Getting to know someone.
I’ve always thought that you can tell things about a person that you don’t really learn from directly talking with them simply by looking at the books they’ve decided to keep in their libraries. The same holds true from (I’m now dating myself even more than referring to paper books) looking at someone’s CD or record collection and, as the saying goes, from the friends they keep.
Our move taught us that we have way too much stuff. Perhaps not as much stuff as most Americans, but there can be little doubt that we are Americans (you should have heard some of the stories the movers recalled about US embassy and military personnel). So, despite the fact we did a big clean-out before leaving the US, and left a bunch of stuff back in Braga (granted, most of that was bought to fill out a way-too-large house for the two of us), we have a lot of culling to do. Some of it will get resolved when we’re able to load up the bimobil with the stuff intended for it and that we’ll need to be considered prepared for our adventures (the rest will have to go), as will clothes I haven’t worn in ages . . . but not the stuff for cold weather, I’m keeping that.
Amongst the boxes of “gotta figure out where these go” are several boxes of books. Yes, I’ve culled my books, probably to be donated to the Didam library if they accept English language books. I suspect they’ll want the Portugal and US travel books, but who knows about the others. Choosing between good books is . . . painful. I even included some photography books that I did not consider essential.
As for the ones that remain, I have a bookshelf in my office that now has a mix of books much more diverse than it held in Braga. The other big cabinet/bookshelf that was in my office in Braga is now downstairs and, given its size, most of my photography books are down there.
If my thinking is right, they say a lot about me. So here goes (I’ll save you the effort of having to read the names the photographers and listen them from right to left):
Steve McCurry; Paul Wakefield; Paul Strand; Ansel Adams; Edward Weston; Brett Weston; John Sexton; Henri Cartier-Bresson; Charlie Waite; Michael Kenna; Bruce Percy; Magnum Photographers; William Eugene Smith; Q.T. Luong. Ok, I left out the World History of Photography, should I have said “all photographers”?
Those are the taller fine art books.
There’s a shelf above that one that has some of the shorter books and is likely just as informative:
Ansel Adams; Charlie Waite; David Ward; Charlie Waite/David Ward/Joe Cornish; Brett Weston; Michael Kenna; Joe Cornish/David Norton/ Paul Wakefield; Roy Decarava; Paul Caponigro; Edward Weston.
The bookshelf in Ann’s office has most of the Joe Cornish books (naturally), Ansel’s beloved Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, Bruce Percy, William Neill and a couple of Peter Dombrovskis books.
I’ll leave it to you to decide what they say about me (or Ann). Then again, what’s on my other bookshelves might make you wonder about me.