Over the course of the Internet/book/school/TV hiatus last week, I was forced to do other things… like clean! Both bathrooms (with bleach!), the garage (the 2010 Catrike fits next to the 1999 Rav now), and my bookshelves now look pretty nice.
The main bookshelf in the living room was built by my father a few years ago. Quartersawn oak, mission style cabinet doors, and two decorative circles at the top made from shittim wood, the same wood used for the Arc of the Covenant.
The analogy of “putting questions on the shelf” in one’s mind seems to be common. I want to talk about your shelf in the literal sense. Really, what is on your shelf (or Kindle!), and why? Any guilty pleasures? What books would you like people to THINK that you read?
Once you get to know someone, the walls come down a little. They invite you into their home or friend you on Goodreads. You see a little of what’s on their shelf. Art, books, knickknacks, stacks of whatever…
Some rooms and some shelves are in great condition, like my quartersawn bookshelf, with organized and nice-looking books.
Others are not, like the top of the fridge. Sometimes we literally want to hide these away. As a young girl, my wife was not allowed in her best friend’s home (well, not past the entryway) if the house wasn’t clean. If we all have a little dust on our dust-jackets, why do we hide? Whom are we fooling?
These places beg to be seen, to be known, to be 
free from shame. Let people into your lives. If you have a pessimistic or negative view of your intellectual prowess or the fact that you read romance novels (my grandma took the covers off, as if no one would notice!), work hard to challenge this model. In addition to the “nice” shelves you have with the collector’s edition books and the beautiful woodwork and the Cormac McCarthy novels that you would show to anyone, take a risk and show people the top of your fridge, and your James Patterson collection, and *gasp* the copy of Breaking Dawn under your bed.
What’s on your shelf? What do you like to read? More importantly, what do you like to read that you don’t like to admit?
Wheat & Tares 
currently reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.
Mormon theology and history. I’m not kidding, I rarely talk about this stuff with people I work with and even members of my ward/stake probably do not know the extent that I read Mormon thought.
Other than that, I enjoy reading fiction and poetry but nothing that I am embarrassed about. Maybe my penchant for French Continental philosophy.
Lots of ADR and related material, the entire masterclass judo series, the Dragonball Evolution DVD (just given it for Christmas by my daughter, still haven’t watched it).
That is what is on the bookshelf in the space in this photo that doesn’t have a bookshelf in it yet.
The bookshelves in view have more books on them now than they did. I need to do an updated photo.
Ok, uploaded picture of my “close to the desk” shelf (not in the original picture)
When we made the move across the country for grad school I had to put boxes and boxes of my books in storage. Besides the psychology books, the ones I brought?
Jami’s “Jusuf and Zulaikha”
Card’s “Ender’s Game” and “Lost Boys”
I am with aaron. I don’t let many people know that I read mormon books, especially when I am traveling for espn. I took the cover off my david o mckay biography. one of the guys saw how thick the book was and asked me if I was reading ‘war and peace’. I chuckled, ‘yeah’.
I’m usually reading a number of books at the same time. Generally a few Mormon history, a few Buddhist/Eastern books, music books, a few other religious books, a current novel or two, several hard science fiction books, several science books, and just random topics, etc. Not really embarrassed by any of them as they’re all pretty random.
I actually hired my first medical assistant purely based on a 3 minute interview. I only had one question: Have you ever bought anything online? She said she bought Stephen King books on eBay, so I hired her based on that. She was with me the first 7 years of my practice.
For whoever cares, currently reading:
– Mormon Theology – Blake Ostler
– John Doyle Lee – Juanita Brooks
– Pro Tools 101 Official Courseware, Version 9.0
– The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements – Sam Kean
– The Shape of Inner Space: String Theory and the Geometry of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions – Shing-Tung Yau
– The Way of the Bodhisattva (Shambhala Library) – Shantideva
– For the Benefit of All Beings – Dalai Lama
– The Urantia Book
– Revelation Space – Alastair Reynolds
– Life – Keith Richards
– I Am Ozzy – Ozzy Osbourne & Christ Ayres
– Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years – Diarmaid MacCulloch
– Towers of Midnight – Robert Jordan
– Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond – Martin Lee
– Freedom: A Novel – Jonathan Franzen
– The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ Within You – Paramahansa Yogananda
– The Hunger Games Trilogy
– Sh*t My Dad Says – Justin Halpern
– City of Saints and Madmen – Jeff Vandermeer
Just a few. Many, many more…
My goodreads page says I’m currently reading Rough Stone Rolling (I haven’t picked it up in at least a year, but one of these days, I’ll get back to it…), The Second Siege (one of my 9-year-old’s books, that I want to read so we can talk about it- I’m struggling with it though- the first in the series was better), and Farm City, which I just barely started, but I’ll finish it long before any of the others. I usually read fiction, because it’s more fun, the only non-fiction that REALLY interests me, and I can really devour are gardening/urban homesteading type books. The others, I read because I think I should read more than just fluff and gardening books. 🙂
If I didn’t sometimes join my neighborhood book group, I would have missed the chance to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn this week.
The book’s theme of unconditional love and accepting loved ones without trying to change them appeals to my Buddhist nature.
(and I’m jealous of that bookcase, it’s awesome)
(also, is that a million copies of Hold Me Tight, by Sue Johnson on your shelf?)
Alice – yeah they were in a cardboard box on the floor, waiting to be used in a study… I just put them on the shelf to get the cardboard box out of the entry way, haha.
CC – That book sounds appealing to me as well, thanks!
Mike – that’s an interesting interview question… What would be a bad answer?
AdamF:
At the time (2002), using the internet was fairly new. I wanted someone comfortable around computers and finding information. I figured asking if they ever bought anything online put all that together. I’ve bought quite a bit on ebay, and I’ve read just about every book by Stephen King. So that was enough to hire her.
Ah, gotcha. I was wondering how I could use a question like that in 2011… maybe if they said the last thing they ordered was the complete LOST boxed set. 😀
Exactly. Most anything someone REALLY needs to know they are going to learn on the job anyway. The most important thing is to find someone you might be fine hanging out with 8 hours a day. If someone likes the same random thing you do, that’s at least a start…
This explains a lot, actually. In my interview for my doc program, I sat down in front of my would-be advisor, saw his MacBook Air, and thought, “this should go pretty well.” We talked about Macs for a while before anything else. I’m sure stuff like that helps. Granted, it helped that I was also qualified and had experience related to his research, but the “human interest” category seems to win a few points.
At first I thought, “there isn’t anything I really hide about what I am reading” But then I realized that I hide a lot.
1- Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation by Penman. My self identity is as an arm chair post structural scholar / theologian so reading something on security valuation is really disjunctive but I spend an hour or two a day with it.
2- I don’t really let ward members know how much liberal theology I read or how authors such as Levinas, Derrida, and Brueggemann shape my approach to interpreting, commenting and teaching in the church. I am somewhat more open about using the NRSV in conjunction with the KJV.
Let’s see… the 4-vol. Liturgy of the Hours, The Backslider (Peterson), Jesus of Nazareth (Ratzinger), Light of the World (Ratzinger/Seewald), Life and Death in Shanghai (Nien Cheng), The Coming of God (Boulding), Opened Ground (Seamus Heaney), The King’s Cavalier (Shellabarger). Digital: American Rust (Meyer), A Grief Observed (Lewis), Mistborn series (Sanderson), TTC Lectures on the New Testament (Ehrman), and thousands of pages of Gregorian chant stuff.
And ditto on the awesomeness of that bookcase.
Douglas – Perfect example! Also, I have no idea what security valuation means, so no shame in reading it, lol.
Everyone – it is really interesting to see what the commenters here are reading… how it shapes them… I would really like to see what Will or Justin or others are reading…
Last three books I read: Under the Dome, The Road and Killing Pablo.
As a rule I’m uncomfortable with strangers knowing what I’m reading, listening to, etc. I was at a blood bank recently (in Salt Lake City) and the technician asked what I was reading. I tried to brush her off by telling her it was a history book, but she pressed. I told her it was a mormon history book, which was the wrong answer, as she was a church member and now really wanted to know what book I was reading. After I showed her the cover she became considerably less friendly. The book was “Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example” by Quinn.
The Road is one of my favorite books… and probably the only one I have read in one sitting, into the night, without taking food or water, haha. Brjones, just tell people like that that a bishop recommended it. It’s on my dad’s shelf (ex-bishop, current temple missionary).
#21 – I actually didn’t find it to be a particularly negative book with respect to the church, but obviously the title could be a little off-putting for someone who isn’t familiar with it.
Hrm, I’m at a conference right now, and maybe the books I chose to bring are reflective of whats on my shelf at home:
The Eye of the World (Robert Jordan), The Well of Ascension (Brandon Sanderson), and Galaxy Formation and Evolution (3 people I bet none of you have heard of… and yes, I’m reading this for fun).
Others at home include my wife’s huge shelves of southwest american history, emphasis on new mexican history, other science texts (Feynman, Einstein, Hawking among the authors), lots of science fiction and fantasy (Lloyd Alexander, Card, Mary Stewart, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Fablehaven series), a shelf of french classics (Petit Prince, Zola, Hugo, Sartre, Camus, and some Tolkein and Harry potter translated into French), and lots and lots of piano, violin, and voice music.
Party at AndrewJDavis’s house!
While this is a great post, I find it odd, if not disturbing that some of you feel that you need to lie to members of the church about what you read,(although I do understand).
What’s on my shelf, “What is the What,” Dave
Eggers
Horse Heaven-Jane Smiley
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl_Linda Brent One of the few slave narratives written by a woman at that time period.
Kite Runner
The Grave-Diggers Daughter- Joyce Carol Oates
Saving Fish From Drowning- Amy Tan, okay- I have every book she ever wrote.
The Summer Guest_Justin Cronin- He was a professor of mine in college, taught my creative writing class. Hated the class, but got an “A” anyway.
The Reader- Berhard Schlink
FYI, I do not like Stephen King Books, but I do like his movies, His books kind of remind me of Herman Melville’s,”Moby Dick,” Unfortunately for me I had to read that four times for various classes and all I remember is the whale dies and the name of the dog,”Quickquay.”
Lol diane – sometimes lying is a good thing. I’m usually up front with people – like my students. I often tell them the first day that I’ve read 2 1/2 of the Twilight books. 😀
In other words, I probably should leave out that fact.
brjones, I hope the needle at the blood bank didn’t hurt too bad when she found out what book you were reading… 🙂 I can identify with that. I brought ‘forbidden books of the new testament’ to church and got some funny looks.
@ADAm
@Adam
I guess, that’s the reason I’m not popular, I haven’t read any of the Twilight books
And I hope I don’t cause a riot, but the reason I don’t like Stephen King is that it seems to me that he needs to have a good belch before he really gets to the point of what he trying to say.
@ Mike S
does this mean we can still be”friends”
Diane – you’ll have PLENTY of friends then who HATE Twilight with a passion. You may not be as popular if you are indifferent, haha.
“FYI, I do not like Stephen King Books, but I do like his movies.”
That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that statement.
I agree with you, Diane, that people feel they need to hide what they’re reading or listening to from members of the church. In my case, I have an aversion to strangers knowing what I’m reading or listening to. I’m not sure why – I’m pretty sure it’s a somewhat unhealthy idiosyncrasy related to worrying what others think of me. I always turn down my radio at stoplights when my windows are open, even if what I’m listening to is not offensive or controversial. I’m overly worried that others will form opinions about me without proper context.
That said, with respect specifically to the church, I think it’s an unfortunate reality that people are judged based on the media to which they expose themselves. When my parents found out I was reading Brodie, (which, of course neither of them had read)they didn’t hide their shock and displeasure. And that’s pretty mild stuff, in my opinion. In my experience, doing nothing more than being honest about some of the books you’re reading can open you up to the reaction poor Tom (from another thread) is currently receiving from his wife.
@ Adam
It’s not that I hate Twilight, I’m just not into them.
I agree that King can sometimes be long-winded, which is one of the few things I don’t like about him. But I do really like exploring some of the more twisted things he seems to get into. HP Lovecraft and Koontz are also good for this.
AndrewJDavis: Speaking of long-winded – be careful of Eye of the World / Robert Jordan. 🙂 It’s an amazing series, but be prepared to get sucked into scores of hours spent reading literally thousands of pages working your way through the series.
There are some books that I probably wouldn’t bring to church, although I do bring a NRSV Bible with me instead of the standard KJV brick. No one has ever mentioned anything to me, but perhaps that’s because I use it for reading scriptures in the Primary class I teach.
#33 – Diabolical, Mike S.
I read primarily children’s books, just because I like them. Nothing beats being a guy reading a book that was clearly written for little girls. 😀
I usually find it entertaining to observe the reactions I get from various people re: the clothing I wear (somewhat eccentric) and the books I read. Funnily, most people pick up on my own comfort with it and it becomes a stepping stone for a relaxed conversation. Not everyone is like this, but the majority are. It seems that when I am unconcerned, many people don’t feel like they need to be concerned either (at least to my face, anyway).
Currently reading Leviathan (Scott Westerfield), Way of Kings (Brandon Sanderson), Tongues of Serpents (Naomi Novik), Zoobreak (Gordon Kormon), among others.
M1 Garand 1936-1957
American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis
Improvised Munitions Black Book vol.2
Light A Last Candle- Vincent King
AF manual 64-3 survival training edition
Haynes Ford engine overhaul manual
The Satanic Verses- Salman Rushdie
GE solid state basics
Mormon Gospel Principles book
H.P. Lovecraft books
Crow Killer, the saga of liver eating Johnson-Raymond Thorp
2009 Ogden phone book
A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
The Beast-A.E. Van Vogt
Be My Guest- Conrad Hilton
Stephen King books
The works of Edgar Allan Poe
The Anarchist Cookbook-William Powell
Book of the Mormons-Joseph Smith
KJV
telephone, some books on tape, 81MM mortar round (demilled) U.S. army helmet from Vietnam, He-man action figure, lava lamp and 3 empty beer cans.
#25 “While this is a great post, I find it odd, if not disturbing that some of you feel that you need to lie to members of the church about what you read,(although I do understand).”
I think it would be a lie if I said something like “I am reading Mormon Doctrine for the 5th time, wow, its awesome!
Its not really a lie if I omit the fact that I am using Levinas’ Writing on the Other, as a catalyst for working through the story of Elijah and the widow, and the results may show up in a Sunday School lesson or an essay for publication. Besides, what right thinking LDS person would believe such a project to be anything less than totally suspect and the work of a border line apostate? None I tell you, none!
Actually, this points to another topic, the relation between reading and writing. For me the two are closely linked.
@37)
There is also a correlation between reading, writing and math skills as well.
From all that I read on this blog post, I have not seen why people would be embarrassed to share what they are reading. The point is: we are reading and that is a good thing as far as I am concerned, because that’s how we learn about people near and far without having to leave our own backyard.
The only thing that made me a little concerrnedt is Prometheus saying he likes to read books clearly written for little girls. The only reason why this had me concerned t is because I mentored two girls who were sexually abused last fall and the person who did this to them groomed them by being interested in things that little girls and teenage girls are interested in.
Prometheus, I am not in anyway comparing you to this creep, so please do not take this personally, but if someone who is a parent read that, they might be concerned as well.
reading, writing and arithmetic. 2nd grade. 1st grade was colors and sharing I think.
The Eye of the World (Robert Jordan), The Well of Ascension (Brandon Sanderson) — I think I own both of those 😉
Thank goodness the series by Jordan is finally hitting an end. Too bad he died before he saw it finish, but Sanderson has a perfect touch.
@38
Ahh, my obsessive need for hyperbole strikes again. :S
I shall add some context to clarify – I worked for a while in the children’s section of a bookstore and so found myself reading all kinds of things not commonly seen in the hands of adults, and to be honest, series that I would not typically choose for myself. Heartland happened to be a popular choice, so I figured I should at least be familiar with it.
In any case, I don’t take offense, Diane, but I do find it a bit disheartening that that should come up. I agree with you, that people can and do often jump to erroneous conclusions based on miscommunication. I could have been a librarian, a teacher, a parent, an author, or any number of other things, and because I am reading something aimed at a certain demographic, I get tarred with a brush I don’t deserve (not saying that *you* did so, of course).
At the end of the day, though, I really do love children’s books and read them proudly. There are some literary masterpieces to be found among them, and those have top billing on my bookshelf.
Oh, and Stephen, I totally agree about Brandon Sanderson. I think that he has rehabilitated the series in such a way as to make it recommendable again. So glad they picked him to finish it.
20 years is a long time to be reading one series, though, I gotta say. 🙂
My book shelf has mystery books (Murder She Wrote to David Baldacci’s thrillers), business and leadership books (servant leadership by a Jesuit, for example), and spiritual development books like Henri Nouwen, Eckhart Tolle, etc. My bible, book of mormon, and doctrine and covenants are also there.
Dust
Douglas, your thoughts are interesting. Certainly with my Mormon community I do not always share with them where my ideas have come from but my last two lessons at choice used Derrida on Forgiveness (I even quoted him – though of course most people had no idea who he was) and discussed the notion of performativity in relation to Temple symbolism. Good ideas resonate with people as long as you mask the provenance somewhat.
My currently reading is a book by James Alison (a gay catholic theologian) called ‘On Being Liked’. Patchy but very interesting and I reading quickly Rocks of Ages by Gould. Next is my Raymond Brown commentary on the ‘Death of the Messiah’.
So how is the Way of Kings by Sanderson? It looks long. And, yes, I know how much RJ wrote in the Wheel of Time series — I’ve read the whole series about 2 times. And I love what Brandon is doing to it — definitely rejuvinating the slow series. I think RJ just needed an editor who was not his wife — that way he/she could say: gread ideas, but you’re using about 4 times as many words as you should.
And brjones: parties are always welcome in my house — especially if you like our books. Heck, over half of our dates before my wife and I got married were just reading on a couch in the BYU library together. Some lively dating, I know.
“So how is the Way of Kings by Sanderson?”
I’ve been curious too.
Too many books to mention on my bookshelves. I’ve had to box up heaps simply becasue they no longer fit in the house. What am I embarrassed about? Hmmm, Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews. (I didn’t buy it and I’ve never read it! :))
Currently I’m working my way through a heap of Jeffery Deaver novels. I routinely read crime, sci fi and fantasy. I’ve recently finished The Hunger Games trilogy and a few Michael Connelly novels.
These days I only read on my ipad because I have no space in my house for the amount of books I read. Sorts out my storage issues but I miss the feel of a book in my hand.
#45- Thanks, I quoted Derrida as well, a few years back on the economy of the gift. I find that in Sunday School its not necessary to quote directly from one’s sources since as you rightly point out good ideas resonate with people as long as you mask the provenance somewhat. I think this tends to be very much the case in Sunday School, soft peddling post structural thought without adknowledging it or calling it “postmodern” can open up a lesson and lead to interesting comments from all perspectives.