Sadly, I am guilty of doing the same thing with many a book, positioned coyly on a coffee table or under some knick knack as a prop telling the world how utterly fascinating and intellectual I am. The reality is that on any given day I am probably reading about the plight of Jessica Simpson’s weight gain or recent dumping in US Magazine, how to tighten up my abs in Women’s Health or Heath Ledger’s short life in Vanity Fair. I devoted my most recent post to what my car says about me. It isn’t pretty.

Well, I’m hating to have to tell you this, but you are me:)

of course - as kindred spirits - i listened to bittersweet symphony all day yesterday. i worked from home (do a few days a week thank god) and cruel intentions was on tv, so of course i couldn’t get it out of my head. i actually started reading again (took a long hiatus after all my reading i had to do in law school) partially because i bought these gorgeous new bookshelves/wine bar, and needed to fill it up. while they’re great decoration, and i can’t stand dust jackets that ruin the effect of the binding look on my shelves, i have actually read most of them. but i can’t write, unless you’re looking for a legal brief, which no one wants to read. so rock on. no mean messages here.

also with you on jen lancaster - i know you’re in the suburbs, but you have to come in if she and others like her do this witty women writers reading thing again. it’s at a book/wine/coffee place - awesome.

I find the bin marked Simplify in your cubby the funniest part.

I don’t read (I own less than 10 books total), and I barely write (see: blog), so what does that say about me? Is there a third option?

And let’s be honest, you really started blogging while you were still working but absolutely everything in your life was super insane crazy. (If that isn’t an understatement, I don’t know what is.)

Really though Brit, you have too many books. They’re detrimental to your health. I once heard they gave a straight man the HIV, and that’s just not cool. These kinds of things are real threats, kind of like global warming.

I admit I do much of the same. So many pretty books around the house, but rarely opened. I want that book “I Was Told There’d Be Cake”. Sounds like my kind of reading.

god it’s sickening how excited i get about books. but i disagree with your comment about those who can’t write, read. i get inspired by reading, and my writing usually improves as though i pick up style habits or something. so maybe that means i’m not original. and maybe i’m a lousy writer.

anyway, i dig your style. you got class.

As you say, the true way to tell what a person reads is not by looking at the bookshelves, but at what’s stacked by their bedside. However, the fact that you have your clock on top of all of them says… well, it says something. I’m just not sure what.

I was thinking last night that if I read more I might be a better writer but that would require me to leave the house and buy a book. I also have a gazillion journals with only a few pages of writing and it’s all crap but the covers are pretty.

Haha yay!

Well you have some fun books, and I too have shitloads of journals all over. I think that’s a mark of a genius, so we must be smart!

BTW….how do you get your photos to look so professional?? They’re like they’re taken out of a magazine!

Dear Evil Twin Bitch,

Oh how I’ve missed you so! I firmly believe that you must use everything in your arsenal in order to decieve people. otherwise life just isn’t worth it.

And apparently you’ve brought back the phrase opposite day. I am so happy that it has been unearthed from the Pee Wee Herman archives.

Lovingly Crafted,

Lola

I have a similar though much less esteemed habit- of collecting though rarely actually reading magazines. i have years of piles of magazines, many of which were not even flipped through. I just like to have them around to make it look like I have been following these publications forever. Not one person has been impressed by my archives though…

WTF…can you erase everyone else’s comment so I can be first. I have been working all day.

I have always done the exact same thing when it comes to journals. I love to write as well, but I lack followthrough. tragic.
However, I do read anything and everything, and I collect books, but I’ve read them all. :o) My quirk is that I don’t like to read books unless I own them - which is not very practical from an economical standpoint, but it’s my thing and according to my parents, I’ve always been that way.

btw - love the colors in the rooms in the pictures, as well as the cubby shelf!

Ah yes, I have the eternal nightstand bookstack myself. The problem is, I’m addicted to Barnes and Noble like a crack addict is addicted to, well, crack. I always seem to buy “just one more” book and add it to the pile.

“I’d get frustrated with either my handwriting…”

I hate admitting this (but what the hell, we’re in blogland anyway), I’m a complete FREAK when it comes to my penmanship. I’ve actually torn pages out of school notebooks and rewritten because, clearly, I need psychotherapy, or electroshock treatment, or an intense flogging, or an erasable pen (remember those?).

Those bookshelf cubbie holes are just so … so … so “put together.” It’s both sickening yet impressive at the same time. Just knowing that EVERY object has been positioned according to some rule brings a smile to my lips.

Jeez, by the way this reads, you’d think I was an OCD recluse with socially retarded tendencies. I’m pretty well adjusted, unless we’re talking penmanship…

OMG this is hilarious! As usual, perfectly executed. If I woke up and saw “50 boyfriends worse than yours” on my nightstand under my alarm clock I’d smile on a good day and smack the crap out of snooze on bad one. When it comes to your decor, it’s all in the exterior details and not about the interior of the books.
Your use of that particular photo is especially descripive. It matters not if you read the actual book. Who does that? And why would I want to when you’re telling a very visual story, all your own. Either that or your house is stalking me. Wait a minute that’s not why I feel so comfortable there, is it ? Eerie…

I know we’re talking books here, but I love love love the color of your walls. Mine are just a creamy puke-like pink. Now, back to books, really interesting compilation of titles. We have four medium to large book shelves and every one of them is a mess. I must have anti-ocd. Great post!

i can only wish that essence would start showing up at my house. i’d actually read a big chunk of that. i honestly can’t remember the last time i got past the cover of a flaunt or iD or even wallpaper for that matter. and yet there are three huge piles of them on my book(magazine) shelves. sigh.

Please excuse my previous outburst and lame excuses. I am better now. I have about 4 books on my nightstand. Sudoku, some paperback, a book about the Underground Railroad, and Uncle Johns Big Bathroom Reader.

Dearest Piece of My Blackened-Out Husk of My Soul,

The Cupcakes are in the mail. Although, I don’t recommend eating them. Given the last person who did… well, I am under legal obligation to keep their condition a secret.

Luvya,

Betch

The things you can learn from the books someone chooses to decorate with…

btw, Brit, the description of yourself as a former “barnes whore” is hilarious. Of course, it’s better than being a “barn whore” which is, well, a bit risque … even for this site.

I’m trying to figure out whether you’re a woman who tells me the truth by lying to me or if you lie to me by telling me the truth. Either way, you’re cool wit’ me.

Oh, and how can they call Redbook a magazine? Jus’ wonderin’….

I used to be able to say that I’ve read every book that I own. Can’t say so anymore though, I’ve bought dozens and dozens of books on Mother’s Day weekend at a book sale, haven’t read any of them yet. In fact, I can’t even get interested in reading since then Guess I’m doing too much writing in my blog…lol. I’ve always been an avid reader though, spending upwards of 12 hours sometimes even 20 in any given day reading! And yep, when I wasn’t reading, I’d be writing something! So what does that say about your “those who read can’t write”!?! jk, I’ve never had anything published, nor do I have any interest in being a paid writer…lol.

Of course I knew what you said was all in jest Brit, so was what I said…lol.

I’m not sure what this all says about you except that you have a keen eye for color nice neat piles…….as well as your talent for writing.

But!……you might consider switching the books off for some new titles if you should ever get writer block.

Girl, you crack me up!