2002-09-06 - 12:04 a.m.
This whole house is full of books. And the fact that we have to keep buying more bookshelves doesn't deter us from buying more. Having lots of books is one of the things that makes my life feel really rich and I love that feeling. But I do have a short list of books that are my true life companions, the books that showed me something important about life or just opened doors for my imagination. These are the books I keep on the little shelf next to my desk:
A Life In Hand-- Creating the Illuminated Journal by Hannah Hinchman
I bought this book eleven years ago, and it changed my life. I started combining my writing with art in visual journals, as Henchman does, and discovered a whole new relationship with the journal keeping process and with my art. I had plenty of practice in the processes of Art (with a capital A), but I was so brainwashed by my art degree that anything I turned my hand to had to be some kind of statement. And so I often didn't do it at all. Hannah Henchman inspired me to take up drawing again, just as a way of seeing and learning about the world. I started drawing everything around me, and remembered why I used to love it so much. She shows examples from her journals, and gracefully makes suggestions on how the reader might approach his/her own work. Her other book, A Trail Through Leaves is similar and goes into more depth on interacting with the nautral world.
Poems by Anne Michaels
I read Anne Michaels poetry over and over, and I always feel this sense that every word is exactly what it should be, inevitable, perfect, and that I was meant to read it, and it was meant to change the way I see things. It is that beautiful.
And her novel, Fugitive Pieces is the only work of fiction on my shelf. It is the most poetic prose I ever read.
Too Sad to Sing: A Memoir with Postcards by Kenneth S. Brescher
Brescher describes his life through a series of postcards in a way that always reminds me how powerfully images can communicate. He approaches the big questions in ways that I had never considered before. This is a quote from the book:
There are cards I have been waiting to send someone for ten years. Cards that are my version of a lock of hair, a book of hours, an amulet. Cards whose image alone carries the message: "This is the proof that I have understood who you really are"; or "Please know that this is what you can expect if you love me"; or "Can anything be more beautiful than this?"
The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seekers Guide to Making Travel Sacred by Phil Cousineau
I can only dream of taking the kind of trips that Cousineau describes, but his philosophy of seeking the sacred wherever you go is applicable to all of life. He reminds me of how much I can learn from my surroundings if I am able to keep my heart and mind as well as my eyes open. This is a book you can pick up and open anywhere and read a page, and it will be meaningful. Sometimes I do that.
Time and the Art of Living by Robert Grudin
Grudin writes his philosophical inquiry into the nature of time in a collection of short passages that collectively make up a complex and elegant statement. He reflects deeply on the quality of time in our lives, and challenges our assumptions about the fourth dimension. This book contains so many things I have thought and yet have never been able to articulate. I read it with a breathless sense of recognition. It is the second most underlined/highlighted book in my collection.
Notes on How To Live In The World and Still Be Happy by Hugh Prather
This is the book that taught me that my happiness really was up to me. He presents the concept of surrender, as opposed to giving up: the idea that you can let go of your need to control things and still be okay. He says "Nothing has to go right for me to be happy." and I have tried to incorporate that thought into my life. It might be surprising that I am so attached to a book with religious overtones (Prather is a minister), but this book does not ask you to believe any particular dogma. It is just about finding within yourself what you need to be happy. I have had it for a long time and I still find answers in it. This is the most underlined/highlighted book in my collection.
Inevitable Papers by Cooper Edens
A tiny book of mysterious collages that I love. I have looked at it zillions of times. And I have the other books by Cooper Edens... If You Are Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow is considered a children's book, but children don't understand it. His gentle flights of fancy keep me from getting too bogged down in reality and literal meanings.
The Merchant of Marvels and the Peddler of Dreams by Frederic Clements
The English version of a charming little French book, full of pictures and paintings, and different type styles. It is about a marvelous and funny collection of things. Whenever I read it I feel happy and full of possibilities. Skootie once bought it for me as a welcome home gift once when I was out of town.
Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell by Charles Simic
Simic writes a series of poems and prose-poems about Cornell's art that illuminate and add to what Cornell was expressing, as well as being intriguing pieces on their own. He says: Making art in America is about saving ones soul. Which brings me to the book on the work of my favorite artist:
Joseph Cornell Ed. Kynaston McShine
Sometimes I just need to look at the Cornell's work to reconnect with the mysterious and poetic. There are secrets there that will never be know, but it changes you to enter his world for even a moment.
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