Friday, January 4, 2008
The Books I Own With Two Annotations:
Annotation #1: Yes, those are milk crates. Yes, I have visible milk crates in my apartment and I'm proud of it. And yes, if I had my way, I would have book shelves constructed out of cinder blocks and planks of wood. They were free in the 70s, 80s, they worked, they did the job, and now-a-days, you can buy fake milk crates and fake cider block wood plank shelving everywhere; everyone is making them; Rubbermade, IKEA -- so what's wrong with the fact that I have milk crates for book shelves?
I was 16. I was working for the first time to build up money for university tuition, it was 1977, and I was working at the local A&W. As well as saving up for university, I was also building up a fine and eclectic collection of recordings of Classical music. One evening after work, when leaving, I noticed a stack of a few milk crates out of the back door of the A&W. I took two. I lived a block away, it was easy, and it was a time before metric meaning that milk crates were designed specifically to be the perfect dimensions to hold record albums. And milk.
Within a week, my Mother made me take them back. 'Cause it was stealing.
Ever since, whenever I take a milk crate home with me, I'm overwhelmed with guilt, I giggle, smile within, and am prouded (I like that verb...) on account of the fact that I've done something somewhat subversive even though everyone takes this type of action for granted.
Annotation #2: I love the works of Escher. Two of my books are dust-covered with a particular print by Escher. The first one, the big one, is a hard-backed copy of the Pelican Edition of the complete works of Shakespeare. The best edition in my opinion. I grew up with the individual paper-backed Pelican Editions of the plays. The introductions to the plays are well-thought-out, well written, and to-the-point. They are introductions. They introduce the plays. They do not tell you everything that happens, everything you should know about the play, or what everyone else thinks about the play, including what you should think about the plays. These essays are not Harold Bloomish and are a little bit better than 'Shakespeare for Dummies (Yes, it exists, and it's kind of good.).' If anything, it's worth owning solely for Northrop Frye's introduction to 'The Tempest.'
The second 'Eschered' book? A paper-backed. The 'Death Bed' edition of Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass.' It's gonna take me my entire life to figure that baby out!
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