Your Bookshelf in Parallel Universe R

[sartorias]

zornhau has the coolest idea that he nipped from a friend.

In universe R, what's on your bookshelf? Here are a few of mine:

Comments

[asakiyume]

I LOVE your alternative 19th century. Esp. the part about Keats and the Brontes. The thought of these early-to-death authors living long and fruitful lives fills me with joy.

Can't play, must work, but mucho love for this!

[avengangle]

On my bookshelf I have the book on orchestration that Ravel finally got around to writing, just before he died.

I've also got a letter from Beethoven explaining to the world who the Immortal Beloved is, and guess what? My Beethoven professor (who has since passed away) was right!

(Yeah, OK, I'm still a music nerd.)

[sartorias]

I want to borrow that Ravel book, hoo yeah.

Not sure I could handle knowing who the Beloved was--the B. being such a weird, weird guy.

[avengangle]

Well, maybe in this wonderful alternate reality, he was a little less weird, and he could have married her. Or something.

[sartorias]

That's right! In that universe, he didn't have the headaches or ear problems, his social ills melted away. He was as productive as ever, despite his happy home life and many musical children.

[mrissa]

In Universe R, I really enjoy late-period Harper Lee and Janet Kagan. (Consecutively, not concurrently.)

[sartorias]

Oh my goodness yes. Especially the former.

[mrissa]

And in Universe R, there's not just Aspects all finished, but a sequel to Growing Up Weightless and half a dozen other things. And more coming still, in this Universe R.

[sartorias]

Indeed, Aspects is a best seller, which obtained enough cash for him to not only keep working, but to establish his colony for writers, with cottages for any artist who needs time away from the real world in order to finish a project.

[sartorias]

I can see it right up there on the shelf, illustrated by the young Burne-Jones, before he went off to experiment with the moving pictures, and began creating what he called filmic novels--storylines written by, among others, E.F. Benson, Anthony Hawkins, Oscar Wilde. (This was before Coco Chanel obtained his studio and redesigned the medium.)

[jaunthie]

Hm. Can I add Austen not dying in 1819 to Universe R? Because I would love to read the completed "The Watsons" and "Sanditon", not to mention the brilliant update/reinvention of Northanger Abbey she put together after reading Frankenstein... ;)

I'd also have "Stones in My Pockets" on my Universe R bookshelf, Woolf's essay on the perils - and necessity - of feeling deeply as an artist, right next to A Room of One's Own. And count me in on the late-period Janet Kagan...wish we didn't need Universe R for that.

[sartorias]

Yes yes, all these are right there on the shelf, in richly designed and produced editions.

[jaunthie]

Oh good! And in the recent-releases mystery section, there's Kate Ross' ongoing works to read through.

Golly. I could browse in these Universe R bookshelves all day (and let's not even think about what we might find in the photography gallery, the art gallery...). Thanks for bringing this up!

[sartorias]

This is just the sort of game that's fun to bring to mind if one is stuck in a long line, or a traffic jam, or something similar.