bookshelf

Via @henrymort, I came across this ideal bookshelf illustration project by Jane Mount. She's drawn and painted "snapshots" of the books people have on their shelves. It reminds me of this photo essay of what people keep in their refrigerators.

Anyway, one of my bookshelves resembles #25, minus the book at the end on the right side. There are parts of other shelves in this series that could also end up on my ideal shelf.

So I thought, hell, why not put together my ideal shelf as a little creativity prompt? If I only had one shelf of books, which ones would be on it? And that led to the question – would these piles of pages represent what I like to read or would they represent what I turn to depending on what I’m doing to keep myself occupied and out of trouble?

I chose a mix of both. The number of books in Ms Mount’s paintings averages at about 16-ish, depending on if you like to ignore decimal points or round them up. I went with 16.

So here it is, my ideal bookshelf:

(click for big, btw)

(I thought it would be easier to read the titles if they were stacked, rather than lined up.)

I’m curious. What does your ideal bookshelf look like? Feel free to post links to your picture (or your drawing, if you are so inclined to illustrate it) in the comments. And do go look at Ms Mount’s illustrations – really a neat idea.

This would also be a great prompt for music and movies - maybe in another post.