On The Shelf – Big Books – 9/9/2018

I’ve been blogging now for about 9 months – my first post was published on 12/9/2017 – and I’ve enjoyed every single minute of the time I’ve put into this little site.  It’s given me the chance – after so many years – to finally write again outside the boundaries of memoranda, email and PowerPoint.  It’s also helped me to double down on passions that have been with me all my life and that have defined me – reading and books.

My only challenge – one that is always lurking in the back of my mind – is the limited amount of time – between job and family and friends – I have to pursue this hobby.  I can usually carve out time to post on the weekends but I’ve been limited in my ability to do so by the amount of reading I can do during the week.  If life allowed, I’d be posting every day but that’s just not been possible.  The way I’ve approached this blog, my ability to write is limited by the time I have to read – a mutually reinforcing frustration.

It’s led me to find ways to post that aren’t linked to my ability to finish books.  I’ve added a category for movies and television called On The Screen and posted on topics as varied as “Altered Carbon”, “Chocolat” and “Avengers:  Infinity War” and “Tag”.  I’ve worked on my “Principiis” posts – allowing me to write on influences that have always been important to me but that I haven’t always taken the time to step back and examine in depth, I’ve added a Scribbles category in order to post creative work and I’ve used the On My Mind category to explore, from time to time, current and relevant topics.

That’s all helped me to remain productive but I’m also thinking about new ways to create the chance to write and I have an idea that I’d like to try.  I’m a collector as well as a reader of books.  I’ve been building a collection for almost 30 years and – for the 1st time in my life – I have the luxury of dedicating a single room in this old house to shelving and displaying that collection.  I posted some images of that room in this Book Nooks post several months ago:

http://booksofbrian.com/on-my-mind-book-nooks-6-30-2018/

This is likely an old man’s sentiment but I can’t even begin to tell  you how satisfying it is to have a room that I can retreat to, coffee or scotch in hand, and just read – surrounded by all the books that have been important enough to me over the years that I’ve wanted to buy hard cover editions and hold them close.

So…as a collector, I’m going to start a series of On The Shelf posts called Big Books – short posts that take only a few moments to write – which spotlight what, for me, are the biggest, most important books in my collection and why.  It’ll give me a way to put up a quick post, talk about something important to me and that’s not tied to the progress I’m making with my reading.  No idea how this will work out but – as always – I’d welcome any comments or feedback – both positive and negative.

Cheers,

Brian