Phyllis Rose embarks on a great reading experiment. She chooses a shelf at the New York Public Library at random and reads all the books on it. In the end, Rose reads 23 books by 11 authors: William Le Queux, Rhoda Lerman, Mikhail Lermontov, Lisa Lerner, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Etienne Leroux, Gaston Leroux, James LeRossignol, Margaret Leroy, Alain-Rene Le Sale, and John Lescroart. Phyllis Rose honestly admits when some of the books she reads are “weak.” And, I was amused when she took a “break” from reading the random books to binge on Alan Furst’s spy novels. I found Phyllis Rose to be a perceptive critic. Her experiment is one I’m unlikely to replicate (I’m way too focused), but I admire Rose’s spirit. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. The Experiment Begins
2. The Myth of the Book: A Hero of Our Time
3. Literary Evolution: The Phantom of the Opera
4. The Universe Provides: Rhoda Lerman
5. Women and Fiction: A Question of Privilege
6. Domesticities: Margaret Leroy and Lisa Lerner
7. The Nightingale and the Lark: Lernet-Holenia and LeRossignol
8. Libraries: Making Space
9. Life and Adventures: Gil Blas
10. Serial Killers: Detective Fiction
11. Immortality
George, this is an innovative approach to reading books that I’m not likely to copy either. I assume the 23 books she read over a period of time were always on the same shelf and there were no additions or subtractions by the library.
Prashant, Phyllis Rose runs into a problem when some of the books end up on a different shelf. She figures out that the shelving changed because she took out so many books from that one shelf!
I like her book on the marriages of some famous writers. Or I think that was it–been a while. There are certainly an obscure group of books and I wonder if the stunt was worth it.
Patti, I enjoyed Phyllis Rose’s comments on the books she liked and the ones she didn’t.
This is definitely not something I’d try.
Bill, I would never have come up with this idea in a million years. But, it was fun to see what happened.
Wouldn’t try it today, but in my youth, I would wander up and down the library aisles and pick books with interesting titles. I read many a book because of that rather random selection method.
Deb, my early reading experience was the opposite of yours. I started out reading all the Hardy Boy books the library had and then I moved on to the Science Fiction section.
I like it, though of course some of the authors – Le Queux? yikes – are not to my taste. Like Deb I used to wander the library just randomly looking through the fiction shelves for something that looked interesting. In fact occasionally I still do it.
I can think of weirder things. When I was a teenager my parents had a friend who lived near us who used to choose only red books at the library. Really. Any book that was rebound in red, he took.
Jeff, Patrick shelves his growing book collection by color. In fact, Patrick will be moving from his loft apartment in Albuquerque to a house that’s as big as ours next month.
Patti, I think maybe the book you are referring to is PARALLEL LIVES: FIVE VICTORIAN MARRIAGES. Carlyle, Ruskin, Dickens, George Eliot. George, she also wrote THE YEAR OF READING PROUST, something neither of us has been able to accomplish.
Jeff, I’ve tried to read Proust twice. I might give Proust one more try…but not this summer.
Some people just have too much time on their hands.
I think a lot of us wandered the aisles because I don’t remember there being much guidance then. I did look for familiar names until I ran out of them.