Wednesday 5 August 2009

The Orange Shelf


Following the introduction of my white shelf I thought I would, in a creative spurt, temporarily add an orange shelf to my bookcases. I have always wanted an orange shelf and one day this will become a permanent addition but solely for your viewing pleasure -whilst I was in a bored and restless mood- I tried it out for a thematic sense of what it would look like. I like what I see. I created it quickly and with more time and effort involved for permanence I would alternate a few titles; I forgot that my copy of The Women's Room by Marilyn French (this edition) was orange and it would make a welcome edition in the future.

As you should be able to see, despite the glare, a number of the orange books are old orange Penguins, which isn't surprising. Some of these live on the short story volumes shelf, a couple on the shelf that houses Colette's books, another where Virginia Woolf likes to reside.

A few of these orange books can be found normally on the drama shelf and two belong with the other Angela Carter books on a shelf devoted to her alone. Bruno Bettleheim's The Uses of Enchantment should be on the fairy tale shelf and both The Madwoman in the Attic and Cunt: a Declaration of Independence (yes, I really do have a book with that title) come from the shelf reserved for feminist writings.

Last, but not least, The Other Hand and The Bone People both reside on my immediate reading pile, not on a shelf as yet.

This, readers, is my orange shelf -or something resembling it- once I have one.


29 comments:

verity said...

Lovely! I LOVE Astonishing Splashes of Colour. The author went to the same school as me.

Paperback Reader said...

Thanks, Verity! It's actually one of my many books still to be read; I'd also like to read her newer books. I love that she went to the same school as you! My friend from Inverness went to the same school as Alan Warner, a very good Scottish writer, but I have no such claim to fame.

verity said...

I've read (and got) her later books. But that one is best. Think it was shortlisted/longlisted for the Booker.

I wouldn't have come across her if it wasn't for my friend Emily who gave me the book for a birthday present (20th birthday I think) - think that was the last time anyone bought me a book. Inspired choice.

Paperback Reader said...

It was shortlisted for the Booker and the Orange, I think.

An inspired choice indeed and probably a very special book to you if it was a gift from Emily.

You have convinced me to read this as soon as I can (my TBR pile on the other side of Bookerthon is still huge!) I have always meant to but it's one that I suspect I may find difficult to read, for reasons I may or may not go into when I review it.

Unknown said...

Very good! I don't think my orange shelf would be as big as yours, but it is nice to have them in some sort of order!

Paperback Reader said...

I have a Penguin boxset (well, my boyfriend has a Penguin boxset) of the complete Sherlock Holmes in replication of the classic orange & cream stripes that didn't fit. Who knew I had so many orange books? I think I need a bigger shelf for when I do it for real.

claire said...

Love it! I did rearrange my books by colour twice before but found my brain gets muddled when I don't alphabetize by author. But I do love looking at those.

Paperback Reader said...

Thanks, Claire!

I have a good memory for where I've shelved my books; all of my shelves are double-stacked and I even know which shelf the books at the back are on so it doesn't cause me any problems.

The magnitude of alphabetising my books and the energy I would have to exert moving them all whenever I added a new book to my collection is too much for me to cope with.

Ana S. said...

Very nice! I love orange Penguins. Not surprised to see the Gilbert and Gubar, as well as the Carters :D

How did you like The Alchemist? A few friends tried to get me into Coelho, and they insisted so much I read 4 of his books...sadly, I hated them all :(

Paperback Reader said...

Ana, those are pretty much the staples of my collection ;).

I read The Alchemist quite a few years ago now and loved its message but it's the only book by him I have read; it's not the type of book I normally read but something about it struck me - I'm all for following your dreams.

Darlene said...

Another enthusiastic vote for Astonishing Splashes of Colour! I recommend it quite often at the library and almost always hear back from people that they loved it too. The orange shelf looks so cheery and I'm intrigued by The Madwoman in the Attic.

Paperback Reader said...

Darlene, it is cheery, isn't it? It is like a dose of Vitamin C!

Okay, so now I am definitely reading Astonishing Splashes of Colour; I've waited too long as it is.

The Madwoman in the Attic is feminist literary criticism about Nineteeth Century Female Writers and it is a wonderful textbook.

JoAnn said...

I love the orange shelf...could probably make one of my own as I have many old Penguins, too!

Anonymous said...

Thats another wonderful coloured shelf with some slightly colourful language lol. How do you know where certain books are though? Or do you only have ones you have read up there?

Paperback Reader said...

JoAnn, I love the old orange Penguins! I have so many Penguins.

Simon, colourful on all ways lol. I keep all of my read and unread books together and just have an amazing memory for where they all are. It usually doesn't take me that long to be able to put my finger on any given book, which is a change from when I was in Glasgow and they lived in boxes and I could never find what I was looking for - most frustrating!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Very fun! Have you seen pictures from that one bookstore (for some reason I'm thinking its in San Francisco) that once a year closes down and reshelves everything according to color, making a rainbow like effect? The images are fantastic.

Stacy said...

I was wondering if 'that' word was the one I thought I was reading:) The Madwoman in the Attic caught my interest. I haven't found any white-spined books but I know I have some oranges.

Paperback Reader said...

Carl, I think I have seen those images in the past but I really need to search and view them again! Thanks.

BookPsmith, your eyes were not deceiving you! I considered omitting it but I don't like to censor my books ;).
The Madwoman in the Attic is a fantastic book, especially when you like books about books.
I think that orange books are far more common than white.

Anonymous said...

That's pretty cool - I don't think I have even half that many orange books (quick glance at my bookshelf shows three)!

Paperback Reader said...

I'll be having you purposefully looking for orange books in no time, anothercookie! I'm quite surprised by how many I actually have.

StuckInABook said...

Wonderful! I am tempted to change all my books to colour shelving... but then I don't think I'd ever find where anything was.

Paperback Reader said...

Simon, I find it easy to find my books but then they are not all colour coded yet... I would like to have them all one day in a rainbow around the room. I am fairly good at being able to identify books by their spine alone.

Anonymous said...

Think you've already started - almost bought Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas yesterday, and then didn't, because well I have loads of books to get through at the moment!

Damn.

I did get The Other Hand by post Friday though, so... that's another orange book to my collection!

Paperback Reader said...

Ha! I have also felt the lure of more orange books... actually, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas will have to be one of them at some point.

I will be reviewing The Other Hand tomorrow.

Carl V. Anderson said...

I can't believe my memory was actually right. It was a store in San Fran. Here are a couple of articles about it. In the first one you can view a gallery with 4 other pictures in it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4182224

http://mysillyartlife.blogspot.com/2007/12/books-arranged-by-color.html

Mark David said...

Wow, this is really cool. First the white shelf (my favorite), and now this. Get's me thinking of how I'll arrange my books when they get plenty :)

Paperback Reader said...

Thanks, Mark :). The white shelf is one my favourite too! I think once the books are really plenty (like an entire room's worth in a lottery-win house where I can have a library) then I will arrange them all by colour. Other colour-themed shelves are forthcoming in my posts.

Mark David said...

Nice. I'll be waiting to see those next shelves :)

Paperback Reader said...

Carl, apologies but I somehow missed your comment with links. The Adobe bookshop looks amazing! Such a fabulous concept.

Mark, I've posted my silver shelf and there will be others periodically over the next couple of weeks.