October 2024
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    Pick the nearest bookshelf in your house when you read this. What is the book furthest to the left on the top shelf? Have you read it? Do you like it? Why or why not?

    The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe

    I have read most of it, possibly with the exception of some of the poems. I love the variety of the ideas in the stories, the way he uses words, how deep his psychological understanding was, his inventiveness, and his embrace of strangeness.

    by gebfreemusic

    26 Comments

    1. Can’t see that far and I’m too lazy to get up but it’s either Maus by Art Spiegelman or The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. I enjoyed them both. Maus (a graphic novel) was an interesting and unique way to inform people of the atrocious and horrible time during the Holocaust. And Testaments is the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, which i feel like i enjoyed more than its predecessor. It had me more invested.

    2. It’s a collection of the Tales of Earthsea Series by Ursula K Le Guin. I’ve read most of it and really enjoyed it, most of it through audiobooks while painting our guest room and then our living room! I would probably like most books on this bookshelf though, because I have hidden my least favorite books on a tucked away shelf 😂

    3. Various-Catch-113 on

      Art Deco and British Car Design: The Airline Cars of the 1930s
      -Barrie Down.
      Yes, I’ve read it.

    4. My nearest shelf has Ahistory Vol 3. It’s an attempt at placing every Doctor Who story in one cohesive timeline. It’s only up to the end of the Capaldi era.

    5. I haven’t read “God i norsk 1” because we accidentally bought the Nynorsk version and why do they even MAKE an “intro to Norwegian for foreigners” book in a version of the language only used in academia

    6. Flatland, by Edwin Abbot. Got it back in high school geometry class. It’s a fun little book, just a thought experiment that makes you think about the effect dimensions have on the way you experience life. I think there’s a sequel to it but never got curious enough to seek that out.

    7. PremiumRecyclingBin on

      It’s my soft cover shelf, and Dracula is the first book followed by the books in the Witcher series. If it’s in my book shelves, I’ve read them. Books I haven’t dont get that honor yet lol.

    8. It’s “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith.

      I have read it and really enjoyed it. I thought I had donated it but a friend moved and found it in her stuff and returned it. I’ll def read it again

    9. There are no bookshelves in this house. All my books are in boxes in the barn and I feel incredibly depressed about it.

    10. The Witch Book The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-Paganism by Raymond Buckland. No I haven’t read it. Bought it as a writing resource.

    11. Thomas_teh_tank on

      I shit you not, but that Poe collection is right next to the farthest left book on my shelf lol, what a coincidence.

      My farthest left book is Fairy Tale by Stephen King, haven’t read it yet. I have a lot of stuff ahead of it on my to read list

    12. *The Language Instinct* by Steven Pinker. Haven’t read it yet but have high hopes. Just not much of a non-fiction reader so it’s taking a while to get to.

    13. *Infinite Jest*, and no it’s still in the queue.

      the second closest shelf: Franz Kafka’s *The Metamorphosis and Other Stories*, which I started and appreiciated but had to put pause since I was not in an comfortable headspace for it. I’ll come back to it in time.

    14. I only buy books I’ve read and loved. I use my library for nearly everything and stuff that I know I’ll reread and thoroughly enjoyed I’ll buy.

      The few caveats to that are: books in a series where I already own the others, fun reference books and pretty coffee table books.

      To answer the challenge that spot is a stack of Terry Pratchett paperback Discworld books. Yes I’ve read them all and yes, I’ve loved them all – because…well…Terry Pratchett 😄.

    15. Extension_Virus_835 on

      YellowFace by RF Kuang

      I have read it, and I love it. (Though my favorite of her works is the 2nd book in The Poppy War Series which is 2 books away from it) but to be fair I’m in my living room is where I only shelve either the prettiest of my books or my favorite ones so would’ve landed on one I liked anyway lol

    16. Leftmost book top shelf is a Penguin Classics edition of *The Adventures of Augie March* by Saul Bellow. Can’t really say I have particularly fond memories of this one. It’s been many years since I read it, but I sort of think of it as a *Catcher in the Rye* with slightly more “adult” experiences/concerns being discussed, but with a similarity in that it is from a maladjusted protagonist.

    17. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. I tend to read library books first, and then buy what I love and would potentially read again. This book was just this side of weird and atmospheric for me. I think it’s a very loved it or hated it book, from what I gather.

    18. McMasters Guide to Homicide – Vol. 1 – Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

      Yes, finished it last month. Really liked it because I enjoyed the humor, the nostalgic setting, and the unique concept. Would have “loved it” except for the ending which felt too forced plus I didn’t like that it is implied>! that the “modernists” were taking over our beloved McMasters with Dean Harrow heading off to be “handed his head” at the end. I really liked Dean Harrow and his support of the McMasters traditions.!<

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