Thursday, July 19, 2007

View of My Desk: Updated With Titles

[Picture 1, Below: Work Desk] I'm just in one of those restless moods so I took a picture of my desk at work. Not very impressive but at least it's "neat". And that's Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Night in front of the keyboard. And a postcard picture of Penelope Cruz from the movie Volver.

[Picture 2, Below] Right at the edge of my work desk is the stack of my book reservations. Since I can't possibly buy everything all at once, I usually "stagger" the purchase - buying a few books at a time. Or checking the library for the titles.

Because I took the picture with my camera phone, the resolution is rather low. So, for those interested, the book titles, from the top:

  1. Mavis Gallant, Green Water, Green Sky
  2. Janet Frame, Owls Do Cry
  3. Barbara Sjoholm, Incognito Street: How Travel Made Me A Writer
  4. Loung Ung, First They Killed My Father
  5. Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveller of the 14th Century
  6. Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday & 2 more volumes of her Paris Journals
  7. Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts
  8. Mir Amman, A Tale of Four Dervishes
  9. Florence King, Confessions of A Failed Southern Lady
  10. Eileen Chang, Love In A Fallen City
  11. Proof copy for Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant, edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler
  12. Rebecca Solnit, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics
  13. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Omnibus Volume 1
  14. Ryszard Kapuschinski, The Shadow of the Sun
  15. Mahabharata I: The Beginning Volume 1
  16. Ryszard Kapuschinski, The Emperor
  17. Ryszard Kapuschinski, Another Day of Life
  18. Natsume Soseki, Botchan
  19. Danny Dreyer, ChiRunning
  20. Christopher Kremmer, The Carpet Wars
  21. Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond
  22. Catalogue from my publisher
  23. Proof copy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover

13 comments:

Heather said...

I love when people share stuff like this. I'm nosey I suppose but it gives me an insight or two into the person behind the blog. :)

darkorpheus said...

Well, Heather, if you have any insight or two into who I am, please tell me. I am usually the last person to know anything about myself. ;p

Anonymous said...

I love seeing pics like these too. Of course I'm squinting trying to make out the titles of some of those books :)

Andi said...

Mmm, so many books to virtually paw and drool over.

Anonymous said...

ah...! this is so cool! i like seeing where you work.

like heather and iliana i really like seeing this kind of stuff!

what do you do exactly, then?

darkorpheus said...

iliana: Sorry about that - just updated with a list of the book titles - if you're still interested.

Andi: There's actually some more books near the floor next to the desk - along with my stacks of catalogues - but that's a picture for another day. Another day after I do some house-keeping.

Jean Pierre: Thanks. Will see if I can get more pictures up soon - but the problem is I don't usually carry a camera around, and my camera phone is not exactly hi-res.

Plus I'm a crappy photographer. ;)

Bybee said...

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Way to go, Orpheus!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Holy cow, that second picture looks like an avalanche of books about to happen. Big pile!

How was Volver? I got it on Netflix once and never got around to watching it.

darkorpheus said...

Bybee: Thanks, I do try. Ha! I really have to try cutting down the bookpiles though.

Carl: Oh yeah. It's a growing pile. There's more actually.

Volver is fantastic. It's funny at some moments, touching in others. It reminds us that family and forgiveness is the most important thing in life. And Penelope Cruz is just beautiful to watch. Her character just charms you. When she has a director that knows how to use her, she shines. Penelope Cruz best watched with subtitles. :)

Amy Reads said...

Hi Dark Orpheus,
Florence King, Confessions of A Failed Southern Lady

A fantastic book! So glad to see it in the stack. Have you read it yet? If not, you're in for a treat!
Ciao,
Amy

darkorpheus said...

Hi Amy,

I'm reading Florence King right now - it's the book I read on the way to work and back. It's funny and if there's any truth to the things she wrote, it makes me think Southern ladies are just a little bit unhinged.

Anonymous said...

Nice photos!

Amy Reads said...

Hi Dark Orpheus,
I'm reading Florence King right now - it's the book I read on the way to work and back. It's funny and if there's any truth to the things she wrote, it makes me think Southern ladies are just a little bit unhinged.

I'm a Former Smoker (God, cigarettes, how I miss thee!) and my grandmother told me that "*Ladies* do not smoke and walk at the same time. Only *women* of *questionable virtue* smoke and walk. The *only* exception is Mardi Gras."

So, yep. A Bit Unhinged.

(But hey, just so y'all know, we're cuddly unhinged women, at least)

Ciao,
Amy