This draft is from 2012:
Here's the part I'm not really sure what we were talking about:
largely inspired by Anne Fadiman (this post)
Gladstone's quotes
Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.
buying new bookshelves for fancy books
should we reorganize?
And here's a part that I think deserves its own post:
Are you a courtly lover or a carnal lover of books?
#1 is a carnal lover. Anne Fadiman is as well (if #2 recalls correctly). #1 dog-ears and writes and highlights and outlines. She experiences the books. (She doesn't do this to other people's books or library books, just her own, of which she has many.) She also dislikes the kindle.
#2 often uses bookmarks, though usually repurposed things— hair bands, receipts, etc. She will occasionally leave a book open flat, but the only book she ever dogears is a paper conference catalogue. She doesn't usually write in fiction books. She loves the kindle, especially for travel but hates its notes feature because it will often create a note when she just wanted a translation or a definition. She does write in things for work. It's easier to process non-fiction when one is allowed to underline and star and write in the margins. But fiction is pleasantly forgotten to be picked up and enjoyed once more almost as new, but with the familiar knowledge that everything is going to be ok. She is not quite a courtly lover, but is much closer to that ideal.
Which are you, Grumpeteers?
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