All this happened, more or less

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

I have read a lot of wonderful books that don’t necessarily enthrall me from the first sentence. Their gems are tucked away, requiring some time and patience to find. But it would seem that the most esteemed writers, past and present, know how to craft that ever-important first sentence.

The editors of American Book Review compiled a list of what they consider the most memorable first lines of novels.

My favorites from the list range from Charles Dickens to Vladimir Nabokov:

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. —Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain / By the false azure in the windowpane; —Vladimir Nabokov, The Pale Fire

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. —Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. —Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Do you have any favorites?

 

What books would fit in Rhode Island?

I suppose it’s clear by now that I love bookshelves. Even when I used to read Little House on the Prairie or Harry Potter, each book of the series had to be in the correct order and facing the right way. I think I have an organization complex.

Here are some bookshelves I’m loving on right now:

I Am America and So Can You

Swirls

Wine shelf

Check out this site for more cooky and sometimes dizzying bookshelf ideas.

Spaces for head cases

Over this morning’s cup of Joe, I found this insane little room:

Is it a bedroom? Is it a study area? A nap spot? An office?

Whatever it is, I kind of adore it. The book space! That art! The vintage decor! I bet somebody holes themselves away here and produces their most brilliant work. The only flaw: it’s very possible that Howard Hughes lived here at some point. (Also, is that a stuffed cat?)

Photo via Tumblr, found on Craft Idea Every Day.

Overheard in bookstores

“Are they going to turn those Lord of the Rings movies into books?”

“How can you sell these (sex) books? Kids can just read them and learn how to do everything!” —Little old lady

“What’s the reason for your return?” “It didn’t work.” —Customer looking down at sex book, gift receipt in hand

“Does it have vampires?” —Customer holding Crime and Punishment

“Do you have any Shakespeare translated into English?”

“I’m looking for Mockingjay. You know it…it’s the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“Do you have an audio book to learn sign language?”

“Where’s the 17 Day Diet at? I need to lose some weight fast.” —Customer slurping McDonald’s shake

“It’s a shame you’re closing but, hey, it’s not like we use a horse and buggy anymore, either.”

“I don’t know the author, but it’s called Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.”

I guess it must take a lot of patience to work in a bookstore. Have you ever asked a really dumb question in a bookstore? Fun fact: When the TV show Grey’s Anatomy premiered, I walked into my local library and asked for the name of the author who wrote Grey’s Anatomy. I have this compulsion to first read the book of anything made into a movie or TV show. The librarian looked at me as though I were a complete idiot, walked away, and came back and plopped down the giant Grey’s Anatomy medical book in front of me.

Honeycombs and the literal book shelf

Any lover of books who is also a neat freak (like myself) probably enjoys discovering new bookshelf ideas. I hate letting books pile in a corner. And indeed, I spent a little too much time this week assessing my handywoman know-how and wondering if I would be able to make make the following two bookshelves myself. Check them out. I think they’re adorable.

These honeycomb shelves were created from hexagonal shelves for free using salvaged cabinet doors and brackets. Do it yourself, courtesy of Design*Sponge.

The literal book shelf: How ironic. And fabulous. But now we are faced with a painstaking decision: What books do you relegate to holding up your other books? I rarely throw away books, but I might go with the dusty copy of Moths and Butterflies (LOL why do I own this?!) I found in my loft a while back. But, it unfortunately has no aesthetic appeal. Do it yourself, courtesy of Real Simple.

Wanderlust, wordlust and Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's gravestone at Saint Mary's Catholic Church, Rockville, Maryland

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, and a few other family members, were buried in the churchyard of the first and oldest church in Montgomery County, Maryland. Wouldn’t it be cool to live nearby, wander into the church and learn that one of the greatest American authors is buried there?

Photo via Flickr.

The most intimate portrait

Jane Mount paints people’s ideal bookshelves: your favorite books, books that changed your life, books that made you who you are.

Here’s what she has to say about the project: “Picking your ideal books is not an easy task (try it!), and the results are always enlightening. I think of this project as an intimate form of portraiture; a way to illustrate who the subject is on the inside instead of out. I love that a book is something created very personally and then mass-produced in order to affect many other people very personally. I paint them to turn them back into something very personal and intimate. In the age of the Kindle, it’s very satisfying.”

I adore this concept. What would your ideal bookshelf look like?

I think I would include books from every year of my life that changed my world. A Wrinkle in Time, Where the Red Fern Grows (to this day, I’ve re-read this book the most), The Fountainhead, An Invisible Sign of My Own, Harry Potter (of course!), A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Great Expectations, Mrs. Dalloway….. ahhh, OK, there’s so many more I can’t even think of.

I remember reading The Hobbit in sixth grade and being absolutely convinced that a world like that existed. I remember reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and feeling as though I had dreamt that story already. I remember reading The Fountainhead in middle school and weeping afterward and having no idea why.

The ideal bookshelf is personal. I would love to request my own painting.

Start with the truth

All the pieces of the puzzle are here. I found them and gathered them in one place. And as I sit here, staring at a blank Word document, all I can think about is Hemingway.

“Sometimes when I was started on a new story and I could not get going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.‘”

— Ernest Hemingway, “A Moveable Feast“

One minute it was Ohio winter

January 1999 Rocket Summer

One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.

And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer’s ancient green lawns.

Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer. The warm desert air changing the frost patterns on the windows, erasing the art work. The skis and sleds suddenly useless. The snow, falling from the cold sky upon the town, turned to a hot rain before it touched the ground.

Rocket summer. People leaned from their dripping porches and watched the reddening sky.

The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land….

— Excerpt from “The Martian Chronicles” by Ray Bradbury (1950). Incidentally, I just came across this book when I was going through a pile of old, dusty books in a corner of my loft. What a treasure.

*****

He started performing shows as a teenager in Dallas and Fort Worth Texas. As Bryce’s amount of local fans grew, he made his first EP at the age of 16 in 2000 called ‘The Rocket Summer EP.’ Before he was about to put out the EP, his friend suggested that he name it instead of using his own name. “He was reading a book called ‘Martian Chronicles’ and one of the chapters was called ‘Rocket Summer,’” says Bryce, “so he was like ‘You should name it The Rocket Summer.’ I just thought it was really cool so it doesn’t really have like a super meaningful meaning. It was just kind of a casual thing that I did when I was a kid.”

— Excerpt from Bryce Avary interview

Naming his band may have been the least meaningful thing Bryce ever did. Everything he has touched since has been so supercharged with meaning it’s difficult for me to compare his music to that of any other beautiful music.

Symmetrical chaos

I am going to love on another bookshelf idea for a second:

The symmetry and grid-look of this bookshelf looks overwhelmed by the haphazardly strewn books inside it. It’s so cute. I also love how big it is. And it would be so easy to make yourself, too. It’s other appeal is that you can throw all of your Kurt Vonneguts in one square shelf and your old English authors in another (or four or five). In my opinion, every house should be built with automatic size adjustments for wall-to-wall bookshelves.