MY BOOKSHELVES
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 10:14AM 
Anyone who knows me well knows that I like to keep a clean house. Like to, but don't. So why then did I draw this little scene, thus exposing my miserable failure to live up to my ideals, you ask? You impertinent twit! How dare you ask me such questions, even in my own head! The truth is this: yesterday afternoon, in the face of an impending thunderstorm, I shut down my computer so that it wouldn't be suddenly converted to a giant platinum Cheeto by that Rascal in the sky who, if He exists, loves nothing better than sprinkling terror and suffering like sugar onto breakfast cereal among his devoted followers, of whom He demands nothing more than total devotion, sending up tender supplication as they dodge His meteors. Is this a dysfunctional relationship, or what? Anyways, where was I? Oh yes. So I turned my attention to what I can do while I wait for the storm to pass that involved the smallest expenditure of energy on my part. So I turned my head ever so slightly, and voila! A sketching opportunity! The result of which you see before you. Twit.
By the way, the topmost item on the right is a print by the famous Amanda Kavanagh, whose work can be purchased here. You might think it's hard to tell what the artwork is like from my rough sketch, but it's actually pretty accurate.
Reader Comments (22)
Looks just like mine, down to the stacks and the original Kavanagh overhead.
That book, third one down from the Kavanagh, looks familiar.
It's Frommer's New Orleans travel guide. Familiar?
By the way, the top book is Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, below it Galway Kinnell's Strong Is Your Hold. Both highly recommended.
Yep, the Frommer's. That's it. I thought the top book was one of Sarah Vowell's - just wasn't sure which one. Thanks for clearing that up.
On the floor, just below and to the left of the Recycle book, there is what looks like a very angry you on the carpet. I mean you look Greek-myth-angry. Or Roald-Dahl-illustration-annoyed. Dude, what happened in your psyche to make you represent yourself so thusly? And in carpet form?
I don't think that's him on the floor, PCB (though I see the grimace you're talking about). It's just that flowery shirt he wears when he has those Tennessee Williams moments.
Are some of your books screened in?
I belonged to a speaker's group (more as an artist) with all these famous people. Once Arthur Frommer left his badge on the table in front of me. They said I could have it, so I wore it around. Maybe i still have it--it's hard for me to part with items of famous pepole.
(Surprised anyone knows of him).
Oh, the poet Galway Kinnell. I did a sketch of him, and he signed it. I put it in a show in D.C. The Jewish Mayor of Dublin and the Arts Minister of Ireland were there. The Arts Minister and i cd not afford to go to the Banquet. So we made fun in the hall. So I took him to see my Galway Kinnell and I told him I did not know if he was actually of Galway, Ireland. "The Arts Minister of Ireland, a very jolly and handsome person, said "Well, we all use what we can."
The next year I was sitting behind Galway Kinnell
at his reading, and I told him that story. He was laughing hysterically.
Then, I saw Galway later that night at a reception, and he was still telling it to people and laughing..
The only thing I recognise is that bloody fan. Pardon the French but it must be the 77th fan she’s brought into our tiny abode. The pocket fans I’ve got no complaints about, even quite novel the ones with the flashing lights and the one with the crocodile clip you affix to your on-the-right-way baseball cap did make me chuckle but this king of fans with it’s multi-positional and various speed settings I could never avoid bumping into or tripping over, even stone cold sober, bright white (and blue, it looks identical otherwise in the drawing) as it is. I put it in the garage with all her other items of [hopefully] no return, despite her annoyingly unfailing memory.
I don't believe the books are screened in, Rennie.
That there is cross hatching.
My book shelves look much like yours, only the floor has papers and book stacks beside them. Your place looks great and your sketch is a delight. We have had lots of thunder and lightening here and I agree turn off the electronics and draw!
How ever did you get in to see my bookshelves??
That sketch is better than.....and the books contain ......a million words.
Carry-on........
Frank, I thought you were talking about a bloody folding fan.
I was intrigued. With flashing lights and crocodile clips? I must have overlooked it, in that rich assortment, I thought.. Had to go back and look. Am downcrested (downfallen?).
Haha yeah they're those little electric ones. You get them in what we call pound shops where everything costs £1. What with all the other wierd and wonderful stuff they procure (alongside run-of-the-mill stuff like spectacles and toothpaste) from far off places I wouldn't be suprised if they did do a traditional folding fan with flashing lights!
If there were a bloody folding fan, I think we should tuck it right there into a book on the top shelf. How did this bloody fan get into a bookshelf? How cd someone have been killed with a simple, non-embellished paper fan? And, like Poe's Dupin, we shd surmise it was hidden right in plain sight. But the mystery is where is the victim. (I always forget, what is a Habeus corpus, anyway?). No nearby u-rangatan suspects, as Poe wd have it. And one of those wd not kill w. a fan. What humans, then, have been here?
This story is copyrighted right now.
They murdered 'I got my mojo workin' at the drop-in jam session this afternoon by racing away playing it way too fast, I think guilty until proven imbecilic is a good idea.
Any rewrites to me of the copyrighted "The Bloody Fan" are welcome. I am setting up columns now with headings like Point of View, Consistency of Tone, etc.
Hey, I've looked everywhere for your email address but I can't find it! I would like to commission you to draw something for my dad. I don't know if you do stuff like that or not, but please email me and I can tell you what I have in mind. Thanks!!
oh what a lovely little surprise. Thanks w.
love galway kinnell!