Yesterday i was lucky enough to catch a talk by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen on their new book ‘The Library - a fragile history’, a book which i really thoroughly enjoyed.
They touched on the fact, with a little irony, that ‘ownership’ is not the same as ‘consumption’, that people have books in their library that they have not read! I am guilty of this, relying on the process of osmosis for the wisdom in their pages to transfer to my head without actually reading them.
For this reason, it’s arguably hard to reconstruct the interests and knowledge of a person from the library they leave behind (or that sits behind them on a Zoom call: we all have books we were given, but will not read, and perhaps books that we have lent out that have not yet returned to us (i’m looking at you Susie!).
Use your sixty seconds today to find a book that tells me who you are, what you are about.
(If you do not have any books, you could choose a film, or piece of art, or a blog or podcast. Even an object - an item of clothing or jewellery maybe.)
It has to be a book that you have read, and that has changed you. And that tells me something about who you are.
Then maybe use this thought as the basis of a conversation with someone else.
Ok - since you asked, here is mine: ‘Waterlog’, by Roger Deakin. It’s a beautiful book about wild swimming, by a naturalist who found beauty in describing small things in detail - his books are diaries really, full of gentle observation and contemplation. I find his work shows a deep connection to the landscape of his ‘home’. It really resonated with me and i’ve read it again and again.
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