An Australian Proust Geek's Lookshelf

1) Who are you and where are you?

My name is James D, I am 24, and I live in Perth, Western Australia.

2) What do you do for work?

While I'm not currently employed, I am studying Psychology full-time.

3) What do you do for fun?

Read (duh!), spend time with my girlfriend, write, study (Yes, I find it to be fun!), and jog.

4) Tell me something about your bookshelves.

I have several bookcases from IKEA that have been attached to one another - it's almost like a Frankenstein's monster of bookcases. My photo only shows a small part of my whole bookshelf - I could have sent a photo of the entire thing, but it would have made it difficult/impossible to read the spines of the books. I don't sort my shelves, really - I just throw/squeeze the books into where ever they happen to fit.

5) Tell me something about ONE of the books on your shelf.

I have an English first edition of Marcel Proust's Jean Santeuil. Jean Santeuil is the book that Proust wrote (and never really completed) before he wrote his better known work, In Search of Lost Time.
I stumbled across the first edition from Shakespeare and Co in Paris. I couldn't believe my luck!

An Ivy-Denying Lookshelf

1) Who are you and where are you?

I'm an undergraduate student at Princeton University, NJ. When people ask me where I go to school, my standard response is "Uh, in New Jersey."

2) What do you do for work?

Besides school, I work at my university's LGBT Center and write as a freelance journalist for hyper-local publications. Also I blog. (But who doesn't nowadays?)

3) What do you do for fun?

When I have time for fun, I gather up my guy friends and we watch BBC Sherlock. Then we proceed to make snarky comments at each other as if we were Sherlock Holmes and the world was Watson/everyone else.

4) Tell me something about your bookshelves.

Surprisingly, only three of these books have been "assigned reading" from a class. As an English major, most of my books for school are piled on my desk, which is a photo for another blog. The rest of these books represent a pretty darn good cross-section of my pleasure reading interests: Sex/sexual minorities, Southeast Asia, dystopias, and satirical humor. Also, under my digital camera is a pocket US Constitution.

5) Tell me something about ONE of the books on your shelf.

The most embarrassing thing is that the two bad vampire romance novels, Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series aka the books that inspired True Blood, were given to me by a friend. I read the first page of Dead Until Dark, and nearly puked at the narrator's self description. I have left them there, wondering if I ever want to try again.

A Dating Coach's Lookshelf

1) Who are you and where are you?

I'm Adam LoDolce and I'm an inspirational dating speaker and a dating coach based out of Boston.

2) What do you do for work?

I help people improve themselves for the dating world. I focus on building men and women's self-esteem, confidence and something known as their social freedom: the ability to be outgoing and socially comfortable.

3) What do you do for fun?

Love to ride my motorcycle and play guitar.

4) Tell me something about your bookshelves.

I love self help books and books on dating.

5) Tell me something about ONE of the books on your shelf.

Being Alone Sucks is a book I wrote and, yes it's showcased on my shelf. It tells my own story and helps people with their dating lives.

A Kingsley Amis Lookshelf

1) Who are you and where are you?

I'm Tim and I live in Oakland, California.

2) What do you do for work?

I'm a writer.

3) What do you do for fun?

Enjoy the California coast, read, eat out.

4) Tell me something about your bookshelves.

These three shelves are devoted to a collection of novels and other writings (journalism, ephemera, criticism, etc.) by and about Kingsley Amis, one of the great figures of post-war British literature. All of the books shown here but one are British first editions, many of them signed by the author.

5) Tell me something about ONE of the books on your shelf.

"Colonel Sun" (2nd shelf, 2nd book from left) was the first authorized James Bond pastiche; it appeared in 1968 under the pseudonym "Robert Markham," though Amis's authorship was well publicized. Amis wrote two other books about the James Bond "canon."

A "One Man's Trash..." Lookshelf

1) Who are you and where are you?

Madeline Stewart, 24 year old Australian in Brisbane. 

2) What do you do for work?

I am a flight attendant, my face muscles constantly hurt from fake smiling at obnoxious, vile business folk. I am also a health promotion student working diligently toward a career where hopefully all smiles will be genuine.

3) What do you do for fun?

The usual, music festivals, house parties, road trips, painting, growing strawberries...

4) Tell me something about your bookshelves.

The bookshelf is organised in no particular order however as I'm short I put the ones I don't like (like my boyfriend's fish encyclopaedias) much further up the top. Those shelves didn't make the photo.

5) Tell me something about ONE of the books on your shelf.

The red book in the bottom left I plucked from a suburban garbage pile in Greenwich Village. I was on foot and treated it much like a flower picked passing by. As fate would have it, it was an art students watercolour journal from the 90's. It's full of amazing, provocative entries. I googled the owner and they're now the director of a rather famous art museum in New York.