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The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading

Phyllis Rose

3.66 · Rating details · 583 ratings · 161 reviews

Phyllis Rose embarks on a grand literary experiment—to read her way through a random shelf of library books, LEQ–LES

Can you have an Extreme Adventure in a library? Phyllis Rose casts herself into the wilds of an Upper East Side lending library in an effort to do just that. Hoping to explore the “real ground of literature,” she reads her way through a somewhat randomly chos ...more

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Hardcover, 271 pages

Published May 13th 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Aug 17, 2014 Paul Bryant rated it really liked it

Shelves: reading-about-reading

"our young dzhigits are strapping, and their caftans are covered in silver"

The subtitle “Adventures in Extreme Reading” is a leetle bit of an overstatement. Truly extreme reading would be completing all of Marcel Proust whilst in a bathysphere suspended in the Mariana Trench (north of Papua New Guinea) eight miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean and living entirely on a diet of raw cabbage and crème de menthe and the whole thing broadcast live on a dedicated tv channel. .

But I am quibbli ...more

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Jul 02, 2014 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

I think picking and reading a whole shelf of library books, would make a wonderful challenge, one I may adopt somewhere down the line. Of course picking the shelf is not as easy as it appears, because many shelves are full of a popular authors book, so it does take a bit of work to find just the right shelf.

Besides reading and evaluating, critiquing the book, she often looked up information on the author and in some cases actually contacted them. I loved reading the background of the book and t ...more

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Feb 09, 2014 Gwen rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. It is perfect for a librarian who reads books the way many people watch TV. Rose goes through a shelf of the fiction section at a library, reading all the authors there. She shares her thoughts with us, as well as biographical and historical information, contemporary reviews, translators' comments, and much more. She contacts some of the authors, editors, and even cover designers to find out about their experiences. Of course not all the books are great, but she makes it worth ...more

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Dec 06, 2014 Holly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-reads

I think the least interesting and silliest question authors are asked to consider during a certain sort of quick interview (e.g., for Powell's Books Q&A) has to do with what books are on the shelf next to theirs in a library or bookshop. It's meaningless. So I was pleased to discover that Phyllis Rose chose the LEQ-LES shelf for more-or-less arbitrary reasons. Her point was to choose a random shelf and read her way through it. She actually dislikes most of the books.

Like me she seems to pref I think the least interesting and silliest question authors are asked to consider during a certain sort of quick interview (e.g., for Powell's Books Q&A) has to do with what books are on the shelf next to theirs in a library or bookshop. It's meaningless. So I was pleased to discover that Phyllis Rose chose the LEQ-LES shelf for more-or-less arbitrary reasons. Her point was to choose a random shelf and read her way through it. She actually dislikes most of the books.

Like me she seems to prefer reading on a e-reader even when she has the physical book at hand - physical book purists need to know this: it's all about the lighting and font size! But one of the actual library books she read for the project she mishandled so much - threw it on the floor roughly every night - that it needed to be repaired after she returned it (Phyllis, no).

Most interesting were her general ideas on the life of reading, and reading tastes, and how literary reputation is created, destroyed, or never takes off.

Rose is dismayed that five books at the end of her shelf are by John Lescroart, a popular author of detective novels (his books go on to fill the following shelf, too). She gives him his due and describes a few things she appreciated about his work, but then realizes that what she liked - his background research into the topic of each novel (e.g., military contractors in Iraq for one novel) isn't what most of his fans read for. She feels a growing boredom after getting through a couple Lescroarts and then asserts:

This is what I've learned: if you don't like the characters, and there isn't a compelling narrative (what I would call plot), and you're resistant to the puzzle-solving element in mystery novels, then you have to be reading for the direct contact with the writer that is the quality Geoff Dyer talked about. But that quality, "voice," is the hardest thing to achieve in literature. It requires that a writer fight against every sentence, resisting the pressure of convention and conformity, resisting his or her own impulses toward banality and the easy way. Unsurprisingly, not many writers do this. They just shuffle around the same old words, the same old ways of thinking, into a semblance of something new: new information, new settings, a new kind of detective. Most genre writers choose to write genre fiction because will, determination, and very hard work are enough to see them through. Although some writers achieve it, authenticity is not required. (page 211-12)

People will always read series-mysteries or other genre fiction, so there's absolutely no risk that opinions like hers will threaten those writers or readers. But it gives me something to think about (and reminds me that it's time to re-read a favorite of mine: Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage.) ...more

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Aug 02, 2014 Kerfe rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

"The Shelf" is about the pleasures of reading.

It is also an example of itself--I would never have known about it/read it if I hadn't seen it on a shelf in the library, pulled it out to see if I might want to read it, and then taken it out.

Phyllis Rose picks a random shelf at the library (well not entirely--she has some rules) and reads all the books on it, books that mostly she would never have even considered reading otherwise.

I thought I would enjoy her journey and I did. She even gets to know "The Shelf" is about the pleasures of reading.

It is also an example of itself--I would never have known about it/read it if I hadn't seen it on a shelf in the library, pulled it out to see if I might want to read it, and then taken it out.

Phyllis Rose picks a random shelf at the library (well not entirely--she has some rules) and reads all the books on it, books that mostly she would never have even considered reading otherwise.

I thought I would enjoy her journey and I did. She even gets to know personally some of the authors, and to know at least something about the others. She discovers a few gems, and grows to appreciate nearly all the stories and their writers in some way. As Rose questions her own habits, you being to ask yourself: how do I read?

Mostly "The Shelf" is an affirmation of the need for browsing through actual shelves of books in an increasingly digital world. "If you liked x, you'll like y" is a way to narrow, not broaden, your point of view: who wants to just confirm what you already know all the time? Oh, ok, I guess a lot of people do. But if we want to open ourselves to the new, the uncomfortable, the exciting and strange, we need to be willing to look beyond the curated life. We need to take chances on not only what we don't know, but what we haven't even considered. The library continues to tempt me with covers and titles, and I continue to be surprised by where it leads me.

From her remarks about the different books and authors, I suspect our tastes are quite different. So I wouldn't use her particular experience as a jumping-off point, but I love the spirit of it, and of course it's tempting to try a mini-shelf somewhere of your own.

I was also surprised she kept going to Amazon, rather than Goodreads, for "crowd-sourced" reviews. Could she not know Goodreads? OK, Amazon owns it now, but the reviews still seem more the work of passionate readers--they may even have borrowed a book from the library--rather than passionate consumers. Hopefully someone will tell her about it; I think it would appeal to her in the way "The Shelf" appealed to me. ...more

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Feb 03, 2014 Biblio Files (takingadayoff) rated it it was amazing

In The Shelf, literary critic Phyllis Rose is on a somewhat ridiculous enterprise -- she wants to read her way through a random shelf of her library's fiction section. She makes it slightly less outlandish by setting a few rules about the contents of the shelf she eventually settles on -- it has to include at least one classic that she wants to read and hasn't yet, there have to be several women authors, and if there is a run of works by the same author, she only has to read three of them.

Still In The Shelf, literary critic Phyllis Rose is on a somewhat ridiculous enterprise -- she wants to read her way through a random shelf of her library's fiction section. She makes it slightly less outlandish by setting a few rules about the contents of the shelf she eventually settles on -- it has to include at least one classic that she wants to read and hasn't yet, there have to be several women authors, and if there is a run of works by the same author, she only has to read three of them.

Still, it's a pretty arbitrary collection of books, ranging across a couple of centuries, world views, topics, and literary styles. If faced with that particular shelf of books, I would admit defeat and move on. Phyllis Rose is made of sterner stuff, and plugs away at the shelf, proving that what the reader brings to the book is at least as important as what the author contributed. She finds something of interest and even of value in practically every book, no matter how poorly written, or bizarre, or just boring.

Even more remarkable, she can take these books, of varying quality and interest, and converse about them, in a very entertaining way. In fact, this is exactly the sort of book that would have been a good blog. But as a book, it's excellent. Rose is constantly curious about the books she's reading, so she researches the authors, sometimes contacting them if she has a burning question about something. She makes her way through three or four different translations of the Lermontov book she tackled, and talks about the differences. She also contacted the book designer of one of the editions, which was unexpectedly revealing.

Rose, with her background in academia, literary publications, and the publishing world, has a lot of insights to divulge, and uses the project as an excuse to find out even more. Her discovery of exactly how libraries decide which books to weed out when space is a problem was quite interesting.

Five stars without question. It's the sort of book I couldn't stop sharing as I read it and it started several good discussions along the way. ...more

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Jun 08, 2014 Lesa rated it it was ok

Shelves: libraries, nonfiction

Phyllis Rose's book, The Shelf, is the story of an unusual experiment. It's subtitled "From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading". The author picked one shelf of fiction at the New York Society Library at random, LEQ to LES, to read through while writing about the experience. Actually, it seemed a little odd to write about twenty-three books and eleven authors. But, Rose said, "Usually we choose our reading from a preselected list of books, compiled by reviewers, awards panels, librarians, ...more

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May 04, 2014 Robin rated it it was amazing

Calling all book nerds! What a great read - Rose picks a shelf at the New York Society Library and works her way through it. Lovely essays about books, libraries,writers and fiction. My kind of read for sure.

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May 12, 2015 Jane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, read-this-book-again

I loved this book. Not every moment, but there were entire chapters that I wanted to read aloud to my friends, my school colleagues, my students. I know that Phyllis Rose is an amazing writer. Parallel Lives is one of my favorite books ever. This book is I think what is meant by a "tour de force." Rose sets up these rules for herself: a library shelf, not more that five books by one author, no books I've already read (or is it authors?) I'll read no more than three books by one author. And write ...more

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Dec 29, 2014 Ashok Rao rated it really liked it

I loved this book. Phyllis Rose proves that reading is indeed an adventure. To begin with she asks the reader a simple question: What about all those books that are never read at all, never even considered? Who speaks for them? Will they sink back into the abyss of unread literature? And how certain works of fiction live forever without actually being read. She compares the 758-page bulk of Gil Bias to eating potato chips. Each little bit is so satisfying, you want just another. I am dying to re ...more

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May 21, 2014 Laila (BigReadingLife) rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: People who like books about books.

Shelves: books-about-books, non-fiction, better-than-i-expected, read-in-2015, would-be-good-for-book-group

Ehrmagerd, I'm such a (book)nerd!

I loved this book, plain and simple.

Books about books are SO in my wheelhouse. In fact, my wheelhouse is partially *constructed* out of books about books.

Phyllis Rose is a generous, enthusiastic, adventurous reader. She chose one shelf out of the New York Society Library (LEQ-LES) and read her way through the shelf. Her observations are warm, witty, and illuminating.

A longer review to come on HTTP://bigreadlinglife.wordpress.com!

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Apr 14, 2018 Melinda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: essays

No, I wouldn't call this a memoir in the strict sense of the word. It is about an intelligent, curious, and knowledgeable reader reading her way through a shelf of books, but the focus on is where those books lead her thinking. I really enjoyed this collection of essays and learned something from every one of them, from the treacheries of translation to the continuing life of The Phantom of the Opera to how libraries "weed" using CREW and MUSTIE. I also liked the way Rose uses technology while r ...more

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Mar 18, 2019 Dawn Betts-Green (Dinosaur in the Library) rated it liked it

Shelves: books-on-books, nonfic, library-reads

I enjoyed this...I mean, it's a book about books--library books at that! She was a touch pretentious and lit-snobby in places, but I liked it anyway. I loved that the notes at the end included pictures of a few things she mentioned in the text.

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Oct 01, 2014 RuthAnn rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Hilary, Ann

Shelves: nonfiction, recommended

Would recommend: YES

Okay, that said, this book isn't for everyone, but it was definitely for me. There are some books that are for book lovers (like The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, The Thirteenth Tale, and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore), but this one is for people who love talking and thinking about books, not just reading them. Unlike Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books, this book pulls quite the trick of being intellectual but not dry, and I really enjoyed it. I kept pausing and excl Would recommend: YES

Okay, that said, this book isn't for everyone, but it was definitely for me. There are some books that are for book lovers (like The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, The Thirteenth Tale, and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore), but this one is for people who love talking and thinking about books, not just reading them. Unlike Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books, this book pulls quite the trick of being intellectual but not dry, and I really enjoyed it. I kept pausing and exclaiming over how much I was loving it, and I was sad to see it end. I've been on a pretty erratic reading streak lately, so I appreciated how this arbitrary challenge still resulted in thematic learning. I love the idea of the library as this jungle to be explored.

Favorite lines:

- Certain genres hold themselves cheap. However good they are, however deeply they may affect us, they do not present themselves as more than entertainment. But some kinds of literature demand to be treated respectfully. The obligation is on the reader to live up to them and not so much on them to entertain the reader. What we call literary fiction is a genre with great aspirations. If a novel presents itself as serious, judging it becomes more complicated. That it isn't enjoyable does not immediately disqualify it from having succeeded. Literary fiction can say, "You will learn to love me in time. My difficulties are there for a reason. They will challenge you, but you will learn from them and be changed for the better."

- Changes in consciousness begin with art and take shape through discussion of art. But the process takes a long time and involves a lot of people working in small ways.

- ...the burden of family is now the central issue of women and creativity, whether the creativity is expressed in novels or interior design schemes, litigation or business plans, cupcakes or algorithms.

- The banal advice of writing teachers is "write what you know," but the truth is, you don't know a place until you write about it. "Write what you want to know" is more like it.

- The bookmark has moved from showing all ahead to most behind. ...more

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Sep 14, 2014 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The shelf wasn't quite as randomly chosen as the blurb for this book implies. The author wanted to pick a shelf which contained one classic she wanted to read and no more than five books by any one author. The shelf which went from LEQ - LES fitted her criteria and she embarked on reading the books contained on that shelf. She decided that if there were five books by a particular author then she would only undertake to read three of them. As the library she chose for her adventure in reading is The shelf wasn't quite as randomly chosen as the blurb for this book implies. The author wanted to pick a shelf which contained one classic she wanted to read and no more than five books by any one author. The shelf which went from LEQ - LES fitted her criteria and she embarked on reading the books contained on that shelf. She decided that if there were five books by a particular author then she would only undertake to read three of them. As the library she chose for her adventure in reading is a lending library she ran the risk of the shelf changing while she read but she managed to accommodate the changes.

I found it a fascinating book to read as it didn't just cover the books she read but also took a look at libraries and how they decide what to keep and what to buy in the first place. She discussed different formats of the various books and found that in some instances she found the format of the book got in the way of her enjoyment of it. If the book was very old and tatty or was printed in a very small font it was easier and much more enjoyable to read an e-book version where there was nothing to get between the reader and the text.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on 'Phantom of the Opera' as it takes in not just the original text but film adaptations of the story as well as the musical versions. I enjoyed the author's comments on literature in translation and how the translator’s desire to over inform the reader with a plethora of footnotes and explanations can interfere with the enjoyment of the text. Nabokov apparently did this with his translation of ‘A Hero of Our Time’ and the author turned to other translations which she found she could read with much more enjoyment.

If you enjoy books about books then you will probably enjoy this one. The author writes in an easy low key style and while she makes references to other more famous authors I think she succeeded admirably in her stated aim of reading outside the perceived canon of literature as taught in schools and universities. I enjoyed the book so much that I even forgave the author her trenchant comments on mystery and crime novels – which are my particular favourites. The book contains notes and an index.
...more

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Oct 27, 2014 Celena rated it liked it

Shelves: bibliotherapy

"Exactly what kind of eternity does a library provide?"
This was my favourite question formed from Phyllis Rose's reading adventure in The Shelf. It begins chapter eight on Libraries: Making Space. As a library assistant I enjoyed reading her explain of the need for weeding of library books as it is a much misunderstood necessity of our hallowed halls.
Under a set of somewhat flexible criteria, Rose sets about reading the contents of a shelf from the New York Society Library. She explores the wor ...more

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Oct 05, 2016 Kazen rated it liked it

Fear not, this is not a stunt memoir. Rose does read through a shelf at the library but it's not as extreme as the title suggests as there's no time limit, no angst when titles on the shelf change, and no diatribe about doing things right or wrong. The shelf is a device, a way to hang interesting conversations about reading and the literary world together.

I like what she has to say. While choosing a shelf she talks about how most of us have our reading chosen for us, be it by teachers and bestse ...more

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Sep 14, 2016 Ally rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction

Don't read this book. I'm not entirely sure why I finished it. I'm the kind of person who actually does like reading about people reading (my spouse thought this was bonkers). Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations, which I realize now were for a quirky millennial to have written this about wacky books she read and maybe some personal growth she experienced or ways she could relate the literature to her life. Instead, it was an author who was so convinced that she was worth listening to tha ...more

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Apr 13, 2016 Jo Walton rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have loved all of Rose's work and leapt on this as soon as I heard about it.

As you'd expect, it's a thoughtful and thought provoking volume, exquisitely written, and I raced through it.

Rose decides to read her way along a library shelf and think about canon, genre, gender, longevity of books and library systems. If you like my writing about books, and if you read in other genres, you will enjoy this. The only thing wrong with it is that it's too short -- I could have happily read twice as muc ...more

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Apr 01, 2015 Delaney Peterson rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, word-nerds, literary-criticism

Love the premise of the author's experiment and expected it to be a sort of extended literary personal essay. it was actually more of a structured collection of literary criticism (while simultaneously sort of being a commentary about being wary of literary criticism) interspersed with personal anecdotes and observations from the author as she writes about her experience of the project The literary criticism is much stronger than the memoir-style aspect of the book, which feels a little bland. B ...more

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Jun 22, 2014 Bobbi rated it it was amazing

Phyllis Rose got tired of being told what to read by reviewers, academics, genre purists, and everyone else. She set out to explore unknown and forgotten books, picked a shelf from random in the New York Public Library, and dove right in. I love it. Often upon finishing a book, I get depressed. I can't decide what to read next. I know what I should be reading (and am currently stalled halfway through The Human Comedy), but I always want something else, something more. I love to see other people' ...more

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Jun 22, 2015 Cassandra rated it it was amazing

This book is fantastic -- so much so that it inspired me to start keeping a book blog of my own, something that I thought I would never do. Rose is a very warm, generous reader, and her decision to read through a shelf of almost entirely forgotten library books (and then write these lovely essays about them) is just the sort of thing I am always wanting to do without ever quite having the nerve to take it seriously. Often when I read books about books it is really for the books, to find new thin ...more

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Feb 26, 2014 Becky rated it really liked it

Shelves: new

I enjoyed reading my first reads copy of The Shelf. I had just finished reading a spin off of Phantom of the Opera so a literary look at the Phantom intrigued me. Honestly, I have not read any of the books on the authors shelf but I found her descriptions interesting and well written. Her commentary through out the book on topics such as whether you can tell gender of an author from a passage and regionality of an author are thought provoking.

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May 15, 2014 Vicki rated it liked it

Recommended to Vicki by: Victoria

Started off wonderfully with a lot of questions about what makes the canon and why but got bogged down when the author described the plots of each novel. Enjoyed her feminist ranting and intelligent commentary on literary criticism - just could have been a good essay rather than a whole book (the problem with many non-fiction books today).

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May 29, 2014 Bill Fletcher rated it it was amazing

So far, my favorite book that I've read this year. I love the idea (picking a shelf reasonably at random in a library and then reading the books on that shelf) and I really love the way she takes that idea and riffs on it in unexpected ways. The only down side to reading this is the number of books I bought after she talked about them!

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Jun 11, 2014 Kris added it

I couldn't finish this book. I wanted to love it or sat least like it...what a great idea for a book, I thought. Take a shelf, find out what's there. But, it didn't work for me to read, at least not this version. Maybe, it will be my own action step though, to read a shelf. See what's there.

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Dec 29, 2014 Ally Martin rated it it was amazing

I enjoyed this book. It felt like my favorite English professor was taking me on an adventure in reading. It was interesting and instructive, and I found myself writing down Rose's pearls of wisdom and turns of phrase. I would happily go on another adventure in reading with her.

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Jun 16, 2014 Lauren Tomlinson rated it liked it

an interesting idea for an experiment and a book, but a little too much information in some cases made the book seem boring and drawn out

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Jan 21, 2015 Dlmrose rated it liked it

Shelves: winter-challenge-2014

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May 30, 2014 Debra rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned

Read more like a textbook than the novel I expected....

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About Phyllis Rose

Phyllis Rose

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Phyllis Rose is an American literary critic, essayist, biographer, and educator.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband, writer and illustrator Laurent de Brunhoff

Books by Phyllis Rose

Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages

Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time

The Year of Reading Proust: A Memoir in Real Time

Woman Of Letters: A Life Of Virginia Woolf

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Trivia About The Shelf: From L...

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Quotes from The Shelf: From L...

“The banal advice of writ in teachers is "write what you know," but the truth is, you don't know a place until you write it. "Write what you want to know" is more like it.” — 6 likes

“More people should visit Antarctica, metaphorically speaking, on their own. That is one of the conclusions I have reached, one of my recommendations: explore something, even if it's just a bookshelf. Make a stab in the dark. Read off the beaten path. Your attention is precious. Be careful of other people trying to direct how you dispense it. Confront your own values. Decide what it is you are looking for an then look for it. Perform connoisseurship. We all need to create our own vocabulary of appreciation, or we are trapped by the vocabulary of others.” — 4 likes

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