A little while ago, I ran across a link to the website of artist Nina Katchadourian, and I was instantly captivated by her Sorted Books project.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I decided to play, too.
But first, a disclaimer: Obviously, she’s an artist and I’m not. Her books are beautifully arranged and photographed, the subjects are carefully chosen, and the whole thing is a meaningful artistic expression.
I’m just a copycat, and a poor one at that. My photography sucks, my arrangements look like they were stacked by an inebriated orangutan, and my subjects are distinctly low-brow.
But I’m a rabid book lover, and I’m endlessly fascinated by the variety of titles we all have stockpiled on our shelves. And besides, this was fun!
Here’s what I came up with from my personal shelves:
In the “Philosophical” category…
Some days…
I usually feel this way about half-way through writing a novel.
In the “Contradictory Advice” category…
So… what am I supposed to do?
In the “Okay, That Makes Sense” category…
Sounds like a standard action-movie plot…
Can anybody else relate? P.S. “In A Fix” is by my blogging buddy Linda Grimes – check it out!
Seems like a natural progression to me.
In the “I’ve Got A Dirty Mind” category…
‘Nuff said. But check out “Trousering Your Weasel” by another blogging buddy, Murr Brewster!
When you find a title like “In The Wet”, it’s hard to avoid saying something inappropriate…
In the “What Was IN Those Brownies?” category…
Aaaawww… man… now I’ve got the munchies…
And in the “Lines Forms Here” category…
…and if you really believe you’ll find such a thing… please take a number.
The line forms to the left – please, no pushing!
What is your library saying?
Author Diane Henders 
What a cool idea! And what a funny ‘copy’ of it 😉
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Thanks – it was fun to do!
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Totally enjoyed the laugh with your book titles. I could relate….if I still had my library! After 50 years of collecting books and loving every one of them a massive house fire destroyed them all. **sigh** One of the reasons I do love the Kindle. While I do miss the physical feel of the books themselves and the fact that I can’t run my fingers along the shelves and caress the bindings, at least I know that if anything devastating happens again, my library is in my purse! LOL
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Oh, it’s so sad that you lost all your beloved books! Fire is one of my greatest fears – I don’t have any “valuable” books, but they’re valuable to me and I’d never be able to replace them. I do have lots on my Kindle, but they don’t mean as much to me as my old book-friends on the shelves.
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Fabulous Diane. I needed a good laugh today. 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it! Wishing you lots of good laughs whenever you need them. 🙂
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Awesome idea, Diane (and Nina), and some great book combinations.
And yes, I noticed Probably Inappropriate sneak in there!
Cheers!
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Thanks, Nigel! And yes, it’s funny how inappropriateness seems to “dog” my footsteps. (Sorry, that one’s just for you – I couldn’t resist) 😉
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THIS IS FABULOUS!!!!! I love this idea, and I adore your take on it. I may have to try this with my students!
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I’m glad you got a kick out of it! That would be a very cool project to do with your students – if you do, I hope you’ll do a blog post with the results. A classroom full of bright students and a whole library full of books… what could possibly go wrong? 😉
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LOL. I prob. won’t show the examples from your post! They are elementary students after all!
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At the bottom of Nina Katchadourian’s website, there is mention of a similar project with sculpture and mixed media. That reminds me of the museum scene in Steve Martin’s movie, “LA Story.” One of my favorites. But the thought of doing this sort of thing with real art is totally overwhelming to me. I have neither the patience nor the wherewithal even to attempt such. I can, however, dream of doing so.
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I didn’t see ‘LA Story’, but I’m daunted by any project involving the creation of real art. I guess some of us are just meant to be art appreciators, not artists. 😉
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LOL! Oh, I LOVE this! And I’m honored to have my book included. I especially love its placement between “Smart Women” and “Flipping Out.” Perfect! 😀
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I’m glad you approve! I couldn’t leave Ciel out of the mix. 😉
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Fun post, Diane! I love this idea.
For me to copy you, though, I’d have to find my books. They are around here somewhere… but where???
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They must be somewhere about the Grinds, Tom! I have the opposite problem – I have so many books it’s hard to find a place in the house where they aren’t.
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I received “Sorted Books” for my birthday earlier this year and I loved the creativity! I keep meaning to try it out with my books–like any booklover, I certainly have enough to choose from! 🙂
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It was a lot of fun! I would have loved to be able to create a short story the way she did with her “Shark 1”, “Shark 2” titles, but I couldn’t quite make it work. Must go and buy more books… 😉
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Oooohhh, this is gonna be FUN!!!
Lynn B.
Silence is golden. Duct tape is silver…
>
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Bahaha!!! That’s hilarious… in a creepy sort of way…
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That’s the sig line on my phone. Sorry, probably shoulda deleted that. 🙂
I was just thinking, I could do this with the DVDs in the drawers under the player. I’ve giggled a few times while rifling the drawers looking for a movie. I’ll be reading the titles to myself as I dig through the stacks and occasionally something bizarre and hysterical will break through. Like this one: I, Robot, The African Queen. Still makes me laugh.
Many times I’ve spent over an hour sorting and arranging the mess into into an order that apparently is logical only to me. Everyone else who wants to find a movie invariably returns the contents to a random jumble. They’ll hold up the case and triumphantly yell, “Found it!” and be all proud of themselves. I’ll shrug to myself and try not to throttle them.
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Nothing worse than when somebody else messes with your system! You’re right, this would be fun to do with DVDs, too. But now I can’t rid myself of the mental image of Sonny talking with a Bogie drawl…
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Hey, can I borrow your inebriated orangutan?
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Sure, no problem! And when he’s finished stacking your books, he also does better dental surgery than the guy that left the bone chips in my jaw about 10 years ago…
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I’ll just stick with the book stacking – thanks.
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Probably a wise choice.
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Love this! What a great idea. I particularly enjoyed ‘Bloodthirsty Nutcase Hooked on Combat.’ Really should be the title of your next book, I think. What a fun post. I’ll have to see what my books tell me when I get some downtime.
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Yes, I loved her creativity – what a perfect opportunity to do two of my favourite things: play with words and handle books! And I’ll get right on that next title… 😉
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