Lidcat_aphanisis

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Apr 14, 2007
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really is Cat
Over mijn bibliotheek
My flat is literally constructed out of books.

(Three and a half hours later):
Okay, I'm poor, and have to get by off the whiff of an oily rag, to be prosaic. Hence most of my books have been hunted down in these fashions: secondhand bookshops ($1 bookshelf only, pretty much); op shops; books people are chucking out; books people have given me. I can assure you I am, unfortunately, very much unable to cruise into your average sexily intellectual urban bookstore with polished wooden floors and halogen lighting and be like, ooh, that looks cool, I'll have that. Or, I've always wanted that.

Instead, to invoke another cliche, I must strike when opportunity presents itself, and otherwise ferret out coolness in dark corners.

Um, naturally I can't really afford to pay to be a member, though having whopped on a significant amount of my book collection in a few hours and seeing the kind of linkages that can be summoned up, I have to say I'm already majorly infatuated... In fact, why damn with faint praise, this is unreal. It's fucking great. It's just... I read so much. It's what I pretty much do most of the time. Usually even when I'm watching tv I'm kinda reading something at the same time. I read when I eat. Etc. I have the appropriately pallid sun-starved complexion and saucer eyes of the chronic bookworm.

So a few things anyhow. This is probably about half of what I have. I'll pretend I'm not thinking with regret of books that I lent out etc or something similar that in one way or another are no longer in my possession. Me, bitter? ;) Um yeah, basically I kinda wanted to stay true to the imprint that I had, in that I wanted to recognise the book as mine through the provided image. However it would seem that in a lot of cases through the Amazon searches, a recent imprint would come with an image, but most old ones don't. Ugh, but there was something a little bit wrong with seeing the wrong cover up. So in some cases I have selected imprints based on there being an image, however the dates are entirely inconsistent, eg I possessed said book long before that imprint was released. Just to be nice and inconsistent, in other cases I held out for the one that I knew I had, eg Penguins from the 60s, but they have no cover, which feels less weird but looks boring. I have also noticed that there have been discrepancies which imply that a given book may have been set up with a different cover in differen countries yet during a given print, if that makes any sense. A lot of my Lonely Planets came up that way, it's a bit confusing. A lot of them are from around 2000 but I couldn't find most of the exact ones.

I do have a lot more books. Many more on travelling; books of photography; interior and/or object design, possibly historical; books on drawing, painting, graphic design, etc; books on writing, interviewing, publishing, editing; gardening books; books on embroidery; various how-to guides; more books on Chinese language as well as a number of other languages including Indonesian, Japanese, Latin, German; books on politics, feminism, cultural studies, critical theory, psychoanalysis, literary criticism, poststructuralims, discourse theory; a range of self-help books, most of which have been retained because i wish to critique the genre; also a range of magazines and periodicals including The Face, old school i-Ds, National Geographic, New Scientist, early 90s Cosmo's, Coeliac Society quarterlies, travel brochures, Wild and other publications devoted to outdoor explorative adventuring, computer mags. PLUS (I know... I know...) I keep a range of files that are archived including on film, different genres of music, bizarre SF-style advances in science, politics, a whole range of image types including fashion, graphic design, party fliers, portraits, etc as well as various exhibitions etc that go down.

I also do something that may cause many of you to blanch, which is that I now pretty much only like to read a book if I can write in it. I have kinda like a system of underlining and symbols which enable me to find stuff out of books when I think of something. They also help me engage with writing on a few different levels and over time, which in turn (one hopes) elucidates my own ideas, likes and dislikes and improves my own writing.

I guess at this point I'm surprised to feel a bit hopeful. I perceive that there are particular things I always look for in writing that are generally never referred to by anyone else. The things most narratives might be expected to deal with, but that truly hit home only rarely - subjectivity, articulation, surfacing, alienation, representation, critical self-enquiry - whether they have a muted and lush cloak of mystery or whether they are grounded in banal and recognisable everyday scenarios. Quintessentially the stuff that moves me is stuff that puts into words the unspeakable, the pre or post linguistic - stuff that you know about all too well, yet have never spoken about with anyone, read about, heard about, and perhaps haven't even articulated to yourself as such. I tend to find this overwhelmingly much more in women's writing, though men are obviously capable of engaging in this way. Um... yeah. I was into crime fiction quite a lot more than I am now, and I used to like sci-fi quite a lot too, but now I think what I like best is relatively subtle sub-gothic tones. I think that pretty much echoes throughout a lot of my collection of fiction, but I never really hear of such a term of reference. Having said that that's fine with me. I have a pretentious twerpy habit of disliking it when a spotlight is thrown on something I'm fond of... it makes me resistant. So hey. It's all here. As I write this, it's kinda like when I joined myspace: I'm writing without any real idea of anyone ever reading this. So if you are, um, hello.
Over mij
Why hello, I have just stumbled across this entity, and would be surprised, therefore, if anyone stumbles across me. But hey. What a brilliant concept. My books are largely responsible, as well as 2 bulging 4 drawer filing cabinets, for the lack of space in my home. I LOVE to read about things that interest me, and interesting writing about things which previously had no appeal.
Woonplaats
Sydney Orstrylia
Homepage
http://www.myspace.com/aphanisis
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