Waughblog: The Bookshelf

April 17, 2004

The Bookshelf

I placed these books on this bookshelf because they hold some personal significance.

The titles are (from right to left):

Baudelaire: Paris Spleen: His prose poetry. The one poetry book I reread periodically.
Italo Calvino: If on a Winter Night a Traveler...,The Uses of Literature,Baron in the Trees: My current favorite author.
Nick Hornby: High Fidelity: My love of music and reading all in one. A friend gave me this book.
David Sedaris: Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked: A new discovery for me. Funny, funny stuff. In Sedaris, I can see writing as a craft.
Al Franken, Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: Political writing can be funny. Unfortunately, my position as a public employee prevents me blogging about much politics.
Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot: If you read only one play in your lifetime, make it this one.
Costa Rica: The Rough Guide: I went to Costa Rica and almost stayed.
Dante: The Inferno: A handbook for graduate school.
Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass: When I was going through hard times, I sold most of my library. I almost sold this book but changed my mind. I loved it so much in high school, it would have been like selling my soul.
Mednis: How to Beat Bobby Fischer: I went through a phase where I read nothing but books on chess. I had an encyclopedia of chess openings. To me, it was like a bible. I loaned it to someone and never saw it again. I think this book had been loaned to me by the same person.
Pete Seeger: The Incompleat Folksinger: This book and my guitar got me through a hard summer.
Shakespeare: Henry IV part 1: I guess we all need to grow up at some point.
Ernest Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying: A birthday present signed by the author.
Songwriters Market 1999: I write songs, but have yet to take them to market.
Flannery O'Connor: The Complete Stories: Southerners can write too.
Lou Reed: One of my rock and roll muses.
Lorna Sass: Complete Vegetarian: Sass taught me all about the pressure cooker.
Eric Lax: Woody Allen: My engagement included a Woody Allen immersion program.

Posted by Mike Waugh at April 17, 2004 02:15 PM

Comments

I remember that Lorna Sass book, and thinking to myself I must be an incomplete vegetarian for lack of a pressure cooker. That's so typical of vegetarian cookbooks... the majority have some sort of specialization that renders over 90% of their recipes useless to me. Complete my left foot.

Actually, I remember most of these books. Has Mike Waugh stopped buying new books since becoming an almost-librarian?

Posted by: Robert, Waugh the Younger at April 18, 2004 01:58 PM

Yes, that is right. I try not to buy any books that I can get at the library.

I imagine that in the future, when my tastes become more eclectic, I will start building a personal library. But for the moment, my tastes are so mainstream that any modest library can easily fulfill me.

I noticed that the bookshelf collection includes a couple "Complete" titles, and even one "Incompleat". Personally, I'd rather they all called themselves "Incompleat".

Posted by: Mike Waugh at April 18, 2004 02:46 PM

Maybe I should call myself an Imcompleat Librarian, (rather than almost).

Posted by: Mike Waugh at April 18, 2004 02:47 PM

Ahh! I love Paris Spleen too! Great choice.

Posted by: yogi at April 20, 2004 06:32 PM

If you only read one play in your life, you'd not appreciate Waiting for Godot. You have to have drivel to compare it to before you can dig it.

Posted by: Noma Fowler-Sandlin at April 25, 2004 10:14 PM

I should say, if you ever tell anyone what is your favorite play, say it's Waiting for Godot, whether or not you've read it or not. It's especially a good tactic if the person you tell this to wears black.

Posted by: mike waugh at April 26, 2004 09:00 PM

But what do you do if they ask you what the play is about? I mean, if you haven't read it then you can't summarize the plot for them. You wouldn't be able to name any of the characters (except for Godot) or describe the settings and the action....

Posted by: Robert, Waugh the Younger at April 30, 2004 10:34 PM

Well, as far as the action...you could say it was similar to the biography of Robert Waugh, except that the setting was outdoors, the tree was his mother, and Godot was his career prospects.

Posted by: Mike Waugh at May 2, 2004 02:14 PM

Ha ha. You know, I would be offended if that weren't so funny, and unfortunately true.

But then, what pray tell does the boot represent in my biography? Estragon's boot?

Posted by: Robert, Waugh the Younger at May 5, 2004 07:21 PM

Your iMac?

Posted by: Mike Waugh at May 5, 2004 07:44 PM