of over 100 creative (designers, writers, chefs and artists) souls and a drawing with a WHY write up of their ideal bookshelf. What a fun idea! Most of these books I do not know, they are subject specific, but they also make me realize how unread I am and how valuable all of my lists are. And that soon there will be more than 588 titles on my GoodReads list!
By the way, here is my list. I decided to list 8-10 but could not narrow it down that far.
1. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. I had to learn to read so I did not have to rely on my mother reading to me this same book every day. She thought that we should have some variety. I loved the rhyme and architecture of Paris (at 4 I had no idea what Paris was, but I loved it just the same) and the girls in uniforms.
2. Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I was part Swiss and could identify with this young heroine. I wanted the mountains and trees and snow and dinner of bread milk and butter.
3. Cucina e Familiglia by Joan Tropiano Tucci. When I am not reading I am cooking. This Big Night Italian cookbook by director and star, Stanley Tucci’s mother could have been written by my own grandmother and a reference when I want to try something new or have a craving for an old familiar. I love the give and take stories between Joan, Stanley and his dad, Stanley and also chef Gianni Scappin. Elder Stanley came from the same village on top of a mountain in Calabria so his family recipes really were the same as mine!
4. Julius Caesar. This specific tile and author is a mystery but still holds an important empty spot on my shelf. I vividly remember being enthralled as this was read to us in school in 6th grade. It was the beginning of me being interested in history and geography. I wanted to know the whys and hows of what I was hearing. I was ready for the Internet, but settled for daily library trips rather than weekly. Thank goodness, I could walk there.
5. Once and Future King by T.H. White. Camelot in a book, perfection!
6. Agony and Ecstasy by Irving Stone. I read in this high school. I had seen the Pieta at the 1964/5 World’s Fair and been horrified by the attack on the statue and this was the beginning of a fascination with art and wanting to understand the creative mind.
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Obviously the scariest book I every read, how could we live without books and ideas?
8. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. I also read this early in high school. I had seen the movie Carrie with Lawrence Olivier on TV the night before and did not find Sister Carrie on my daily library visit. No problem, this one was riveting! Such a full and tragic story. Dreiser was a newspaperman and his books are so rich and vivid. He was the first adult, intellectual writer I found on my own.
9. 84 Charing Cross by Helene Hanff. I found this first as the movie with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins and I have to say that I love both equally. I hear their voices when I read and reread this luscious love story. No, it is not a romantic love between two people who never meet, but a soulful love of the written word and books to hold in your hands and fondle and think and talk about. I had to make an homage visit to the spot of the store, just like Ms Hanff, on my only London visit and took a picture of the plaque of where the store stood.
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. I could not have a shelf and not have at least one of her books but this is my favorite. From the opening lines it drew me in and I was thankful for every time I HAD to read it for a class, I learned more and more on every reading.
11. Enchanted April by Elizabeth van Arnim. Another movie find that is perfection in every sense, I can feel the bitter cold and damp of London (actually, all I felt on my only London trip, granted, it was January, but I felt for the women!) and I wanted the sun and flowers and foods and easy and quiet peace of the lake. Vacation anyone?
12. On Writing by Stephen King. I am not a writer but I wish I that was. King makes me want to read everything, he just knows So Much! I love all of his commentaries, even when I do not agree with his viewpoints. This book tells me why I love all the books I love and the authors I turn to over and over ad how to find other authors who speak to me.
13. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Other than this book is pure fun with the most quotable lines I have ever read, and quoted, do you really have to ask?
My shelf may seem sentimental, taking me backwards with nothing new. But without Madeline would I have longed to see Paris? And Heidi, Julius Caesar, The Agony and The Ecstasy, and Enchanted April made me love the years that my husband (totally the wrong man at first glance for me, much like Mr. Darcy for Lizzy Bennett, but oh so right, after careful examination!) and I lived and traveled overseas. I am able to continue to explore and expand the ideas that these fine titles taught me. Dreiser led me to Michener, Rutherford and White to Mary Stewart, J. K. Rowling and even John Steinbeck! Bradbury gave me King, Azimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Lois Lowery and Michael Crichton. So that Ideal Bookshelf holds a lot more than just 13 titles.
I was so proud of myself. I opted out of hitting the used bookstores downtown on my day off and I even decided to skip Barnes and Noble when Keith went in to get his newest magazines.
Last errand – the library, I thought that I was safe, I am in the middle of a book on my list and I was picking up 3 on my Wednesday list. Keith wanted to browse but I had my 3 books so I sat and started reading the book on top. I heard a noise looked up and then I saw it, taunting me from the top shelf of a display. My Ideal Bookshelf Obviously, it came home.
This quirky title is the work of over 100 creative (designers, writers, chefs and artists) souls and a drawing with a WHY write up of their ideal bookshelf. What a fun idea! Most of these books I do not know, they are subject specific, but they also make me realize how unread I am and how valuable all of my lists are. And that soon there will be more than 588 titles on my GoodReads list!
By the way, here is my list. I decided to list 8-10 but could not narrow it down that far.
1. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. I had to learn to read so I did not have to rely on my mother reading to me this same book every day. She thought that we should have some variety. I loved the rhyme and architecture of Paris (at 4 I had no idea what Paris was, but I loved it just the same) and the girls in uniforms.
2. Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I was part Swiss and could identify with this young heroine. I wanted the mountains and trees and snow and dinner of bread milk and butter.
3. Cucina e Familiglia by Joan Tropiano Tucci. When I am not reading I am cooking. This Big Night Italian cookbook by director and star, Stanley Tucci’s mother could have been written by my own grandmother and a reference when I want to try something new or have a craving for an old familiar. I love the give and take stories between Joan, Stanley and his dad, Stanley and also chef Gianni Scappin. Elder Stanley came from the same village on top of a mountain in Calabria so his family recipes really were the same as mine!
4. Julius Caesar. This specific tile and author is a mystery but still holds an important empty spot on my shelf. I vividly remember being enthralled as this was read to us in school in 6th grade. It was the beginning of me being interested in history and geography. I wanted to know the whys and hows of what I was hearing. I was ready for the Internet, but settled for daily library trips rather than weekly. Thank goodness, I could walk there.
5. Once and Future King by T.H. White. Camelot in a book, perfection!
6. Agony and Ecstasy by Irving Stone. I read in this high school. I had seen the Pieta at the 1964/5 World’s Fair and been horrified by the attack on the statue and this was the beginning of a fascination with art and wanting to understand the creative mind.
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Obviously the scariest book I every read, how could we live without books and ideas?
8. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. I also read this early in high school. I had seen the movie Carrie with Lawrence Olivier on TV the night before and did not find Sister Carrie on my daily library visit. No problem, this one was riveting! Such a full and tragic story. Dreiser was a newspaperman and his books are so rich and vivid. He was the first adult, intellectual writer I found on my own.
9. 84 Charing Cross by Helene Hanff. I found this first as the movie with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins and I have to say that I love both equally. I hear their voices when I read and reread this luscious love story. No, it is not a romantic love between two people who never meet, but a soulful love of the written word and books to hold in your hands and fondle and think and talk about. I had to make an homage visit to the spot of the store, just like Ms Hanff, on my only London visit and took a picture of the plaque of where the store stood.
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. I could not have a shelf and not have at least one of her books but this is my favorite. From the opening lines it drew me in and I was thankful for every time I HAD to read it for a class, I learned more and more on every reading.
11. Enchanted April by Elizabeth van Arnim. Another movie find that is perfection in every sense, I can feel the bitter cold and damp of London (actually, all I felt on my only London trip, granted, it was January, but I felt for the women!) and I wanted the sun and flowers and foods and easy and quiet peace of the lake. Vacation anyone?
12. On Writing by Stephen King. I am not a writer but I wish I that was. King makes me want to read everything, he just knows So Much! I love all of his commentaries, even when I do not agree with his viewpoints. This book tells me why I love all the books I love and the authors I turn to over and over ad how to find other authors who speak to me.
13. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Other than this book is pure fun with the most quotable lines I have ever read, and quoted, do you really have to ask?
My shelf may seem sentimental, taking me backwards with nothing new. But without Madeline would I have longed to see Paris? And Heidi, Julius Caesar, The Agony and The Ecstasy, and Enchanted April made me love the years that my husband (totally the wrong man at first glance for me, much like Mr. Darcy for Lizzy Bennett, but oh so right, after careful examination!) and I lived and traveled overseas. I am able to continue to explore and expand the ideas that these fine titles taught me. Dreiser led me to Michener, Rutherford and White to Mary Stewart, J. K. Rowling and even John Steinbeck! Bradbury gave me King, Azimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Lois Lowery and Michael Crichton. So that Ideal Bookshelf holds a lot more than just 13 titles.
April 3, 2018
This is an interesting collection of book lists by a wide variety of people, some of them widely famous. The editor asked each to make a list of the books that would fit on a bookshelf that have most influenced them throughout their live. The choices are interesting because it's not just a collection of favorites but books that have in some way influenced thinking.
I so loved the idea that my book club made their lists, and at our next book club, we shared our lists, gave each member a copy, and picked two or three on the list to say why they had influenced us. It was a great exercise because we all learned something new about each other, and we've known one another for years.
I so loved the idea that my book club made their lists, and at our next book club, we shared our lists, gave each member a copy, and picked two or three on the list to say why they had influenced us. It was a great exercise because we all learned something new about each other, and we've known one another for years.
September 25, 2019
An interesting book. Enjoyed the concept of people putting together their "ultimate" bookshelf, and the way the artist would paint it. Saw many books and authors I had never heard of. Some people seemed to have books that were meant more to impress, while others seemed to have a broad range of genres (enjoyed those the best) "Lolita" and "On the Road" seemed to be very popular amongst many of the contributors. I enjoyed it. Quick read for me. I will admit I looked more at the pictures and only read the summarizations of those people I recognized or who had an interesting collection of titles. Did make me consider which books I would include in my ultimate bookshelf.
October 14, 2013
I had picked up Thessaly La Force and Jane Mount’s “My Ideal Bookshelf” at the library, intending merely to thumb through it at home, but I wound up reading it. The premise is that 106 people, prominent in their various fields, were asked to prepare an ideal bookshelf of ten to fifteen books that they considered their favorites, or important, influential, or inspiring to them in some way. Then they were to explain their selections.
Each person had a page to discuss his selections, though in a few cases people who worked as partners in some venture shared a page and a shelf. Some people discussed their favorite books, while others veered way off course and droned on about their careers or society, or whatever other axes they wanted to grind. Mount then provided a full-page painting of every person’s ideal book collection lined up on a shelf.
Of the 106 people who provided book lists, I’d only heard of 25 of them, and of the 25, some had vaguely familiar names, but I knew nothing about them. Some of the names I did recognize were Judd Apatow, Mark Bittman, Rosanne Cash, Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Malcolm Gladwell, Kim Gordon, Tony Hawk, Thomas Keller, Jonathan Lethem, Stephenie Meyer, Thurston Moore, James Patterson, Ishmael Reed, David Sedaris, Patti Smith, Alice Waters, and William Wegman.
James Franco had the longest list:
The Arden Shakespeare—“Macbeth,” F. Scott Fitzgerald—“The Great Gatsby,” Tennessee Williams—“A Streetcar Named Desire,” Hart Crane—“White Buildings,” Frank Bidart—“Golden State,” Edward Albee—“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” Denis Johnson—Jesus’ Son,” Edward Albee—“The Zoo Story & Other Plays,” Henry James—“The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels,” C. K. Williams—“Tar,” Tony Hoagland—“Donkey Gospel,” Sylvia Plath—“Crossing the Water,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez—“One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Samuel Beckett—“Waiting for Godot,” Miguel de Cervantes—“Don Quixote: A New Translation by Edith Grossman,” John Steinbeck—“Cannery Row,” James Joyce—“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Ernest Hemingway—“The Short Stories,” William Faulkner—“As I Lay Dying,” Mark Z. Danielewski—“House of Leaves,” Raymond Carver—“Collected Stories,” Marcel Proust—“Swann’s Way,” John Berryman—“The Dream Songs,” Herman Melville—“Moby-Dick,” William Faulkner—“The Sound and the Fury,” Vladimir Nabokov—“Pale Fire,” Cormac McCarthy—“Blood Meridian,” Jorge Luis Borges—“Collected Fictions,” Jack Kerouac—“On The Road: The Original Scroll,” David Shields—“Reality Hunger: A Manifesto,” and Vladimir Nabokov—“Lolita.”
My observations:
1) The books that most frequently appear on these lists are “Ulysses,” “Lolita,” “Jesus’ Son,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Catch-22,” “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” “The Life of Samuel Johnson,” “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” “The Stories of John Cheever,” “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “Moby-Dick,” and works by Elizabeth Bishop, David Foster Wallace, Raymond Carver, Kurt Vonnegut, J. D. Salinger, Dave Eggers, Flannery O’ Connor, Wallace Stevens, Anton Chekhov, and Virginia Woolf.
2) E-book/Kindle/Nook/”Print is dead” obsessives are every bit as smug and obnoxious as I suspected them to be.
3) This book and Joe Queenan’s “One for the Books” have awakened me to the fact that I have very little interest in contemporary fiction.
I tend not to read the works of writers until they are dead.
I hate the modern world and all of the negative changes that keep happening second-by-second, and the endless waves of victories by the ignorant, the evil, and the tasteless.
The world is becoming a less attractive and pleasant place for me.
And I tend to believe artists and intellectuals were greater and more intelligent in the past than they are now. I cannot accept the notion that some greasy, tattooed, hipster junkie in Brooklyn or some harpy assistant professor braying about the latest trendy cultural theory is wiser and more brilliant than a Borges, a Faulkner, a Sebald, or a Machado De Assis.
I think our greatest artistic achievements are all behind us now. That is not to say that good and profound work isn’t being done now and won’t be done in the future, but that for the most part our most important statements have already been made. The human race is becoming more ignorant, tasteless, and shallow, and our artistic output reflects this.
All this said, this book was at times entertaining, and made me start to compile my own ideal list of books.
Each person had a page to discuss his selections, though in a few cases people who worked as partners in some venture shared a page and a shelf. Some people discussed their favorite books, while others veered way off course and droned on about their careers or society, or whatever other axes they wanted to grind. Mount then provided a full-page painting of every person’s ideal book collection lined up on a shelf.
Of the 106 people who provided book lists, I’d only heard of 25 of them, and of the 25, some had vaguely familiar names, but I knew nothing about them. Some of the names I did recognize were Judd Apatow, Mark Bittman, Rosanne Cash, Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Malcolm Gladwell, Kim Gordon, Tony Hawk, Thomas Keller, Jonathan Lethem, Stephenie Meyer, Thurston Moore, James Patterson, Ishmael Reed, David Sedaris, Patti Smith, Alice Waters, and William Wegman.
James Franco had the longest list:
The Arden Shakespeare—“Macbeth,” F. Scott Fitzgerald—“The Great Gatsby,” Tennessee Williams—“A Streetcar Named Desire,” Hart Crane—“White Buildings,” Frank Bidart—“Golden State,” Edward Albee—“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” Denis Johnson—Jesus’ Son,” Edward Albee—“The Zoo Story & Other Plays,” Henry James—“The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels,” C. K. Williams—“Tar,” Tony Hoagland—“Donkey Gospel,” Sylvia Plath—“Crossing the Water,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez—“One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Samuel Beckett—“Waiting for Godot,” Miguel de Cervantes—“Don Quixote: A New Translation by Edith Grossman,” John Steinbeck—“Cannery Row,” James Joyce—“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Ernest Hemingway—“The Short Stories,” William Faulkner—“As I Lay Dying,” Mark Z. Danielewski—“House of Leaves,” Raymond Carver—“Collected Stories,” Marcel Proust—“Swann’s Way,” John Berryman—“The Dream Songs,” Herman Melville—“Moby-Dick,” William Faulkner—“The Sound and the Fury,” Vladimir Nabokov—“Pale Fire,” Cormac McCarthy—“Blood Meridian,” Jorge Luis Borges—“Collected Fictions,” Jack Kerouac—“On The Road: The Original Scroll,” David Shields—“Reality Hunger: A Manifesto,” and Vladimir Nabokov—“Lolita.”
My observations:
1) The books that most frequently appear on these lists are “Ulysses,” “Lolita,” “Jesus’ Son,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Catch-22,” “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” “The Life of Samuel Johnson,” “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” “The Stories of John Cheever,” “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “Moby-Dick,” and works by Elizabeth Bishop, David Foster Wallace, Raymond Carver, Kurt Vonnegut, J. D. Salinger, Dave Eggers, Flannery O’ Connor, Wallace Stevens, Anton Chekhov, and Virginia Woolf.
2) E-book/Kindle/Nook/”Print is dead” obsessives are every bit as smug and obnoxious as I suspected them to be.
3) This book and Joe Queenan’s “One for the Books” have awakened me to the fact that I have very little interest in contemporary fiction.
I tend not to read the works of writers until they are dead.
I hate the modern world and all of the negative changes that keep happening second-by-second, and the endless waves of victories by the ignorant, the evil, and the tasteless.
The world is becoming a less attractive and pleasant place for me.
And I tend to believe artists and intellectuals were greater and more intelligent in the past than they are now. I cannot accept the notion that some greasy, tattooed, hipster junkie in Brooklyn or some harpy assistant professor braying about the latest trendy cultural theory is wiser and more brilliant than a Borges, a Faulkner, a Sebald, or a Machado De Assis.
I think our greatest artistic achievements are all behind us now. That is not to say that good and profound work isn’t being done now and won’t be done in the future, but that for the most part our most important statements have already been made. The human race is becoming more ignorant, tasteless, and shallow, and our artistic output reflects this.
All this said, this book was at times entertaining, and made me start to compile my own ideal list of books.
January 17, 2015
DISCLAIMER: I was given a free copy of this book for review purposes.
My Ideal Bookshelf is an interesting thought experiment. A great deal of the pleasure in reading it comes from spotting a familiar title on one of these imaginary bookshelves, then scanning your own real world library and seeing a physical copy of it nestled between bookends. It's also great fun trying to create your own list of essentials. What books changed you as a person, formed you into the embittered attorney or giddy anesthesiologist or cheeky carpenter you are today? Which novels or essays do you carry around inside your skull?
The range of people who answered these questions is interesting, but narrow. Most are familiar names from the worlds of writing, film, and art. The book goes through them alphabetically and assumes you know who each person is, although you will find single paragraph microbiographies at the very back of the book if you find yourself wondering, "Who?" There's no explanation as to why this particular set of folks was chosen, which suggests convenience and cooperation as the motivating factors, but you should be able to find at least two or three who grab your attention, no matter what your interests.
The real strength of this book is the illustrations. Each book spine is beautifully detailed and painstakingly accurate. You will be surprised by how a font or particular shade of orange will instantly call up a memory of the novel before you even look at the title. Book covers are designed to seize hold of your eyes as you scan a crowded shelf, and the drawings here display the many different ways publishers have tried to make their products stand out. Simplicity, explosions of color, delicate linework, or blocky leaden letters. Mount's art style captures all of these techniques, while adding her own distinct fingerprint to them. Something about the slightly wobbly outlines of the novels lends them a childlike charm, no matter how adult the words inside the covers.
The written portion of the book is less successful. Each participant discusses their selections, but they're given very little space to do so. Almost every person picked ten or more books to line their imaginary bookshelves but were only given four to six brief paragraphs to explain their choices. This means they either ignore most of their selections and talk about only one title or spit out one sentence summaries that don't add all that much. I understand the desire to match a page of text with a page of illustration, but if you're only going to allow a person twenty seconds to describe a lifetime of passion for reading, what comes out is inevitably going to be shallow and rather pointless.
There are two potential ways to fix this. First, let your sources talk. If you assume that readers care enough to ask what various authors, artists, and chefs love to read, then those same readers are probably patient enough to find out why. Give your participants enough time and enough pages to say something meaningful about their choices, to tell an anecdote, to gush over how dreamy Hemmingway is. Anything, really, as long as it actually adds a dimension to the discussion.
Alternatively, just publish the illustrations. Leave the book as a pure, abstract thought experiment with noteworthy figures and celebrities picking out whatever books they like and readers extrapolating the meaning behind each choice.
As it is now, the little pseudo-interview blurbs just detract from the lovely illustrations done by Mount. They serve only to frustrate those who are looking for real insight into the people creating these imaginary bookshelves or to distract those who just want to admire artfully recreated book spines.
In short, the concept behind My Ideal Bookshelf is clever and will appeal to any bibliophile. The illustrations are slightly whimsical and lovingly rendered. Unfortunately the book is let down by its structure with the text portions squeezed into tiny spaces and ultimately into irrelevance.
My Ideal Bookshelf is an interesting thought experiment. A great deal of the pleasure in reading it comes from spotting a familiar title on one of these imaginary bookshelves, then scanning your own real world library and seeing a physical copy of it nestled between bookends. It's also great fun trying to create your own list of essentials. What books changed you as a person, formed you into the embittered attorney or giddy anesthesiologist or cheeky carpenter you are today? Which novels or essays do you carry around inside your skull?
The range of people who answered these questions is interesting, but narrow. Most are familiar names from the worlds of writing, film, and art. The book goes through them alphabetically and assumes you know who each person is, although you will find single paragraph microbiographies at the very back of the book if you find yourself wondering, "Who?" There's no explanation as to why this particular set of folks was chosen, which suggests convenience and cooperation as the motivating factors, but you should be able to find at least two or three who grab your attention, no matter what your interests.
The real strength of this book is the illustrations. Each book spine is beautifully detailed and painstakingly accurate. You will be surprised by how a font or particular shade of orange will instantly call up a memory of the novel before you even look at the title. Book covers are designed to seize hold of your eyes as you scan a crowded shelf, and the drawings here display the many different ways publishers have tried to make their products stand out. Simplicity, explosions of color, delicate linework, or blocky leaden letters. Mount's art style captures all of these techniques, while adding her own distinct fingerprint to them. Something about the slightly wobbly outlines of the novels lends them a childlike charm, no matter how adult the words inside the covers.
The written portion of the book is less successful. Each participant discusses their selections, but they're given very little space to do so. Almost every person picked ten or more books to line their imaginary bookshelves but were only given four to six brief paragraphs to explain their choices. This means they either ignore most of their selections and talk about only one title or spit out one sentence summaries that don't add all that much. I understand the desire to match a page of text with a page of illustration, but if you're only going to allow a person twenty seconds to describe a lifetime of passion for reading, what comes out is inevitably going to be shallow and rather pointless.
There are two potential ways to fix this. First, let your sources talk. If you assume that readers care enough to ask what various authors, artists, and chefs love to read, then those same readers are probably patient enough to find out why. Give your participants enough time and enough pages to say something meaningful about their choices, to tell an anecdote, to gush over how dreamy Hemmingway is. Anything, really, as long as it actually adds a dimension to the discussion.
Alternatively, just publish the illustrations. Leave the book as a pure, abstract thought experiment with noteworthy figures and celebrities picking out whatever books they like and readers extrapolating the meaning behind each choice.
As it is now, the little pseudo-interview blurbs just detract from the lovely illustrations done by Mount. They serve only to frustrate those who are looking for real insight into the people creating these imaginary bookshelves or to distract those who just want to admire artfully recreated book spines.
In short, the concept behind My Ideal Bookshelf is clever and will appeal to any bibliophile. The illustrations are slightly whimsical and lovingly rendered. Unfortunately the book is let down by its structure with the text portions squeezed into tiny spaces and ultimately into irrelevance.
December 29, 2012
This is not the book I would have thought to have been reviewing as 2012 draws to a close, nor will this be the pithy-ish kind of review I generally post. I am just too excited about "My Ideal Bookshelf" to give it short shrift.
Knowledge of this unique book came upon me completely by surprise when I received a package on Wednesday from a beloved young friend. It was a set of painted note cards by the artist Jane Mount, and they were so colorful and attractive that I went to her website, only to find that she has illustrated an absolutely delicious book written by her friend and collaborator, Thessaly La Force. How its review on NPR escaped me is something of a puzzle, but I drove down the Vail Valley yesterday to my favorite bookstore, The Bookworm of Edwards, and after a lovely holiday party, indulged late into the night, reading and examining this volume with the greatest relish, for it brings together my twin passions of art and reading in a fascinating way.
La Force and Mount sent requests to one hundred luminaries in the fields of architecture, graphic design, the fine and applied arts, publishing, cooking, writing, cinema, and music, and other eclectic careers, and asked for a list of books that would symbolize their 'ideal bookshelves'. Once the lists were submitted, each participant was interviewed for complementary comments---complementary to a painting by Jane Mount of the actual books each interviewee submitted.
To say that this book is visually appealing is putting it mildly. I loved the notion, shared by many people involved, that the actual book itself--the object--was important to them for its presence, for how it gave warmth and personality to the space in which the reader lives or works; and that although their ideal bookshelf might change over time, it would always, in some way, be a representation of who they are, who they were, and who they might become.
I was fascinated to see certain books appear and reappear: Faulkner and Chekov and Hemingway, of course, but other less obvious choices, such as Terrence Conran's The House Book; Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son; Paul Rand's Conversations with Students; and, many times, George Eliot's Middlemarch.
I had no idea there existed a profession known as 'data-visualization artist', nor that poet Jodie Graham's books would resemble fresh air, grass and seashore when lined up and painted.
My favorite essay, and favorite bookshelf, should you wish to know, is that of surgeon/author Atul Gawande's. Much like his good friend Siddhartha Mukhejee, Gawande expresses, both through his practice of medicine and his writing, a deep humanity that remains consistent throughout his body of work. As one might suspect, Lewis Thomas' The Lives of a Cell appears on Gawande's bookshelf, as does William Carlos Williams' The Doctor Stories, but so, too, do Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, and, commented on with a certain passion, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
My favorite quote in The Ideal Bookshelf comes from musician and writer Rosanne Cash, who says, " I think books find their way to you just when you need them"; and my favorite painting of an ideal bookshelf, just on aesthetics alone, is that of The New Yorker's music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, followed very, very closely by Francine Prose's and book cover designer's Henry Sene Yee.
Go forth and enjoy your own ideal bookshelves. I am going to The Bookworm to get a copy of A Farewell to Arms, for I just remembered how much I love that book.
Happy New Year and Happy Bookshelving.
Peace,
Barbara
Knowledge of this unique book came upon me completely by surprise when I received a package on Wednesday from a beloved young friend. It was a set of painted note cards by the artist Jane Mount, and they were so colorful and attractive that I went to her website, only to find that she has illustrated an absolutely delicious book written by her friend and collaborator, Thessaly La Force. How its review on NPR escaped me is something of a puzzle, but I drove down the Vail Valley yesterday to my favorite bookstore, The Bookworm of Edwards, and after a lovely holiday party, indulged late into the night, reading and examining this volume with the greatest relish, for it brings together my twin passions of art and reading in a fascinating way.
La Force and Mount sent requests to one hundred luminaries in the fields of architecture, graphic design, the fine and applied arts, publishing, cooking, writing, cinema, and music, and other eclectic careers, and asked for a list of books that would symbolize their 'ideal bookshelves'. Once the lists were submitted, each participant was interviewed for complementary comments---complementary to a painting by Jane Mount of the actual books each interviewee submitted.
To say that this book is visually appealing is putting it mildly. I loved the notion, shared by many people involved, that the actual book itself--the object--was important to them for its presence, for how it gave warmth and personality to the space in which the reader lives or works; and that although their ideal bookshelf might change over time, it would always, in some way, be a representation of who they are, who they were, and who they might become.
I was fascinated to see certain books appear and reappear: Faulkner and Chekov and Hemingway, of course, but other less obvious choices, such as Terrence Conran's The House Book; Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son; Paul Rand's Conversations with Students; and, many times, George Eliot's Middlemarch.
I had no idea there existed a profession known as 'data-visualization artist', nor that poet Jodie Graham's books would resemble fresh air, grass and seashore when lined up and painted.
My favorite essay, and favorite bookshelf, should you wish to know, is that of surgeon/author Atul Gawande's. Much like his good friend Siddhartha Mukhejee, Gawande expresses, both through his practice of medicine and his writing, a deep humanity that remains consistent throughout his body of work. As one might suspect, Lewis Thomas' The Lives of a Cell appears on Gawande's bookshelf, as does William Carlos Williams' The Doctor Stories, but so, too, do Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, and, commented on with a certain passion, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
My favorite quote in The Ideal Bookshelf comes from musician and writer Rosanne Cash, who says, " I think books find their way to you just when you need them"; and my favorite painting of an ideal bookshelf, just on aesthetics alone, is that of The New Yorker's music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, followed very, very closely by Francine Prose's and book cover designer's Henry Sene Yee.
Go forth and enjoy your own ideal bookshelves. I am going to The Bookworm to get a copy of A Farewell to Arms, for I just remembered how much I love that book.
Happy New Year and Happy Bookshelving.
Peace,
Barbara
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