Any serious book collector (and the most serious belong to The Grolier Club, that pre-eminent New York shrine) harbors a latent penchant for lists.
Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it. Those who do not do it, think of it as a cousin of stamp collecting, a sister of the trophy cabinet, bastard of a sound bank account and a weak mind.
I am a bit foggy on the actual progression of events... but an earlier post on this blog of mine inspired a strong desire to read William Benjamin's famous essay "Unpacking My Library". I spent ages trying to find the text online - even winding up at Harvard Press's website asking if they could direct me to the elusive text. I later discovered that it could be found in their publication "Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2: Part 2 1931-1934 Translated by Rodney Livingstone and others" - along with his essay, " Hashish in Marseilles".
The National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2009 awards in New York today. Author Elizabeth Strout, a 2008 finalist, announced the finalists at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. This year's recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award is prolific author Joyce Carol Oates.
Challenges may come from parents, teachers, clergy members, elected officials, or organized groups, and arise due to objections to language, violence, sexual or racial themes, or religious viewpoint, to name just a few. In 2008, the ALA counted 513 challenges. Many other cases go unreported.
It is well to remind ourselves that literature is first and last a means of life, and that the enterprise of forming one's literary taste is an enterprise of learning how best to use this means of life. People who don't want to live, people who would sooner hibernate than feel intensely, will be wise to eschew literature.
