Celebrations
I see from the Barbican's mailing list that they are having a retrospective season for Philip Glass, because it is his 70th birthday.
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
... for he is a minimalist composer, you see? see? bloody hell. pearls before swine, that's what this blog is, I tell you.
In related news, while arranging the study in my new house I made a discovery, which is that from a librarianship point of view, it obviously makes sense to have all of your books about the Nazis on one shelf together, from an interior design point of view it doesn't, because the red, black and white covers stand out a bit, and if you put more than say a dozen books about the Nazis together, it makes you look like a bit of a weirdo.
A qualified librarian writes: actually you can put them where you like so long as your cataloguing and classification system is sound.
ReplyDeleteHey, is that a dig at me? It can't be, as you've not seen my bookshelves, but it feels like one - I have 27 Nazi books in a row, always a talking point, and you're right about the black and red (is there any white - oh yes, there is, I see your point - and also surely too many Richards writing about them?).
ReplyDelete"Music in 12 Parts" is on! I'm there!
ReplyDeleteIf its in your study it doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteNow your living room, on the other hand...
hahaha Matthew is a fellow sufferer. No, this post was inspired by a real life event in which Ms Digest completely undermined my shelving system. My Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks have also been split up for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteThe trick is to interpose one's Nazi Germany books with non-Nazi Germany books. Thematically consistent, but one's houseguests will notice your selection of books on the Hapsburgs or the Austro-Prussian War (or even cholera in Hamburg), and pass gently over the rest. (My favourite book of erotic Russian folk tales also acts as a similar eye-catcher).
ReplyDeleteOf course, I then completely destroy the illusion by having a big book on post-war Soviet tank design...
Ambiguous wording there. Books about Germany not to do with Nazis. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe new hardcover D&D books look seriously impressive when put together, as long as your house guests have no idea what they are.
ReplyDeleteSigh, my other half's D & D books are the bane of our study shelving system. Why can't they just be put in boxes in the loft? Eh? Eh?
ReplyDeleteD&D books or D&D fans?
ReplyDeleteJohn B
According to Martha Stewart, it is acceptable to stack books on the floor, and if the colors are offensive to you, put some sort of covering over them. That would free up a shelf for a subject whose colors are more pleasing to you.
ReplyDeleteThat is really strange that books about Nazis are black, red, and white. Not blue and blonde.
"My favourite book of erotic Russian folk tales also acts as a similar eye-catcher"
ReplyDeleteA problematic book on my shelf is a fat volume about Russian folk magic beliefs titled (in large letters) "The Bathhouse At Midnight", which is evocative of entirely different things.
My copy of "Messages to the World: the Statements of Osama bin Laden" is shelved next to "How to Build a Nuclear Bomb and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction" and "Berlin: The Downfall, 1945", on the same shelf as "Stalin, Breaker of Nations".
ReplyDeleteIs that the Amis classification system then?
ReplyDeleteFuck you, too.
ReplyDelete