I've read A LOT of books over the years, in fact it's fair to say that books are one of the best 'markers of my life history', which probably sounds really sad (books before people?!) but that's the way it is.
I'm honestly quite attached to my book collection... it's most certainly the biggest barrier (measured by both volume and weight) to my downsizing or leading a nomadic lifestyle... and given that these two lifestyle changes are both on the cards, this post might be something of an epitaph to said collection...
This is my entry to @wizardave@s 'what's in your library' competition, and I have to say thanks to him for organizing a competition that really puts me in my element. I've embellished my entry a bit, because I got into it...
Also thanks to @steembasicincome for motivating people to put together these competitions. I'm seriously into SBI atm, so I'm basically going to enter any competition that takes my fancy, and this is write up my street, excuse the pun.
On growing up with books....
I really have 'grown up with books'. I don't think there's been a single day in the last 40 years when I haven't read something.
While I'm sure there were earlier reads, 'The Munch Bunch' series is the first set of books I can actually remember enjoying as a child; while 'Fighting Fantasy' role-playing books were the first I 'obsessively collected'... remember those...?... there's a fork in the passage, do you go left (turn to section 93), or right (turn to section 226).
Various fantasy novels (Lord of the Rings at 11) and science fiction such as Harry Harrisson's Stainless Steel Rat series and the obligatory dystopian duo of 1984 and Brave New World pretty much saw me through my early-mid teenage years. I actually recently bought a Stainless Steel Rat novel recently to reminiss. If you've got teenagers, these are about an 'ethical criminal' who lives between the gaps in a high tech surveillance state. Quite good for inspiring anarcho-tendencies I think...
Somewhere around 17-18, I started 'proper reading': mainly philosophy: Nietzsche, Satre, Marx, but I also did a 'correspondence course' on Buddhism in which I read a lot around that particular subject (I particularly enjoyed Irmgard Schoegl's The Zen Way @ the time). I actually spent two years on the doll, and read A LOT OF PHILOSOPHY and alt books during that time.
Just a quick reflection on 'back in the day' in 1991: when I did that course I used to actually write into the Buddhist Centre in London, and they would send me books from their library, by post, which I'd then post back after a few weeks. How times have changed!
I won't bore you too much with the rest... the following 20 odd years involved two degrees in American Studies and Anthropology, followed by a Master's degree in Sociology and an abandoned PhD (following two year's reading) on the relationship between green political thought and green communalism. And of course 16 years teaching sociology.
I dread to think if I could put a number on the amount of books I've read - 2000 maybe? Then plus all the academic articles.... no wonder I don't get out much. Anyway: onto the library:
My library today...
BTW: I've packed about a third of the collection away ready to move, books are pretty easy to pack in advance, given that they're (TBH) window dressing rather than functional items, most of them.
Bookcase one: sociology collection....
This isn't usually organised by theme, rather by size - small books on top, larger books on the bottom! The links below take you to some of the summaries I've done of these books.
Highlights:
The Zygmunt Bauman Collection - In case you've never hear of Zygmunt Bauman, he's probably best categorised as a 'post-modern Marxist', and fully understands that's something of a contradiction - a good starting point is his Liquid Modernity which will give you something of a flavour of his work:
As Bauman sees it, when capitalism really started to take off (in Britain in the 19th century) it was obviously shit for 99.9% of the people. Eventually, thanks to Keynsian economics, it was tamed, at least for those in Europe and worked quite nicely for most people.
Now, however, capital is much more free, much more globally mobile, and careers around the world causing booms and busts and leaving chaos in its wake (David Harvey bangs on about this a lot too): while the rich are globally mobile, the poor are 'doomed to be local': he sees the biggest problem facing us as one of how we 'tame global capitalism' when politics is still stuck at the level of the nation state.
There's a lot more to his work than that, but that's the gist.
**Anthony Giddens: Modernity and Self-Identity. **
It might surprise you to know that before Giddens went all 'Third Way' his sociology was excellent - in this book he argues that there's a sort of dialectic between the development of social structure and individual freedoms: at this current point in history we have certain global structures: clock time, money, and expert-systems which allow us to be free, the challenge is in how to bring back ethics into the system and restrain these freedoms: he sees new social movements as playing a key role here.
Please see here for my 'good sociology reads'. I may do a version for steemit, I need to update this...
Bookcase two: 'Buddhism, permaculture, walking, what's not packed away of my fiction collection
The Highlight of this bookcase is without doubt Shunryu Suzuki’s ‘Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind’ - which I read while hitching around the US in 1996…. At the time I convinced myself that this was the last book I ever needed to read, so profound was the wisdom it contained, but I soon regressed and ‘carried on reading’. Or at least it was the highlight, I just remembered I swapped it with Blackfoot indian in exchange for a cowboy hat during a very drunken lift.
I think the book on the ‘Alexander Technique’ also deserves a special mention… one of the few alternative therapies I can vouch for. It basically involves ‘thinking yourself long’ and belly laughs all round.
I’m also quite fond of my raw-food uncook book collection, all two of them.
In terms of literature: that’s mostly packed, but give me 19th century lit any day of the week, especially Dickens: Great Expectations is my favourite all-time novel.
Under the desk: various copies of the 'The Week'
I’ve got to recommend this little magazine: it basically summarises the week’s news, meaning you miss out on all the usual moral panic, and ‘in the moment’ nonsense and just get the analysis. Great basis for writing blogs this.
What I'm currently reading/ re-reading:
Non Fiction David Harvey: The Condition of Postmodernity - You'll need a degree level understanding of history, politics, economics and social theory to understand if, but if you're that way inclined, and that well educated, you'll enjoy this, but probably still find it a challenge.
Fiction: Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit - over-the-top characters aside (they sort of come with the package in any Dicken’s novel) this is a punishingly depressing book based around the theme of imprisonment and injustice - most of the characters are ‘trapped’ in some way, either by literally being in prison, or by poverty, by marriage, class convention, or ‘the man’.
Postscript: how much can a book collection tell you about a person… ?
I used to see someone’s book collection as a reasonably good indicator of someone's profession, politics, spirituality, and 'tastes', but beyond that, just simply having a substantial book collection suggested someone was probably educated, and probably in a humanistic, literary sort of way.
At least, I used to be able to say that... because in our digital age, books have also become an aesthetic choice rather than a necessary prerequisite for having 'knowledge about the things you like' at your fingertips. So possibly the paragraph above only applies to the over 40s, who grew up with the habit of books (or not).
NB - This post has gone way beyond the quick Saturday night post originally intended, what can I say, I'm 'bookish'....
Final word... when it comes to reading, never forget your roots*
*or fruit, or veg more generally!