Windows of the Soul

The subject of today's photograph is an Ikea 'Billy' classic, and consists of five shelves in total (the top three are pictured here). I bought it online about two months ago & it took one month to arrive. The first two deliveries failed: on the first, Ikea had confused my billing & delivery addresses; on the second, Ikea arrived at my delivery address but had forgotten to load the ordered goods at their depot in Birmingham. It was a (book)case of third time lucky: it arrived one Saturday morning at 9am. Hurrah! I admit that flat-packing is not my forte and a friend with a tool-kit did most of the construction.

However, compartmentalizing is a strength and I have enjoyed creating organized sections. On the top shelf are monographs on Aestheticism and works by neglected female writers including Mona Caird and Vernon Lee. My Broadview editions, which present the work of Amy Levy, Ella Hepworth-Dixon and again Vernon Lee, are on the second shelf after the small poetry section.

My poetry section includes Sylvia Plath, Yeats, Phillip Larkin, Sharon Olds, Carol Ann Duffy, Tim Liardet and the Forward Poetry Prize Collection which reprints one of my favourite poems in there called 'A Literary History' by Emma Jones.

Next on the shelf is a Hespern edition of Christina Rossetti's "Commonplace" and missing are two other Hespern editions of Henry James: The Lesson of the Master and The Diary of a Man at 50 both edited by two esteemed James biographers, Colm Toibin and David Lodge, respectively.

Following on from this, I have a small collection of Penguin Books: Great Ideas, which showcases the inspirational prose-writings of John Ruskin, William James and Virginia Woolf. The line of red is the result of my preference for Oxford World's Classics editions. One of my favourite tutors who specializes in 'The History of the Book' (amongst other things) at University shared her views on this by saying 'They are just better,' referring here to other available editions of the same works. I teach a first-year literature course and am found repeating this to my students. The cheap editions without annotation or critical introductions are redundant in my opinion. This sort of debate could last all day, but I am proud of my red line.

Beneath the Red Line are two sections: Biography & Theory. The first includes literary biographies on Edith Wharton, John Ruskin and Rebecca West. It should also include my biographies on Vernon Lee, and my history biographies on 'The Edwardians' and 'The Victorians: Consuming Passions.' The section I term 'Theory' include books about books, or books that think about the value of studying books. My favourite, or most thumbed, is Carol Atherton's 'Defining Literary Theory.' A compelling book that has undergone critique within my work quite a lot is Angela Leighton's On Form. The most recent addition to this shelf is Zadie Smith's 'Changing My Mind,' a great collection of 'occassional essays.' This was a Christmas present from my parents and I am finding it fascinating for its content alone, of course, but also for the implications of its haphazard composition & the statement it is making about essayistic criticism as a practice, particularly as an artistic and/ or non-specialist practice.

Unfortunately, the photo omits from view my Oscar Wilde collection, which is enjoying the arrival of the latest edition of his Short Stories (for all ages) courtesy of the Stephen Fry Industry.

This photo is not exhaustive & not the complete version of my personal library. However, I have placed the books that I need to have in one place at this very moment on these shelves.

It feels quite indulgent and exposing to list my books on here, but I recommend a. bookshelves and b. writing about them...

Utilizing this physical apparatus effectively helps you to consolidate your books and in turn, help you to organize your mind. The practice of writing about your bookshelf forms the second phase in this process of consolidation. By participating in both practices you can have a more established sense of how the books that you own link together and automatically increase their capacity for doing something meaningful and powerful. Since the billy bookcase arrived & stood in the corner of the living area in my flat, it has improved my sanity :)