Put the book back on the shelf*
There's a How I met your Mother episode called Unfinished. One of the ideas running through it is that everybody has a number in their phone that they can't delete, because deleting it means admitting that you're saying goodbye to a future version of you that you never realised.
That guy/girl that you were going to call?
The number of that dojo because you were going to take up martial arts?
Well, I'm having that sort of issue with my bookcase right now.
One of the things that I love about books is that within each set of covers is the potential to change your life. Maybe in a huge way, maybe in a small way. That's possibly part of the reason that I'm so attracted to new books and new ideas. They're each a window to some new understanding or idea about the world.
I have two bookcases. both are very full. I buy lots of new books all the time.
I could probably clear a shelf of books that I've bought and never read.
I wonder what each book says about me. Let's start it the bookcase in the sitting room.
Art Books
Weapons of Mass Communication is an art book that I picked up at the Imperial War museum of the same name. I have a quite serious love on for war posters and vintage poster art. This explains the Retro Graphics Cookbook I spent ages eyeing this up in Borders and then picked it up from Amazon. This was because I wanted (and still do) to do some photoshop jiggery pokery. I want to do some form of graphic design (I'm currently listening to LoveNotes/Letter Bombs and I love the halftone printing design on the album cover (also on this David Aja cover for Invincible Iron Man). I had a few goes at doing some halftone stuff, but I've not really sat down and done anything with the book at all. Jack Vettriano - A Man's World is another art book that I bought when I went to the Vettriano exhibition at the Old Course hotel in St Andrews. Not opened it since I got home. I have at least flicked through Trans Am Champions
I've got loads of History books. There's Renaissance Florence, which I at least got some mileage out of when I was writing my dissertation, but I've not touched Pelican Book of the Renaissance or England and the Italian Renaissance
The Utterly Impartial History of Britain was my toilet book for a few weeks, and I still only got as far as 1066.
I'm also halfway through Michaelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by the same man who wrote Brunelleschi's Dome (and when I went searching for that, I found this book about the Empire State Building Empire: a Tale of Obsession, Betrayal and the Battle for an American Icon).
Still in history, I bought The Oxford History of the Crusades because I read and enjoyed Terry Jones' Crusades after playing the first Assassin's Creed (I still like that setting more than the Renaissance Italy setting, even though the Crusades will never see cleavage or the Pazzi Conspiracy). I'd love to learn a lot more about the Crusades (and hopefully even be able to teach it one fine day.)
There's some other non-fiction books
Last year, when I was on my mental health break, I bought 2 self help books: Self-Hypnosis: The Complete Guide to Better Health and Self-change and Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood. I got the second one for free since it was offensively graffitied throughout the book.
I've not gone near Woody and Nord: A Football Friendship, a book about two players who were trialists at Crystal Palace - one went on to represent England in international tournaments, the other dropped down into non-league.
The most that I read of British Politics was what I flicked through in Borders, but reading and knowing this is probably going to be quite useful for my job.
For fiction, I'm still dipping in and out of Richard Yate's short stories (which has probably the sexiest cover that I've seen on a book) and I think that I've still got stories in Susannah Clarke's Ladies of Grade Adieu to read.
I've only read bits and pieces of Best of Fantastic Four, I've not yet started Essential Fantastic Four #2 and it took me over a year to read Essential Fantastic Four #1
I've not even covered all of my old management textbooks that I'm still hanging on to. Yes, I'll absolutely need to know about public sector management or the management of change in my role as a lowly History teacher.
I'm expecting two books to arrive from Amazon this week. *I just added this book to my wish list as well.
What can we conclude from this? I'm going to go for "lack of focus". One of the points of the Brown model of ADD is that patients find it difficult to continue things. Sometimes good at starting, but very bad at following through. oops. That'll be me.
That guy/girl that you were going to call?
The number of that dojo because you were going to take up martial arts?
Well, I'm having that sort of issue with my bookcase right now.
One of the things that I love about books is that within each set of covers is the potential to change your life. Maybe in a huge way, maybe in a small way. That's possibly part of the reason that I'm so attracted to new books and new ideas. They're each a window to some new understanding or idea about the world.
I have two bookcases. both are very full. I buy lots of new books all the time.
I could probably clear a shelf of books that I've bought and never read.
I wonder what each book says about me. Let's start it the bookcase in the sitting room.
Art Books
Weapons of Mass Communication is an art book that I picked up at the Imperial War museum of the same name. I have a quite serious love on for war posters and vintage poster art. This explains the Retro Graphics Cookbook I spent ages eyeing this up in Borders and then picked it up from Amazon. This was because I wanted (and still do) to do some photoshop jiggery pokery. I want to do some form of graphic design (I'm currently listening to LoveNotes/Letter Bombs and I love the halftone printing design on the album cover (also on this David Aja cover for Invincible Iron Man). I had a few goes at doing some halftone stuff, but I've not really sat down and done anything with the book at all. Jack Vettriano - A Man's World is another art book that I bought when I went to the Vettriano exhibition at the Old Course hotel in St Andrews. Not opened it since I got home. I have at least flicked through Trans Am Champions
I've got loads of History books. There's Renaissance Florence, which I at least got some mileage out of when I was writing my dissertation, but I've not touched Pelican Book of the Renaissance or England and the Italian Renaissance
The Utterly Impartial History of Britain was my toilet book for a few weeks, and I still only got as far as 1066.
I'm also halfway through Michaelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by the same man who wrote Brunelleschi's Dome (and when I went searching for that, I found this book about the Empire State Building Empire: a Tale of Obsession, Betrayal and the Battle for an American Icon).
Still in history, I bought The Oxford History of the Crusades because I read and enjoyed Terry Jones' Crusades after playing the first Assassin's Creed (I still like that setting more than the Renaissance Italy setting, even though the Crusades will never see cleavage or the Pazzi Conspiracy). I'd love to learn a lot more about the Crusades (and hopefully even be able to teach it one fine day.)
There's some other non-fiction books
Last year, when I was on my mental health break, I bought 2 self help books: Self-Hypnosis: The Complete Guide to Better Health and Self-change and Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood. I got the second one for free since it was offensively graffitied throughout the book.
I've not gone near Woody and Nord: A Football Friendship, a book about two players who were trialists at Crystal Palace - one went on to represent England in international tournaments, the other dropped down into non-league.
The most that I read of British Politics was what I flicked through in Borders, but reading and knowing this is probably going to be quite useful for my job.
For fiction, I'm still dipping in and out of Richard Yate's short stories (which has probably the sexiest cover that I've seen on a book) and I think that I've still got stories in Susannah Clarke's Ladies of Grade Adieu to read.
I've only read bits and pieces of Best of Fantastic Four, I've not yet started Essential Fantastic Four #2 and it took me over a year to read Essential Fantastic Four #1
I've not even covered all of my old management textbooks that I'm still hanging on to. Yes, I'll absolutely need to know about public sector management or the management of change in my role as a lowly History teacher.
I'm expecting two books to arrive from Amazon this week. *I just added this book to my wish list as well.
What can we conclude from this? I'm going to go for "lack of focus". One of the points of the Brown model of ADD is that patients find it difficult to continue things. Sometimes good at starting, but very bad at following through. oops. That'll be me.