(no subject)

[sorcyress]

Went to party. Spent three quarters of the time sitting in a corner reading Fables. Had an excellent time, and assured the host of this. I desire more parties in which it is acceptable behaviour to take one of the books from the public bookshelf and spend large parts of the party reading this.

As an aside, it occurs to me that I should possibly set up or otherwise denote the differences between public and private books on my shelf. Some of them are too writ-in, or too dear (Ria, is it you who has one of my copies of Pirate's Mixed Up Voyage?) or on occasion too old/valuable/fragile to be on a common bookshelf. At any rate, my bookshelf is always open for a visual geek-check. Ask me if you're interested in a tactile one, and I'll give you opinions.

Tomorrow involves more parties, to which I probably won't venture out of the house for until close to two PM. Huzzah or something. No, this doesn't at all mean I'll finally get a good night's sleep¹, that's not going to happen until Saturday at the earliest, and I'm sure I'll find something going on then. My life, it is terrible.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: I have stayed up much too late for much too many days in a row, and as such only getting about six hours of sleep or so a night. It's probably beginning to wear on me. I may investigate naps in the near future.

Comments

[merseine]

An acquaintance of mine has a bookshelf near his front door on which he places books that he's finished with for whatever reason - he's read them and won't re-read them, bought a bag-o-books at a yard sale and doesn't want to read 2 of the twenty books that were in the bag, whatever.

All his friends know that those are not only public books, they are looking for new homes. So, as his friends leave, they peruse the shelves and help themselves to a book - guilt free and everything. It's a fantastic idea.

He said that he dated someone once who commented on this shelf the first time she saw it. There were around 20 books on that shelf and her comment was: "Wow... have you read ALL these books??" He knew right then and there that this relationship was doomed.

[sorcyress]

What a brilliant idea. I may have to start doing that --we certainly have an abundance of bookshelves in this house (we keep adopting them off the streets --I love living in a collage town :D)

Hell, depending on how my roommates feel about it, it could even become our take-a-book, leave-a-book shelf or something.

***

I try really hard not to be an intellectual elitist, because being an anything elitist is kinda stupid (most of the time it just means "the things I have spent time on are not the same as the things you have spent time on"). But it's a deeply ingrained thing, the first time I am in someone's house, to go look at their bookshelf. When they do not have a bookshelf¹ I find myself discombobulated.

~Sor

1: Technically if they have no bookshelf I ask if they read their books through the computer or an ereader. If the answer to that is *no*, then I get boggled. How do you...not...read? Does not compute!

[mindways]

I desire more parties in which it is acceptable behaviour to take one of the books from the public bookshelf and spend large parts of the party reading this.

I think "passive social interaction" deserves more conscious acknowledgment as a way of spending time with folks - situations when you're deliberately in someone's company, but not paying exclusive attention - or even primary attention - to each other.

(Kinda like my nap + your reading on the Common the other day, in fact.)

I keep a vague sort of mental track of friends who both understand and appreciate this sort of thing, as sometimes I'm really in the mood to do my own thing in someone else's company.

[sorcyress]

I grew up in a household where passive social interaction was so accepted it was practically encouraged, and it's one of the things I miss most about The Empty City. Being able to go into my room and close the door is very nice, but I also want to live in a space where there's anywhere up to half a dozen people just casually hanging out in the house who don't technically live there. Maybe they're doing things with mom or me¹ but maybe they're just on their own laptop in the computer room or curled up reading one of our thousands of books.

At any rate, I have two regularly used phrases that boil down to about the same thing. Parallel Play and Work in Company are both things I encourage and want in the world. Hell, maybe I'll host a party for that sometime, where yes, there will be social and chatting and chips and dip, but also you're encouraged to bring your laptop or your knitting or your novel-in-progress or your homework and get it done.

~Sor

1: Other things I miss, living in a house with enough people and games to be able to float through and say "Anyone up for Dominion?" and have that happen, regularly. I hated Columbia, but oh, the world within the walls of my childhood home was such a good one.