Memberkaixo

About My Library

»A second shock of banality occurs to many people in my condition—that is, people who possess a fairly sizable library (large enough in my case that someone entering our house can't help but notice it; actually it takes up the whole place). The visitor enters and says, “What a lot of books! Have you read them all?” At first I thought that the question characterized only people who had scant familiarity with books, people accustomed to seeing a couple of shelves with five paperback mysteries and children's encyclopaedia, bought in installments. But experience has taught me that the same words can be uttered also by people above suspicion. It could be said that they are still people who consider a bookshelf as a mere storage place for already-read books and do not think of the library as a working tool. But there is more to it than that. I believe that, confronted by a vast array of books, anyone will be seized by the anguish of learning, and will inevitably lapse into asking the question that expresses his torment and his remorse.

»The problem is that when someone says, “Eco? You're the one who always answers,” you can reply with a little laugh and, at most, if you want to be polite, with “That's a good one!” But the question about your books has to be answered, while your jaw stiffens and rivulets of cold sweat trickle down your spine. In the past I adopted a tone of contemptuous sarcasm. “I haven't read any of them; otherwise, why would I keep them here?” But this is a dangerous answer because it invites the obvious follow-up: “And where do you put them after you've read them?” The best answer is the one always used by Roberto Leydi: “And more, dear sir, many more,” which freezes the adversary and plunges him into a state of awed admiration. But I find it merciless and angst-generating. Now I have fallen on the riposte: “No, these are the ones I have to read by the end of the month, I keep the others in my office,” a reply that on the one hand suggests a sublime ergonomic strategy, and on the other leads the visitor to hasten the moment of his departure.«

— Umberto Eco, How to Justify a Private Library, 1990

Location

Berlin, Germany

Memberships

TinyCat

LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Currently Reading

Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft: Die Grundlegung der modernen Philosophie by Otfried Höffe

Wirres Haar: 399 Tanka. Übersetzt von Eduard Klopfenstein by Akiko Yosano

Travels with a Writing Brush: Classical Japanese Travel Writing from the Manyoshu to Basho by Meredith McKinney

Grace: From the Booker Prize-winning author of Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Blinde Weide, schlafende Frau by Haruki Murakami

Japan Story: In Search of a Nation, 1850 to the Present by Christopher Harding

Ich trank Gift wie kachetischen Wein: Autobiografie by Lana Gogoberidse

Letters from a Stoic (A Penguin Classics Hardcover) by Seneca

Rahel Varnhagen: Lebensgeschichte einer deutschen Jüdin / The Life of a Jewish Woman (Hannah Arendt: Kritische Gesamtausgabe/Complete Works: Druck und Digital/Print and Digital) by Johanna Egger

Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart by Robert Frost

So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers (Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture) by Donald Keene

Dandelion Wine: Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury

Favorite Authors

Kōbō Abe, Inio Asano, Paul Auster, Alan Booth, Julio Cortázar, E. E. Cummings, Osamu Dazai, Max Frisch, Franz Kafka, Yasunari Kawabata, Donald E. Knuth, Gabriel García Márquez, Yukio Mishima, Shigeru Mizuki, Haruki Murakami, Cees Nooteboom, Fernando Pessoa, Jirô Taniguchi, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Naoki Urasawa

Favorite Lists

Books Read in 2016, Japanese Literature

Local Favorites

Bookstores: Bücherbogen am Savignyplatz, Bücherstube Marga Schoeller, Buchhandlung Anakoluth, Buchhandlung Walther König I, Buchladen zur schwankenden Weltkugel, Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung Peter Hinke, DAS BUCH am Hackeschen Markt, Fundus, Grober Unfug, Internationaler Comicladen, Knesebeck Elf, Modern Graphics, comics & more, Yamashina, Japanische Buchhandlung

Libraries: Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, Haus Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek

Member Connections

Friends

acrolibrary, cauchy, hypobib

Interesting Library

accidental, acrolibrary, AFBorchert, anneken, AnthonyTFS, athaulf, baisemain, Baopu, basvodde, catarina1, conceptDawg, dcozy, domgabfil, Echnaton, falkman, Fogies, fwilhelm, HannahArendtLibrary, harmen, harveysmoke, Hempel, henrik, Hughie2, idiosyncratic, jcbrunner, johninvienna, kallimachos, kiyoaki, kleo, knerd.knitter, Kuroyagi, le.vert.galant, lilisin, marietherese, mherger, miss.mesmerized, pmcjones, pmller, rainerc, roulette.russe, scottja, signature103, sokuratzu, spaetij, sriq, t_c_s, The.New.Institute, theoria, valpa, weydert, ziobrando, zumbrunn