Es Muy Bueno: Organizing My Books
 
Of Maus and Mann
 
Remember those all-too-infrequently-shown cartoons where literary characters would step out of their respective tomes and interact? Usually a person, most likely seen from only the shoulders down, would put a book on a shelf and leave the room. Then Huck Finn would try to look up Jane Eyre’s dress by catching the hem with a fishing hook. Gone With the Wind would release a tempest and blow Ahab into the mouth of a white whale that would burp before swimming back into Moby Dick. I loved those cartoons and I always think about them when I organize my books.
 
Arranging is not just organizing, it’s also making new connections. Sometimes these connections are obvious and sometimes they are not. For example, Maus is a graphic novel so it seems like it should go with Ghost World or even Bloom County. But really, Vladek Spiegelman of Maus has more in common with the young Elie Weisel of Night than with Opus or Bill the Cat. Although the idea of anybody interacting with Bill the Cat is pretty hilarious to me.
 
One time I put The Collected Dialogues of Plato in my drama section. The dialogues look and read like drama, so why not? I liked the thought of Socrates pulling Prospero away from his magic or barhopping with Stanley Kowalski.
 
My bookshelves are a place for me to organize my own thoughts or create personal associations with particular works or across genres. And as I change my mind or mood or interests I can shuffle and reshuffle the books in a way that reflects these intimate designs.
 
And depending on my mood, I like to put Beckett’s works in nonfiction. What is so absurd about waiting and shit? It doesn’t get more real than that.

--Stephen McClurg