"It has long been my belief that everyone's library contains an Odd Shelf. On this shelf rests a small, mysterious corpus of volumes whose subject matter is completely unrelated to the rest of the library, yet which, upon closer inspection, reveals a good deal about its owner."
-- Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman.
What's on your Odd Shelf?
Here is a sampling from mine:
Urgent 2nd Class: Creating Curious Collage, Dubious Documents, and Other Art from Ephemera by Nick Bantock
Creative Correspondence by Judy Jacobs
Collage Lost and Found: Creating Unique Projects With Vintage Ephemera by Giuseppina Cirincione
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.
The first teaser is my favourite and I agree completely with it. My TT: http://www.rundpinne.com/2010/04/teaser-tuesdays-in-shadow-of-cypress.html
ReplyDeleteInteresting that two of your books have to do with collage. I used to do a lot of magazine cut out collage when I was a kid. Might be fun to get back to it.
ReplyDeleteMy Teaser Tuesday
is here.
Jennifer -- Thanks for visiting and leaving a link. I'll come by.
ReplyDeleteAlice -- Really all three of them are collage books. I have a secret obsession with mail art, which really is collage. I love it.
Thanks for the link.
Fadiman's "Ex Libris" is actually on my odd shelf along with "La petite fille aux allumettes n'est pas morte" (an accordian-folded poem about The Little Matchstick Girl tucked inside a matchbook), and a book called "Vitalogy" that I picked up at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.
ReplyDeleteI've been enjoying your Teaser Tuesdays!
Dormouse -- What a great Odd Shelf! I love the matchbook book. Cool!
ReplyDeleteGreat teaser. I am going to have to check out my shelves now for the "odd".
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful and very true quote. I think I probably have more than one shelf of odd books. Two that spring to mind are a memoir called "fifty glorious years in bidford upon avon" (author name rather forgotten I am afraid) and a dreadful play called "The Querulous Queens" by Madge Pemberton.... I bought them both for a research project which will one day be explained on my blog..... they are neither of them in the best ever list of reads and if any one inspected my collection, they would assume that I had been having a mad half hour when I bought them!
ReplyDeleteLovely funny post, thanks for sharing
Hannah
Nise' -- Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHannah -- Yours are definitely a couple of Odd Shelf choices. Funny!
My Odd Shelf includes Elements of Style, Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, and Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg. Oh, and my undergrad thesis on Frederick Douglass. Seems like I'm an English nut who has a passion for fairies? Everything else is fiction...
ReplyDeleteCool teasers, but you only needed one. :P I hope that you will enjoy your book. [My Tuesday Teaser]
ReplyDeleteJaunita -- Yes, grammar and fairies makes for a very odd Odd Shelf!
ReplyDeleteLori -- ?? That was only one teaser. I could have picked many more -- it is a great book. Thanks for the link!
That's such a great teaser! And so true! Although I think I have many, many Odd Shelves in my personal library. But for me the oddest is probably my huge cookbook collection, since I've never really been much of a cook! Not sure if that really reveals much about me. I keep thinking maybe someday I'll turn myself into the next Julia Child, but I know time's a-wastin'!
ReplyDeleteI have so many odd books and they are not all on one shelf. I will review a really odd one soon, an excursion by a travel writer into the realm of crime fiction!
ReplyDeleteHere's my Teaser Tuesday.
Harvee
You have the coolest odd shelf! I got rid of most of my oddities at a garage sale this weekend in preparation for moving. I will miss them, can I live vicariously through yours?
ReplyDeleteGreat teaser :) I remember liking 'Ex Libris' so much that I gave it to all my bookish friends for Christmas that year. I keep it on my 'odd' shelf with Jamaica Kincaid's 'My Garden (Book).'
ReplyDeleteSounds like something I would read.
ReplyDeletehere's mine
I guess my Korea shelf is a little different. It would be odd for back home, but for here, it's not that odd. i wish I really did have a wildly odd shelf.
ReplyDeleteGosh...I LOVE Ex Libris!