Interview the person below you

Post Reply New Topic

My wife got me into doing it occasionally: I don’t do it to antiques, but I have a repo half-moon table I painted to have a orange/green sunburst on the top and marbled the legs a really dark green, with black trim.
So it’s now my half-sun table.
I did try doing it for income once, but I’m too slow & nit-picky to make a wage off of it.

I definitely notice it, and don’t like it, but I’ve never sent a book back.

(Not Isabella but multiple times, used to live in Huddersfield)

Do you intersperse your books with shelves dedicated to other collections or keep them separate?

That sounds really cool!



How nice, it's such a lovely place

On occasion, I've had issues with the quality of the paper but not often. But I can relate, books are a very sensory experience for me too: touch and smell in particular. I have a lot of books printed in the XIXth century and I love their smell.

K: I'm pretty OCD about it, I like knowing where to find them with my eyes closed, so I just built my own bookcases according to my own needs and "system". It's a bit like the Unseen University's Library minus the ape

Anybody else here has a similar fascination as Isabella's for Emily with a writer, artist, historical figure etc? I'm not talking about a "crush" here, but the desire to study and understand every aspect of the individual and their work

Probably Marx: just the sheer level of his impact on the world both through his own thought, and the arguments against is fascinating.
Leads to having a lot of very depressing books though.

Same q

Dostoevsky - I've made similar efforts to Bella in reading his letters, journals, biographies etc. I can't claim the same level of expertise.

May I ask, regarding Marx, do you also feel some adherence/agreement with his ideas or just fascination with his impact (I've had a phase with Stalin, needless to say, I hope, it was like a watching a car-crash fascination as I find the man, his deeds and ideas if you could call them that, repulsive)

Interesting: his picture of capitalism containing the seeds of its own destruction I found compelling from the man himself, although hmpf I didn’t think his ‘solution’ to put it kindly even fits his own analysis.
It also seems to rely on leaps of purple prose that have a very Christian eschatological underlying structure... which makes me wonder if he was being self-consciously manipulative.
(I was swept up by Capital when I was reading it though, just afterwards as I turned it over again and again a seemed to shimmer and crack)

Last biography I read was volume two of Kotkins on Stalin.
Yeees... like watching something horrific in slow motion.
Man comes across as almost a supremely high-functioning psychopath if that makes sense.

Does the way history sections of bookshops are stocked to reflect current eventsever frustrate you?

Thank you for answering, the manipulation observation is particularly interesting. Marx is a fascinating paradox as he was both innately and inherently a bourgeois.

Spot on about Stalin too.

Any bookshop stocked to reflect current events will drive me mad, just look at the biography section, it's all Kardashians and Gordon Ramsey (who is a wonderful chef but I don't care to know about his escapades).

So I either order online or visit one of our many antique/used bookshops, it's a lot less disturbing.

Same q

Yes it angers and distresses me. More than once I rearranged it myself to put the ludicrous stuff near the back though it was front and centre displayed in pride of place. Real actual works of hate which are trash.

Idk how my brother is doing a masters in history n world politics... I wd go crazy with depression.

Do you own a trampoline?

I’ve noticed that if any given country is in the news for a long enough period of time, popular histories of that country or its major events tend to increase and displace other aspects I might be more interested in now.

I buy most of my books from the charity bookshop I volunteer in. I like the randomness of what is actually interesting when I’m confronted with it: bit like having a whole series of well-chosen surprise presents.

Never owned a trampoline, I went on one once: did not enjoy.

Do you find you always have a large ‘too read’ stack?

Yes I do. It's stupid because the majority of the time thry are library books that I dont finish reading and keep extra long and have to pay fines for. Just like my paying the gym membership though it has been almost 3 years since I used it properly.

Same Q and to add: name one of them (in your 'to-read' pile)

Yes, I always do. Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetary as it's his only book I haven't read yet and he's not going to write more. So I keep postponing it, knowing it's the last of his books I'm going to read.

Same q

Nice to see you here, blooie, I hope you're not doing too poorly

Currently running to two entire shelves to read, grabbing one at random without looking: Romantic Music: a history of musical style in nineteenth century Europe by Leon Plantinga.

I find myself amusing, that is my whole way of being amuses me, do you also find yourself amusing?

That's like me not using my discontinued lipsticks bcuz i know once i use it up theres nothing like it, though ive been looking for similar colours or trying to replicate them by mixing colours.

Then they will just go bad without even being used properly... At least books do not expire.

I only quoted this bcuz the last line made it sound like im a feeble elderly dear, in a hospital bed, when Im not .

No I do not. I find myself tedious...petulant ...annoying.


I like Weird Al Yankovic I wouldnt mind being him, with his personality and mind included.
Or my sister. She sounds like a squeaky Looney Tunes character that in itself is amusing.

Same Q

I hear you could look for discontinued cosmetics on Ebay

I'm sorry to hear that, around here you come across as lovely and interesting, never tedious or annoying. I grew fond of this thread and love your answers here.

I like Weird Al too, he cheers me up and caters wonderfully to my "inner idiot/child" moments. I'm sure the man would make for a wonderful friend or roommate.

Wow.. Imagine.

My younger plays like this right now. He also has ASD n i always see him do things like this at daycare. So many stéréotypes match up

But... it must have been the seventies! Punishing a child for choosing the wrong gender toy? WTF!

What was the last question?