BOOKSHELVES UPDATE 2 - FIVE NEWS PARTICIPANTS ON "BOOKSHELVES POST"

BOOKSHELVES UPDATE

I am so glad because I have now FIVE NEWS participants on the Bookshelves Post! The 16th participant is Leena (Eastern Finland) from Joensuu Daily Photo, Eastern Finland , the 17th participant is Merisi (Vienna) from Merisi's Vienna for Beginners , and the 18th participant is Naomi (Los Angeles) from Here in the Hills. Naomi loved the Bookshelves idea and just now update her post with Bookshelves Part 2. The 19th participant is Alice (France) from Arradon Daily Photo . The 20th participant is Melanie (Arizona) from Happy Thoughts. Thanks Leena, Merisi, Naomi, Alice and Melanie! I have much pleasure to invite you all to see these beautiful bookshelve and to make a visiting to theirs blogs, too!



16. Leena, from Joensuu Daily Photo, Eastern Finland . The great love for books came from long time ago, as you can see on Leena's narrative: "The Second World War belongs in this way also to my books: My dad's home was near Lake Ladoga in Karelia, but Russians took this part of Finland after war and my grandfather carried a lot of books with him to his new home.They had to leave all other things there, but books were so dear to my grandfather, that he actually carried them in his back. I have now those books in this bookshelves as my treasure. Books are mainly poem books and journey writings and very big, old Bible with impressive pictures. And so many and different kind books bought by ourselves and also gift books are in this main bookshelves and in smaller ones in other rooms. We all love books. My son started to read as four years old and now my grandchildren are all reading much in spite of TV or Internet.But now we have decided to use more a library, I think, it's very reasonable now."



17. Merisi from Merisi's Vienna for Beginners. Each shelf and section of Merisi’s bookshelves has an interesting story on it and also shows her preferences. About this photo, Merisi tells us: “I moved to Vienna from overseas, in the summer of 2005, and in the year before that I sorted out and gave away about three dozen boxes of books. These are some of my survivors, plus some new ones I bought since I moved to Vienna." There is also in her library a bookshelve for Wordy Section: “Weaving in and out of different languages, the "wordy" section is my base for daily living, even though nowadays I use online sources just as often.” Merisi has two shelfs to the writer Arno Schmidt: “Arno Schmidt, a German writer, some call him the German James Joyce, (and I would agree), during his lifetime, has labored in obscurity, and poverty. Thirty years after his death, he's slowly making in way into the consciousness of the literary establishment. Fortunately, some of his works have already been translated into English by the great American translator John E. Woods, and there are also excellent French translations." There is a bookshelve to store the Heavy Tomes: “James to Joyce, Neruda to Nabokov, Kant to Banville. As you can see, (...) shelving my books, I do not follow any conventional system, yet there is a method to it, my very own.”

18. Naomi from Here in the Hills. Naomi had been working on this Bookshelves post for weeks (she had some sort of technical problems) and as you can see in her blog, she really made a good job on it! She tell us that “I had no idea that doing this post would lead me down such a path of nostalgia and great memories....but, I am having a really wonderful time looking at these shelves in a deeper way”. Let’s read what Naomi says: "I have one whole room, pretty much devoted to my books. There are books in other places, too... my Bedroom, the floor, and storage.... But I am only going to share the books and the shelves in my Den/Library. (…) I had these shelves built over forty years ago, and they grew as the gentleman was building them because I realized it would be lovely to surround the two couches with books, and I loved the idea of the three walls being covered with books---where possible.... And as you can see, over on the left, there are some built in cabinets below the book cases, which hold my Record Collection....(Before CD's, folks....I've lived here a long time, remember...lol), and my Sheet Music Collection, as well as the Stereo, Tape, and CD player, plus a Turntable to play those old records.... As you can see, there are a lot of CD's on the top of the cabinets over there...I must do something about this. What, I don't know. But these CD's are covering up quite a few wonderful books. And up top over on the left, you can see one of the four speakers that are in this room. You can tell by the size how old they are....lol....And as you can see there are quite a few other things on these shelves---knick knacks, photographs and other things, too....”

Naomi, from Here in the Hills update her post about Bookshelves and you will enjoy to see the Bookshelves Parte 2

Here, a passage of her narrative: "I have a very extensive library of Theatre Books, and many are invaluable tools for research and a great source of history, too....like this wonderful set of books below called Theatre World. Theatre World began in 1945 and each volume lists, (with pictures and complete extensive stats), everyone connected creatively---even understudies and replacements, etc., for each and every show that opened on Broadway that particular year. It doesn't matter if it only played one night...If it opened on Broadway, it's there in the book!

These volumes are a fantastic source of information in every way, including in the back of each book, little thumbnail sketches of some of the principal people connected to many of the shows for that particular year. The same people who started Theatre World, started Screen World some years later.....and I have some of these volumes, too.

That photograph that is sitting in front of these books is a "cast" snapshot of the two casts from our revival of "Spoon River" in 2002. I am in the emerald green blouse over there on the right side.....

I was the Arranger and Musical Director for this production and I was also 'in' the second cast playing the very same part I did on Broadway in the fall of 1963, 'Girl Singer'. (I had to go on six times in the first part of the run at Theatre West....till I replaced myself...lol) Betty Garrett directed it, and Lee Meriwether, (in front of me) was in it as well as Bridget Hanley, (bottom left)...Betty is right in the center of that front row. Also, behind me in the gray suit---second from the end on the right, is Andy Parks, Betty's son, who was in the 2nd cast, as well....This brings back very fond memories.

My interests have always been Theatre, Movies, Music and Art, among other things, so there are a lot of books on all these subjects."




19. Alice from Arradon Daily Photo, also loves books and sends her Bookshelve photo, too! "I do like reading and share the books I enjoy with others. I often give books instead of flowers and I often ask for books to be given to me for Christmas or my birthday. I have learned to read when I was 4 with my brother who was 11 and spent a long time to read stories to me. Many translations in my bookshelves, I don't really like present French novels and prefer American authors (Russell Banks, Wallace Stegner, Jim Harrison...) and French classical authors. My dream would be to be able to read in English, so I need another life to improve!

20. Melanie from Happy Thoughts loves books and her books are all over her house: "Books are like friends, I hate to read the last few pages and the story is over. I will completely loose myself in the story. I have my mom to thank for my love of reading. The first book I remember reading was when I had the chicken pox and had to stay in bed. The book was Bambi before Disney made the movie. I still have it and it has many dogeared pages. Here are some pictures of bookcases and books from all over our house. I have more stacks in various locations around the house. I usually read a few books at the same time, I always keep one in my purse because you never know when you get stuck waiting forever at the doctor's office. The photo above is our floor to ceiling bookcase. All of my old books are in here. I also saved most of my two boys books from when they were kids. We now have 3 grandchildren so I've had to box up some of my books. The shelves at the bottom hold DVDs and VHS tapes and bins for the grandchildren's smaller toys."

You can see the others fifteen participants on Many Books Together post.