Sunday, July 27, 2008

Infinite Libraries

haight bookstore

If our house was hexagonal-shaped, then it could be possibly included in Borges's Infinite Library, but, sadly, its solidly rectangular. Picking up many of the volumes, I get the feeling that the text is incomprehensible, like the books in his Library.

A couple of days ago, our apartment only contained a few hundred books and my stuff. Yesterday my parents helped move Dutch completely out of his bachelor pad. As my father left me in a living room with stacks of boxes reaching to the ceiling, he jokingly said that our marriage could officially begin, that the stuff the judge said was "window dressing" compared to the reality of our stuff mingling together under one roof.

5 comments:

Franny said...

If you need help developing a cataloging system, or putting your books in order according to the Dewey Decimal system, I'm your gal. It's what I do.

M. L. Benedict said...

You inspired me to count our books...only about 1300, not counting music scores, computer how-tos, binders, borrowed books or manuscript in binders. Please bolt your bookcases to the wall or do not stand nearby in case of earthquake!

Molly said...

Yeah Carmen, good to see the steep bookshelves up. reminds me of what your room looked like (now my room) with the long bookshelf.

"may the smell of your thousands of old books bless your new home and marriage"

Colleen Franklin said...

talking to Eleven, I agree: we're always going to have books, always wanting more of them. The influx will always be greater then the outflow. So what do you do? Bookshelves, good ones, become more and more important, and widely sought after, and other things take the back seat, like....chairs, and couches, and beds. Who needs 'em? I wonder if our old hymnals are now bumping around your apartment. (Dutch's white elephant gift...)

Carmen said...

Oh yes, the hymnals are not going anywhere.

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