You’re only as hip as your bookshelf.
January 23rd, 2010That’s not true at all. No one sees your bookshelf, so you can rest assured that your copy of Blue Like Jazz isn’t being judged by anyone. Heyo. Sorry, Don. Kind of. No but really you’re great. I think. I don’t know we’ve never met. I’m sure you’re great.
Semi-seriously, I know it’s kind of pretentious to make a list of stuff I’m reading and listening to, as if to say Hey! Look at my cool books that make me appear unique and intellectual! So, apologies in advance, but I think the books and music below are great, and I thought you might be looking for something new. Actually I have no idea what you’re looking for, or who you are for that matter. But really I bet you’re great. I think.
These books and albums were given to me or recommended to me by friends, and they were all right. It’s great stuff.
Add to the list if you like. I wish we could start a book club. Like Oprah. RIP Oprah.
Top to bottom, left to right (take Tylenol for any blah blah blah)
1. Modern Art and the Death of Culture by Rookmaaker
2. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
3. Photographs Vol. I by Scott Caan
4. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
5. Giant Size (Andy Warhol) edited by Phaidon
6. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
7. Richard Avedon Photographs 1946-2004
8. Immediate Family by Sally Mann (I love you, Sally)
9. After Theory by Terry Eagleton
10. Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
11. Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
12. The Artist’s Realty: Philosophies of Art by Mark Rothko
13. A River Runs Through It by Norman McLean
14. A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut
All of these books are super cheap if bought used (sans Caan, Avedon, & Mann). What a great bundle of books. I’d say that Bird by Bird has been one of the most influential books in my life. Maybe Traveling Mercies. Lamott, thanks. You’re my favorite. And buy Vonnegut. He’s everything I want to be, except dead. RIP Kurt.
As for music, I am not a great source for new or hip albums, but I love every song on all of these records. Also, if I owned a record store I’d call it Championship Vinyl Overdrive.
1. The Antlers // Hospice
2. The Album Leaf // Into the Blue Again
3. Alcoholic Faith Mission // 421 Wythe Avenue
4. Tom Waits // Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
5. The National // Boxer (my most listened-to album in ’09)
6. Max Richter // The Blue Notebooks
7. David Bazan // Curse Your Branches
8. M83 // Before the Dawn Heals Us
9. Brian Eno // Ambient 1: Music for Airports
10. Alaska in Winter // Holiday
Again, I’m not a music critic, so don’t slay me based on my preferences. Nick Hornby says It’s what you like, not what you’re like that counts…” He’s wrong. Sorry, Nick. RIP.
Nick’s not even dead. He spoke here two months ago at the library.
RIP Nick.
I had a nice evening in a bar once with a couple of pints if Belgian beer and Kurt Vonnegut via Man Without a Country. And Bird by Bird and Ttaveling Mercies are both completely brilliant.
Nice list. I think you might end up liking Yosemite in the Sixties
i just finished My Name is Asher Lev. I recommend all other books by Chaim Potok as well.
Also I recommend all things by Lawrence Kushner, particularly God Was In This Place And I, i Did Not Know, and Because Nothing Looks Like God. That one is a children’s book, and generally realigns me.
And also Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction by Salinger. Sometimes you write like Salinger.
That and everything your professor writes.
brett mccracken’s soon-to-be-published number for the self-consciously hip bookshelf? heir to rookmaaker, calvin seerveld’s – ‘bearing fresh olive leaves’? the indispensible ‘walking on water’ by madeleine l’engle? the underrated but life-changing utopian dreams by tobias jones? merton, schumacher, buber, fromm. I forget how I got to your blog, but berry, sally mann and rookmaaker all demand that I investigate their ‘hip’ shelf-fellows, your jabs at donald miller warn me that my pop theology collection would probably earn your dishipproval.
Hi, I found your blog a long time ago through an article you wrote for Relevant magazine, and I’ve been reading it ever since. I love the photos, writing, and other random stuff on your blog. It’s pretty neat stuff! You once posted a quote on Kurt Vonnegut, which I thought was hilarious, and I went out & read A man without a country. Now it’s one of my favorite reads, and I’m reading Slaughterhouse Five for an upcoming project. I look forward to reading s’more books from your recs (or your friends recs) as well.Something that I recommend myself is any poetry by Wis?awa Szymborska. She’s really great.
hooray for new music/books to look into. thanks for sharing.
if you haven’t listened to Bear in Heaven, The Middle East, Balmorhea, Owen Pallett, or Atlas Sound… try ‘em out. These were some good finds I was recommended in recent months.
I’ve had both the Max Richter and Alaska albums in my “January Adjusting” playlist thanks to you. Also, Jayber Crow Forever XOXO!
Ok, my friend… you’ve talked about Anne Lamott many times so after reading this post i went to a used bookstore here in Chiang Mai, Thailand and picked up Traveling Mercies. I trust that it will not be a waste of my 220 baht… or $7. Thank you for the suggestions.
I will relentlessly advertise Ms. Lamott’s books. It’s worth the 220.
So far so good… 15 pages in and i now carry it everywhere i go in case i can capture a few dull moments in the action so i can read a page or two. PS: You’re still invited to come photograph China anytime you want.
I’m typically a mild-mannered person, but the Alaska in Winter cover art conjures feelings of rage from deep within me. I wish I could not judge things by their covers.
Heed lacey’s suggestions, they are wise. Especially Balmorhea.