Oh, I would, I would, and I feel a bit rude declining this request, but honestly I have such a strong aesthetic abhor for the wood stain of the bookshelf that houses most of my little library (though it does spill into other parts of the room, inevitably), that I can’t bear to look at it much or photograph it, despite that the books themselves are beautiful and that’s what should count for more. Should I find more suitable shelving or arrangement — and I am looking — then yes, I will post a photo.

An excellent question! One I have heatedly debated, before. I think eReaders are alright for those who do not believe the book itself to be a sacred thing, who do not feel differently about a book in file form than in physical form. I, however, can’t stomach beautiful books being reduced to an electronic file. They deserve to be held, their papers breathed in, their spines and covers and endpapers admired. I look at books as being an art, and this includes the making of and the book itself. The design of the cover is quite important to me, for instance, I can barely tolerate to have eyesores of book covers on my bedside stand, and it is a shame, as there are books with beautiful words outfitted in atrocious exteriors that are off-putting for someone so keen on visual aesthetics, as I am.

I love being invited over to someone’s house and looking through their library, skimming my fingers along the spines, pulling one loose to look at its jacket. A person’s library — or lack of one — is intimately revealing of who they are as an individual. Books are like a living organism in a room, a presence, pieces of souls put into pages. I love having these souls surrounding me, the shelves upon shelves and stacks upon stacks of books.

I can’t even bring myself to use an eReader for travel, despite it’s convenience. When I am working, I wake up, and at five-something in the morning have a very fierce but quiet debate of what books to bring with me that day. I am so accustomed to the weight on my shoulders, this equivalent of a small library with me wherever I am. It’s comforting. Books are comforting …

This being said, I am biased, because I am in love with books, and love is blind. But I will always have books, collect them, read them, love them, yes.

Most of the “events” on my calendar are the due dates of my library books. 

Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch by Henry Miller, Odes to Common Things by Pablo Neruda, The Street of Crocodiles & Other Stories by Bruno Schulz, Immediate Family by Sally Mann, The Collected Poems by Federico García Lorca, Selected Poems by James Schuyler, The Letters of Robert Lowell by Robert Lowell, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. A full list of my favorites, can be found here.