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My Ideal Bookshelf

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 669 ratings · 167 reviews

The books that we choose to keep --let alone read-- can say a lot about who we are and how we see ourselves. In MY IDEAL BOOKSHELF, dozens of leading cultural figures share the books that matter to them most; books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world. Contributors include Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Keller, Michael...more

Hardcover, 226 pages

Published November 13th 2012 by Little, Brown and Company

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Apr 22, 2013 Melki rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books, art

I LOVE reading about what other people love to read. I want to know what everyone's favorite books are. That's the main reason I joined Goodreads, after all.

The writer of this book asked over 100 "creative" people to compile lists of their favorite books; all the titles that would be displayed proudly on their "ideal" bookshelves. The artist, Jane Mount then lovingly rendered the spines of the selections in what appears to be watercolor and ink. The resulting colorful paintings are very eye-catc...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, art, books-about-books, non-fiction, essays, books-from-websites, books-i-own, unique, helpful, good-for-sharing, interesting, female-author

I have my very own personalized Ideal Bookshelf painting heading my way early January (SO hard to choose the books!) so of course I had to read this book! For those of you who don't know what it is, please visit http://www.idealbookshelf.com. Such a genius idea! Art + books + unique, personal concept = love! It's a way of making a statement, "Hey, I know I have about 300 books crowding my apartment but these are the ones that REALLY matter!"

I was a little disappointed by some of the essays. Som...more I have my very own personalized Ideal Bookshelf painting heading my way early January (SO hard to choose the books!) so of course I had to read this book! For those of you who don't know what it is, please visit http://www.idealbookshelf.com. Such a genius idea! Art + books + unique, personal concept = love! It's a way of making a statement, "Hey, I know I have about 300 books crowding my apartment but these are the ones that REALLY matter!"

I was a little disappointed by some of the essays. Some shelves had 10 or more books but their owners didn't talk about more than one or two books. Some shelves they really didn't discuss any one book at all; they more discussed their view of books and the world as a whole. Some shelves had books with no binding or spine at all, to represent how used and loved it was in their life! And still not much about it in their essay!? Which was nice, but I also was thinking I was going to hear more about each book as opposed to an essay on reading. I guess the intent was to let the bookshelf art of each person speak for itself and they kind of write their essay however they want. I guess if you made them write in a certain way or with a goal in mind, it may be too limiting or forced and not really what they wanted to say. Still. Maybe not the way I would have done it. The nice thing though, is there is a list of all contritubtors and lists in the back.

Random thoughts on the book:

-Some of the most chosen books (I didn't actually count) seem to be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, anything by Lydia Davis (who I have never heard of till now and now need to read), and poetry by Wallace Stevens. Interesting.
-Nancy Pearl, the famous librarian, had a shelf in which I did not recognize a single book or author. So many books! So little time! I trust her taste, so now I pretty much have to add them all to my "to-read" shelf!
-I tried very to be interested, but I found the fashion, cookbook, and design book shelves extremely boring.Certainly not anyone's fault but mine. I like that they were trying to be inclusive and showcase books in their every genre and medium and not just approach it from a literary vein. Still. Boring to me.
-Lots of contributors were very worried about their shelf being "pretentious" or how it made them seem. Funny and understandable.

This is the perfect coffee table book (if only it was bigger in size!) and the perfect book for...more book recommendations! Had some minor complaints with it, but overall very enjoyable.(less)

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Nov 16, 2012 Jamil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bibliophilia, reading-lists, illustrations, interviews

Not only am I comfortable judging books by their covers, but I'm also comfortable judging writers by their bookshelves and books by their spines.

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Jun 10, 2013 Martyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, art, non-fiction

Things I learned while reading this book:

1. James Patterson didn't select any of his own books for his shelf, this surprised me. I would have thought that they were so ubiquitous now that he would have had to select one by pure mathematical chance.

2. Most of the writers in this book come off as precious. Francine Prose I know that you think it's clever to choose Chekhov titles for all of your selected books but really it just says 'contrived and limited'. I should say that the non-writers seemed...more

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May 27, 2013 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit-crit, reference

I'm always looking for book recommendations, so when I picked this up at the local library, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. And I did, sort of. Great idea, this book, but it could have been much better executed.

The editor asked several creative people which books they would put on their ideal bookshelves. Some of these creatives are household names. Many of the bookshelves belong to people who are, apparently, hipster friends of the editor, maybe? Most of the contributors are conveniently locate...more I'm always looking for book recommendations, so when I picked this up at the local library, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. And I did, sort of. Great idea, this book, but it could have been much better executed.

The editor asked several creative people which books they would put on their ideal bookshelves. Some of these creatives are household names. Many of the bookshelves belong to people who are, apparently, hipster friends of the editor, maybe? Most of the contributors are conveniently located in east coast cities and several seem to write/illustrate for the New Yorker, where the Le Force is also an editor. God knows, that's not a bad thing! It just seems that she chose people who were incredibly easy for her to get a hold of and talk into writing a couple hundred words. She must be some sort of gourmand because there are a LOT Of chefs who have bookshelves in here. Mark Bittman has a very interesting, decidedly non-cookbook shelf. A few actors/directors--Judd Apatow make an appearance. Also, a legal scholar or two (I'm sure they're very creative somehow). The president of Harvard weighs in with her bookshelf, as well.

An illustrator was dispatched to paint the spines of recommended books, as if they were on a bookshelf. The creative people were pressed upon to write a brief essay on, at least most of the time, the role of books/reading in their lives. Or not. Some essays are just pointless exercises in narcissism. I'm imagining the editor saying, "just write about, you know, whatever." Fortunately, several of the essayists expound on the importance of at least a couple of the actual books they list on their shelf. In the introduction, the editor states that some bookshelves were not created for the content of the book at all. Some designers paid a lot of attention to the way the spines of the books would look in the illustration. You can't even read the titles of some of the books on the shelves because the bookcloth on the spine has simply worn away.

The contributors' bookshelf titles are all included after their microbiographies at the end of the book, but the editor simply didn't bother to include authors or years of publication. Or maybe she left that practical, helpful stuff out because it didn't look "designerly" to include it--too many changes from italics to regular type involved in giving a standard bibliography? Too many words cluttering up the page, maybe? I'm not sure why.

In spite of these editorial flaws, I still found some of the essays really thought-provoking (this means you, Malcolm Gladwell), and I found some books I'd never heard of on the shelves, and that I am definitely going to read. Also, I want to check out some of the works of the writers whose bookshelves were on display. They sound like interesting people. In sum, this is a very uneven book whose editor didn't do it any favors, but there are many pearls in the mud here. (less)

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Apr 20, 2013 Christina G rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays

An artist illustrates the "ideal bookshelves" of a bunch of famous people. Definitely a fun coffee-table book. I have a full page of new book recommendations now. And I'm looking forward to thinking up my own list of books that have changed my life and made me who I am.

But holy crap, did this book ever point out how much people love male authors. Seriously, people (esp men) would have 15-20 books with only 1 or 2 by a woman, if even that many.

**************************************

OK so after 10...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Ellie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I saw this book in the Daedalus catalog, and immediately ran to Amazon.com to view more sample pages. After viewing it, I deemed it a "must have." The authors invited 100 or so people to choose the books most meaningful to them in their lives, and to contribute an essay about their choices, accompanied by a gorgeous full-page painting of their shelf. How would a person ever choose? Picking my favorite list of nearly anything is hard, but books? I would need at least 2 or 3 shelves. The thing tha...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Allyson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely love everything about this book. I saw it @ my library and was immediately enthralled. The concept is beyond cool and the execution fulfills my expectation now I have read through each entry completely. I adore books and quake to think of a time when they might exist only in digital form or anachronistically in museums formally known as libraries. I suppose I eventually accepted CDs but my love for album covers is a fraction of that reserved for books.
I was curious about some simil...more I absolutely love everything about this book. I saw it @ my library and was immediately enthralled. The concept is beyond cool and the execution fulfills my expectation now I have read through each entry completely. I adore books and quake to think of a time when they might exist only in digital form or anachronistically in museums formally known as libraries. I suppose I eventually accepted CDs but my love for album covers is a fraction of that reserved for books.
I was curious about some similarities along selection choices and also wondered how much posing existed alongside real choices. Some of the edited text referred to a foreknowledge of others' choices and I question the fairness of that. Also interesting which could have been editorial decision-making was each figure's discussion about specific book choices and why versus simply a platform for self promotion. But it does not detract from the composite experience of reading through this book. I recorded many new titles for exploration and read descriptions of books or authors I knew nothing of which was very exciting. I love the shape and cover of this book along with the great idea of painting these spines which always are the interesting aspects when browsing in the stacks or shelves in libraries. I am endlessly fascinated by the experience of being drawn to a book (or repulsed) by it's cover or spine. I cannot be the only reader thus affected by a book's cover or spine and connected with jane mount's idea to depict choices purely by the spines.
And a final cool inclusion of a blank back page exists for "my own ideal bookshelf" which is as follows: (subject to change &minus text)
These are reads that had a tremendous impact on me at certain critical points in my reading life as well as books I have and would happily reread as long as I am able.
The Wild Trees- Richard Preston, Smilla's Sense of Snow-Peter Hoeg, The English Patient-Michael Ondaatje, Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen, Swimming to Antartica-Lynne Cox, Terra Incognita-Sara Wheeler, Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte, The Witches' Bridge-Barbee o. Carleton, A Natural History of the Senses-Diane Ackerman, The Collected Stories-Amy Hempel, Possession-A.S. Byatt, Caught Inside-Daniel Duane, The Moon by Whale Light-Diane Ackerman.(less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Kerfe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, non-fiction, visual-arts

This book was much more thoughtful and interesting than I anticipated.

I like to see what other people read and what they think about what they read and compare it to my often quite different thoughts. (hence: Goodreads). And I do wish some of the participants had been more specific about why they chose certain volumes. But in the end they all had something worthwhile to say about books and reading and choices and visual presentation and living in the world.

They offered their books on a shelf to...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Pete rated it 2 of 5 stars

I thought it would be really interesting to see what a bunch of different people would put on their bookshelves. And it was. Sort of. Sometimes.

This book is a fun idea, but there were two big disappoints for me.

The first was that, as with any collection where multiple writers contribute, the writing was really uneven and the reading experience suffers.

Half way through this book, it hit me: Is this why people are always telling me that they don't get into short stories? Is part of the problem th...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Barbara A rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is not the book I would have thought to have been reviewing as 2012 draws to a close, nor will this be the pithy-ish kind of review I generally post. I am just too excited about "My Ideal Bookshelf" to give it short shrift.

Knowledge of this unique book came upon me completely by surprise when I received a package on Wednesday from a beloved young friend. It was a set of painted note cards by the artist Jane Mount, and they were so colorful and attractive that I went to her website, only to...more This is not the book I would have thought to have been reviewing as 2012 draws to a close, nor will this be the pithy-ish kind of review I generally post. I am just too excited about "My Ideal Bookshelf" to give it short shrift.

Knowledge of this unique book came upon me completely by surprise when I received a package on Wednesday from a beloved young friend. It was a set of painted note cards by the artist Jane Mount, and they were so colorful and attractive that I went to her website, only to find that she has illustrated an absolutely delicious book written by her friend and collaborator, Thessaly La Force. How its review on NPR escaped me is something of a puzzle, but I drove down the Vail Valley yesterday to my favorite bookstore, The Bookworm of Edwards, and after a lovely holiday party, indulged late into the night, reading and examining this volume with the greatest relish, for it brings together my twin passions of art and reading in a fascinating way.

La Force and Mount sent requests to one hundred luminaries in the fields of architecture, graphic design, the fine and applied arts, publishing, cooking, writing, cinema, and music, and other eclectic careers, and asked for a list of books that would symbolize their 'ideal bookshelves'. Once the lists were submitted, each participant was interviewed for complementary comments---complementary to a painting by Jane Mount of the actual books each interviewee submitted.

To say that this book is visually appealing is putting it mildly. I loved the notion, shared by many people involved, that the actual book itself--the object--was important to them for its presence, for how it gave warmth and personality to the space in which the reader lives or works; and that although their ideal bookshelf might change over time, it would always, in some way, be a representation of who they are, who they were, and who they might become.

I was fascinated to see certain books appear and reappear: Faulkner and Chekov and Hemingway, of course, but other less obvious choices, such as Terrence Conran's The House Book; Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son; Paul Rand's Conversations with Students; and, many times, George Eliot's Middlemarch.

I had no idea there existed a profession known as 'data-visualization artist', nor that poet Jodie Graham's books would resemble fresh air, grass and seashore when lined up and painted.

My favorite essay, and favorite bookshelf, should you wish to know, is that of surgeon/author Atul Gawande's. Much like his good friend Siddhartha Mukhejee, Gawande expresses, both through his practice of medicine and his writing, a deep humanity that remains consistent throughout his body of work. As one might suspect, Lewis Thomas' The Lives of a Cell appears on Gawande's bookshelf, as does William Carlos Williams' The Doctor Stories, but so, too, do Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, and, commented on with a certain passion, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

My favorite quote in The Ideal Bookshelf comes from musician and writer Rosanne Cash, who says, " I think books find their way to you just when you need them"; and my favorite painting of an ideal bookshelf, just on aesthetics alone, is that of The New Yorker's music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, followed very, very closely by Francine Prose's and book cover designer's Henry Sene Yee.

Go forth and enjoy your own ideal bookshelves. I am going to The Bookworm to get a copy of A Farewell to Arms, for I just remembered how much I love that book.

Happy New Year and Happy Bookshelving.

Peace,
Barbara
(less)

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Dec 05, 2012 Rena rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really liked the idea of this book, and it of course made me want to choose my ideal bookshelf!!! The problem is I would have several bookshelves, and the one I would want the world to see would be vastly different than the one that truly illustrated my reading interests. I was growing increasingly upset when I couldn't name one book that "changed my life" or "made me who I am". Then I figured it out-my love of reading is my life and who I am. Many books have moved me to tears and laughter(som...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Mary Ellen rated it 3 of 5 stars

DISCLAIMER: I was given a free copy of this book for review purposes.

My Ideal Bookshelf is an interesting thought experiment. A great deal of the pleasure in reading it comes from spotting a familiar title on one of these imaginary bookshelves, then scanning your own real world library and seeing a physical copy of it nestled between bookends. It's also great fun trying to create your own list of essentials. What books changed you as a person, formed you into the embittered attorney or giddy ane...more DISCLAIMER: I was given a free copy of this book for review purposes.

My Ideal Bookshelf is an interesting thought experiment. A great deal of the pleasure in reading it comes from spotting a familiar title on one of these imaginary bookshelves, then scanning your own real world library and seeing a physical copy of it nestled between bookends. It's also great fun trying to create your own list of essentials. What books changed you as a person, formed you into the embittered attorney or giddy anesthesiologist or cheeky carpenter you are today? Which novels or essays do you carry around inside your skull?

The range of people who answered these questions is interesting, but narrow. Most are familiar names from the worlds of writing, film, and art. The book goes through them alphabetically and assumes you know who each person is, although you will find single paragraph microbiographies at the very back of the book if you find yourself wondering, "Who?" There's no explanation as to why this particular set of folks was chosen, which suggests convenience and cooperation as the motivating factors, but you should be able to find at least two or three who grab your attention, no matter what your interests.

The real strength of this book is the illustrations. Each book spine is beautifully detailed and painstakingly accurate. You will be surprised by how a font or particular shade of orange will instantly call up a memory of the novel before you even look at the title. Book covers are designed to seize hold of your eyes as you scan a crowded shelf, and the drawings here display the many different ways publishers have tried to make their products stand out. Simplicity, explosions of color, delicate linework, or blocky leaden letters. Mount's art style captures all of these techniques, while adding her own distinct fingerprint to them. Something about the slightly wobbly outlines of the novels lends them a childlike charm, no matter how adult the words inside the covers.

The written portion of the book is less successful. Each participant discusses their selections, but they're given very little space to do so. Almost every person picked ten or more books to line their imaginary bookshelves but were only given four to six brief paragraphs to explain their choices. This means they either ignore most of their selections and talk about only one title or spit out one sentence summaries that don't add all that much. I understand the desire to match a page of text with a page of illustration, but if you're only going to allow a person twenty seconds to describe a lifetime of passion for reading, what comes out is inevitably going to be shallow and rather pointless.

There are two potential ways to fix this. First, let your sources talk. If you assume that readers care enough to ask what various authors, artists, and chefs love to read, then those same readers are probably patient enough to find out why. Give your participants enough time and enough pages to say something meaningful about their choices, to tell an anecdote, to gush over how dreamy Hemmingway is. Anything, really, as long as it actually adds a dimension to the discussion.

Alternatively, just publish the illustrations. Leave the book as a pure, abstract thought experiment with noteworthy figures and celebrities picking out whatever books they like and readers extrapolating the meaning behind each choice.

As it is now, the little pseudo-interview blurbs just detract from the lovely illustrations done by Mount. They serve only to frustrate those who are looking for real insight into the people creating these imaginary bookshelves or to distract those who just want to admire artfully recreated book spines.

In short, the concept behind My Ideal Bookshelf is clever and will appeal to any bibliophile. The illustrations are slightly whimsical and lovingly rendered. Unfortunately the book is let down by its structure with the text portions squeezed into tiny spaces and ultimately into irrelevance.(less)

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Nov 15, 2012 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

See my full review (with pics) here - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...

I just came into possession of the most divine book – My Ideal Bookshelf. If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for book lovers (and they are difficult to buy for because you don’t know what they’ve already read…) this book is perfect.

Artist Jane Mount began the Ideal Bookshelf project in 2007. She paints portraits of people through the spines of their favorite books: the ones that changed their life, that define who...more See my full review (with pics) here - http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...

I just came into possession of the most divine book – My Ideal Bookshelf. If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for book lovers (and they are difficult to buy for because you don’t know what they’ve already read…) this book is perfect.

Artist Jane Mount began the Ideal Bookshelf project in 2007. She paints portraits of people through the spines of their favorite books: the ones that changed their life, that define who they are, that they read over and over. I know. HOW WONDERFUL IS THAT?! Mount does portraits on commission (husband, please note) or you can buy prints - for example the Ideal Kids Bookshelf, travel, book group (shown above), Jane Austen and so forth. All of the drawings are exquisite.

Recently, Mount joined forces with writer Thessaly La Force, and together they’ve published My Ideal Bookshelf. The book is a collection of ‘portraits’ (i.e. the favourite books) of more than a hundred creative thinkers from various creative fields (from writers and chefs to artists, app developers and musicians) accompanied by a description of their book choices.

So many names jumped out at me as soon as I opened the book – Malcolm Gladwell, Dave Eggers, Michael Chabon, David Sedaris, Leanne Shapton, Oliver Jeffers, Ayelet Waldman… goodness, I barely knew where to start.

As an example, Dave Eggers’ selection of twelve books includes For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway, Herzog by Bellow, Lolita by Nabokov and A Star Called Henry by Doyle. Eggers says of his bookshelf - “It surprised me to realize how dark so many of these books are… My main goal was to limit the choices to those books that have hit me hardest. That was the only criterion: each book had to have made a huge impact on me when I first read it… These are the books that crushed me, changed me when I first read them, and to which I’ve returned many times since, always finding more in them.”

From Oliver Jeffers, who picked his shelf based on aesthetics – “I think you should always judge a book by its cover… I collect books rather than hoard them. There’s an editorial sense of selection that occurs.”

Twilight fans might be interested to know that Stephanie Meyer’s influences include Austen, Bronte, Montgomery and Alcott – it’s kind of comforting to know that none of us ever stray far from Elizabeth, Jane, Anne and Jo, isn’t it?

Everything about this book is simply perfect – the lush, landscape format; the crisp and generous white space; the thick, varnished pages; and of course the incredibly beautiful illustrations. It’s a feast for the eye and a feast for the soul. And just when you think it couldn’t get better, the end paper features a drawing of ten book spines, so that you can add your own Ideal Bookshelf (which you’re invited to share via Twitter). *Sigh* I love this project to bits.(less)

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Nov 14, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Interesting. I would have liked some background on how the editors chose the participants. There were a lot of husband/wife ex-husband/ex-wife submissions (were they afraid to ask one and not the other?), Pulitzer Prize winning types, a ton of chefs and artists and...Stephenie Meyer.

This is not a knock on Ms. Meyer AT ALL because frankly, her contribution was one of the more interesting ones. (There were at least a dozen "I picked this book because of the way it looked" choices.) It was easy to...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Kekka rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love love love the idea of this book. The question of what would your ideal bookshelf be, is one I've often considered. Your favorite favorites. This book would be an ideal coffee table book. I would love to know what some of my house guests might put on their ideal bookshelf, and this book would definitely promote the conversation. My only wish is that there had been a few more people Mathematically inclined. Scientists, engineers, accountants (being one myself, I might be biased). I know the...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I picked up this book after seeing it on our New Nonfiction shelves. The book is arranged alphabetically by last name of the person. There is an accompanying one page essay and then on the opposite page an imaginary bookshelf with real books that represent the person (according to the preface).

First off, 2 stars might be generous for this book -- I was thinking more along the lines of 1.5ish.

Next, most of the people included in this book are not the most well known in their field. How many of yo...more

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May 12, 2013 Mark Nenadov rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reading

This is an amazingly creative and fresh book idea. Get a bunch of people together. Then get them to list their “ideal bookshelf”. Then they write an essay and you juxtapose it with an illustration of the book spines in a shelf configuration.

So, how did the concept actually play out? I have mixed feelings. The execution was not as strong as the concept.

On the positive side, as a book lover, I truly enjoyed much of the book. It gave me chills down my spine at times. Many of the essays were delight...more This is an amazingly creative and fresh book idea. Get a bunch of people together. Then get them to list their “ideal bookshelf”. Then they write an essay and you juxtapose it with an illustration of the book spines in a shelf configuration.

So, how did the concept actually play out? I have mixed feelings. The execution was not as strong as the concept.

On the positive side, as a book lover, I truly enjoyed much of the book. It gave me chills down my spine at times. Many of the essays were delightful and the illustrations very well done. Even though I hadn't heard of many of these people nor the books they liked, they sucked me in. I loved perusing the shelves and then reading the essays. I liked the random books that were turned the wrong way, or upside down. I was surprised to see how many shelves included Flannery O'Connor. She obviously deserves a spot among the great writers of the U.S., but I never would have guessed she'd appear so often!

On the negative side, the essays are of uneven quality. There are a few truly genius ones, many good ones, and a number are very poorly written and uninspired. James Patterson's essay was irrelevant, off-topic, and annoyingly self-congratulatory. You get the sense that they had to include him because he's so important. And that he agrees wholeheartedly.

The representation from certain vocations is also sort of funky. I understand why there are so many writers, editors, and book cover designers, but I don't understand why there is such a high proportion of chefs, fashion designers, or interior designers. I have nothing about them (bless their heart), but the imbalance gives the book a weird bulge in certain areas. The first few cooks were really fresh and interesting, but it quickly got tedious to read essay after essay about cooking. Also, this imbalance led to an unfortunate omissions (or, at least, under-representation) of certain vocations.

As an aside, the Bible, and religious classics, such as Pilgrim's Progress, were woefully under-represented and there were no clergypersons or theologians represented.

On a much more minor note, the inclusions of books that have no spine, while introducing some authenticity, became distracting eventually, especially when they became more prevalent.

You'd probably enjoy this if you are a serious book-lover., the extent to which it annoys you may vary based on your tastes and level of fussiness. In the final analysis, I'm glad I read this book, but if I were to read it again, I'd probably skip large swaths of it, jumping to the most delightful entries.(less)

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Jan 11, 2013 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not as pleasurable as I wished it. At first I thought it was the heavy hipster/New York/Significance quotient, with the "one hundred leading cultural figures" having rather similar tastes for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, David Foster Wallace, Lolita, and Raymond Carver. There's some of that, but then there are the chefs and designers and app developers and musicians--and even writers--who add some unhip and/or idiosyncratic choices. We could've used more of that: how about the uncool and the unc...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Kristin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: essay, read-in-2013, reader-s-advisory

This collection of essays describing each contributor's ideal bookshelf reads much like the content of the New Yorker Magazine (a publication I have read on and off for over 15 years): it's for insiders, more about the contributor than the subject about which they are writing and filled with interesting but still somehow precious illustrations. I also suspect this book was somehow indirectly cobbled together by the New Yorker's contributors and friends, because the likes of Jonathan Lethem, Sash...more This collection of essays describing each contributor's ideal bookshelf reads much like the content of the New Yorker Magazine (a publication I have read on and off for over 15 years): it's for insiders, more about the contributor than the subject about which they are writing and filled with interesting but still somehow precious illustrations. I also suspect this book was somehow indirectly cobbled together by the New Yorker's contributors and friends, because the likes of Jonathan Lethem, Sasha Frere-Jones, Kim Gordon and many more all wrote essays featuring their ideal bookshelves. The editor and illustrator of this collection also frequently contribute to that magazine.

Don't get me wrong: I like the New Yorker, but it's elitist from time to time and the staff prides itself on knowing everything that no one else seems to know anything about; additionally, the cliquey name dropping and off-hand mentioning of doctorate degrees, abandoned MFAs, etc. all amount to a lot of alphabet soup that's important only to the writer in question.

Still, I did like some of the essays quite a bit. While most of the writers spent more time stacking up minutiae and being impressed with themselves, I found a few of them seemed to understand what it really means to put forth an ideal bookshelf. What was also frustrating was that some of the essayists didn't talk about the books on their shelves - they talked about themselves. I didn't mind the omission of book descriptions when certain writers discussed their approach and relationship to reading. That's priceless. Or, how a particular book on their "shelf" made them feel about life forever after. Patti Smith wrote the shortest essay of the bunch and said not one word about the books she featured. She instead discussed her relationship to reading, and that was somehow more fulfilling than a rambling treatise on how a graphic designer's ten design books shaped some unrelated aspect of their life.

This was a really quick coffee table book. I liked looking at it before bed, because you don't have to think too hard about it. And actually it made me want to start reading the New Yorker again in spite of the flaws of this book and that magazine. So I guess there's a silver lining in every corner.(less)

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Feb 27, 2013 Becky marked it as to-read

Shelves: age-adult-books, cool-covers, nonfiction, youngwriters-and-writing, words-and-pictures

"I personally love reading books electronically. I proudly have a big wall of books in my apartment, but I’m continually getting rid of books that get on my nerves because I don’t think they’re good enough to deserve to take up space in my life. You can walk into a bookstore and find that 95 percent of the books on display might as well have been directly electronic. Mind you, they might be great texts, fabulous additions to human knowledge, but they did not need to have their own paper body. I...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Lillian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books, nonfiction

Thessaly La Force gathered over a hundred creative artists and asked them these questions:

What are your favorite favorites?
What book changed your life?
What is the book that you’d read again and again?
What book do you love most?
What is the book that made you who you are today?
What is the best book you’ve ever read?
What book makes you cry every time?

The artists come from a variety of disciplines, chefs, actors, architects, graphic designers, entrepreneurs, writers, editors, filmmakers, curators, f...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Shirley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, 2013

I love to check out people's bookshelves whenever I go to their houses, so this book was a deliciously fun read - a collection of various artists'/writers' "ideal bookshelves," illustrated beautifully by Jane Mount, and a short description accompanying each shelf. The bookshelves themselves were uneven - some really did give me a sense of why this person had the shelf she did, but others talked about something else entirely from their bookshelf. It is overall a book I'd recommend for those who l...more I love to check out people's bookshelves whenever I go to their houses, so this book was a deliciously fun read - a collection of various artists'/writers' "ideal bookshelves," illustrated beautifully by Jane Mount, and a short description accompanying each shelf. The bookshelves themselves were uneven - some really did give me a sense of why this person had the shelf she did, but others talked about something else entirely from their bookshelf. It is overall a book I'd recommend for those who love books (especially the physical book - one person in this collection actually presented his ebook shelf, which I thought was kind of sad).

This book was, like many books about books, a springboard for adding even more books to my to-read shelf. Raymond Chandler, Wallace Stevens, DFW, Proust, Salinger (Nine Stories), Flannery O'Connor, Lydia Davis, John Cheever, William Trevor (on Yiyun Li's recommendation): I am sorry to say that I have not read much or any of your writing at all. I hope to remedy this in the coming years.

This book also inspired me to think about some books I would want to put on my ideal bookshelf. As reflected in the below, I'm a very sentimental reader, and these are some long-time favorites:

***
Ex Libris (Anne Fadiman): the book that all bibliophiles should read.

A Lantern in Her Hand (Bess Streeter Aldrich): It's a wonderful novel of a pioneer woman in Nebraska in the late 1800s and one of my cherished books. I think my love for old, old books comes from owning books like these. My American grandmother gifted this to me in fifth grade. She'd been gifted the book from a national sorority in 1931 (!) and read it while she was crossing Nebraska by train. My own parents came from Korea, so American pioneer history was not part of my family history, but I think this was the book that gave me a way to connect to the American soil, and it (along with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books) is probably why I have a soft spot for books about pioneers and the west.

Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner): a masterpiece of American literature. I love books about the American West (see above).

The Little Prince (St Exupery): I read this in high school French class and have reread it various times since (in various languages - sadly, I would not be able to do so now). It is easy to read, language wise, but with such deep lessons.

The Collected Stories of Alice Munro: This collection is how I first discovered Alice Munro on a month-long roadtrip with my boyfriend (now husband) in 1998. I have read many Munro stories since then and have been amazed at how Munro manages to plumb similar themes/territory yet create different, authentic stories, nary a dud among them. I think I love this collection so much not only because of the amazing stories but because I associate it with wide-open spaces, camping our way across 7500 miles of country (both US and Canada), and reveling in being young and cheap (e.g., my boyfriend/husband's Geo Metro had no air conditioning, so we misted each other with a spray water bottle, which gave us 1 microsecond of relief from the 90-degree weather).

***
Goodreads friends, please feel free to comment with books from your ideal bookshelf!(less)

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Feb 10, 2013 Monica Williams rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that starts out as a really cool concept. Lets see what are some of the favorite books of a bunch of famous (and not always as famous) people. The person explains why some of the titles are relevant and then actual books are depicted in an illustration. Keep in mind the text only covers several of the books depicted- not all. It does offer an interesting glimpse into the reading habits of others (sort of an intellectual rummage through the bathroom cabinets), but what...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Gloria rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Interesting concept for a book, but perhaps is more sentimental than useful in identifying new books to read. The essays are short (one page) and succinct and the book's layout is very attractive.

A great many of the books mentioned are old which means most libraries and book stores don't carry them any more though you could probably find a copy with diligence. Quite a number of titles are specific to an industry such as food preparation. Quite a few "classics" are listed which I always question...more

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May 31, 2013 Larraine rated it 5 of 5 stars

To say this is a lovely little book is, for me anyway, something of an understatement. I LOVE this little book. I've been reading it slowly - ever so slowly, drinking in the pictures, even ordering a few of them through my ever dwindling Paperbackbookswap and Bookmooch credits. I think I'll be doing my own "ideal bookshelf" post here soon. The problem is, of course, picking and choosing because my ideal bookshelf is probably groaning. (I did a Facebook post on one of the groups to which I belong...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Carrie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The idea that somebody put together the bookshelves of all these enigmatic personalities made me buy the book. Comparing my library to those found in the book snared me. The conclusion that I am most like historian, Drew Gilpin Faust, shocked me. I definitely thought my library stacked up next to a writer, but Faust had 2 of my favorites, Beloved and The Things They Carried, among others on his shelf. I liked the idea of what my bookshelf might say about me and who would populate it if I only co...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Mari Anne rated it 2 of 5 stars

This wasn't quite as interesting as I was hoping for. Many of the "famous" people who filled out bookshelves were people I had never heard of. A lot of them had books on their shelves that I had never heard of either. The person whose bookshelf I had the most in common with... Stephanie Meyer (of TWILIGHT fame). In her esaay she describes herself as a reader. She LOVES Anne of Green Gables. What can I say? That was enough for me. As for the rest of the book, I mostly skimmed it and looked at the...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Sarah T. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthology, art, non-fiction, literary-criticism, biographical

This is definitely more of a coffee table book, rather than a read-through book, but I'm glad I went ahead and read this one through. Even though I don't know who half of the people are who got to be apart of this anthology, I still enjoyed reading every one of their spiels about their bookshelves. I tried to dogear pages of the contributors who had bookshelves that were similar to my own tastes. Looks like I only managed to save those of Lev Grossman and Gina Trapani (there were a few others, b...more This is definitely more of a coffee table book, rather than a read-through book, but I'm glad I went ahead and read this one through. Even though I don't know who half of the people are who got to be apart of this anthology, I still enjoyed reading every one of their spiels about their bookshelves. I tried to dogear pages of the contributors who had bookshelves that were similar to my own tastes. Looks like I only managed to save those of Lev Grossman and Gina Trapani (there were a few others, but maybe I had decided temporarily that dogearing the pages was bad so I stopped. *shrug*). I saved Rosanne Cash's pages too but I think I did that more because I liked her spiel. I really liked reading everyone's spiels. People didn't always talk directly about the books on their shelf. Some talked about how the books influenced their lives, their reading habits, and their work. Some people just told stories about how they came to read the books they put on their shelves. There was a lot of diversity in this book--I think that's what enabled me to read it through.

I like the idea of picking a few books to represent a your ultimate book collection. Before my last move my boyfriend and I decided that packing and unpacking books really, really sucks, especially because we have lots of them (he has WAY MORE than me, but I have a lot of hardback books and those can be fatally heavy, lol!). So we decided that since the place we were moving to would be small (so small there wouldn't be room for ANY bookshelves...), we'd just keep our books packed up, that way the next time we moved, it wouldn't be a pain to pack and unpack them again. I have to say, after living without our books for a year, now that we're a month away from moving out of this little hell-hole, we're both looking forward to a larger place where we can have our books out on display again. I miss my books! Sure, I've brought a ton home from work (the library) and so has he, and those are out all over the place. But all of my Tolkien books, all Harry Potter, all my George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, etc. all those are MISSING from my life now and I can feel their absence. If I were to make my own bookshelf, I'd have to have those authors on it for sure, just because I can feel how much they mean to me now. As far as the rest... I suppose I'd have to pick and choose between the books that are on my Favorites shelf here on Goodreads.(less)

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Dec 18, 2012 Janis rated it 5 of 5 stars

At parties, you can find me inspecting the host’s book collection. If someone’s reading on a bus, I must see the book’s cover. When television interview subjects sit in front of their bookshelves, I don’t hear a thing because I am reading the shelves. So obviously My Ideal Bookshelf is the perfect book for a nosey, what-are-you-reading person like me! The authors have chosen more than 100 writers, artists, musicians, designers and others and asked them to share lists of the books that mean the m...more

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“I think books find their way to you when you need them. Whenever I feel like I'm not going to live to read all the books I want to read, I remind myself that the important ones find their way to me" (Rosanne Cash (Musician/Write)” — 2 people liked it

“The thing about this bookshelf is that each of these books is a vast experience unto itself, while also being both self-contained and superbly useless. Reading any one of them doesn't get you anywhere particularly meaningful; you haven't arrived or graduated; you've just gone and done something that passed the time. It's like taking a long walk with a friend who's got a lot to say. There's not cumulative purpose to it - it's just an excellent way to waste your life.” — 1 person liked it

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