LIBRARY
How do you organize your books?
The usual way, I begin alphabetically. Then I’m flummoxed. First of all, I buy more books than I will ever read. I might dip into and out of them. The books outgrow their letter on the shelf. I start moving books to the next shelf; there’s no room. I stack them. I put nonfiction here, fiction there. Some writers do both. Together or apart? Together is auteur theory. The stacks get higher, I can’t see my books. As a kid-reader, I thought a library was the great thing to build in life. Now, unless you have a huge house with enormous rooms, this desire leads to mayhem and depression. Now, I give away books I didn’t particularly like or will never read again or can easily find. With digital, with online and actual libraries, do I need to keep so many books, though I have a small hoarder in me. Once, I believed, apart from my love of books, having a library meant I was intelligent, well read, etc. Now I know that is absurd. I will never ever part with many books. Maybe I’ll have them cremated with me.
–Lynne Tillman
another eye opens 