Bookshelf Report: The Titanic Won’t Build Itself

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The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where we ask 5 questions and share 5 pictures of a bookshelf  belonging to a Bushwick reader. Today’s bookshelf comes from Amy Levenson. She is one of the organizers behind Moveable Type’s: Literary Mixer, a fun social event for book enthusiasts. The next mixer is on October 23rd at The Vermillion Art Gallery.

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What’s your favorite book on the shelf?

I’m very sentimental about books, so it’s nearly impossible for me to pick just 1 favorite. How about 3?

I have a copy of Taschen’s The Pedro Almodovar Archives, which I received as a gift. I’m a big Almodovar fan, and this edition is beautifully laid out with great content. This book rarely leaves my coffee table because I can flip to any page and be completely happy.

The Alien Vault has a special place in my heart because it was a huge labor of love to get it published. If you’re a fan, it has some really great stuff like Ridley Scott’s storyboards and some of H.R. Giger’s early concept designs.

Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee is another one of my favorites. After I read it for the first time it took me a while to pick up another book. There’s nothing quite like the terror of human nature.

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How do you organize your books?

Hmm. Most of the books end up living wherever they might fall, but every 6 months or so I get the great idea to alphabetize them, put them in the order I want to read them, or to  sort them by genre. I usually get as far as pulling a bunch of them off the shelves only to haphazardly put them back again. Hence Jesus on Thyface next to Zadie Smiths’s On Beauty… Sorry Zadie.

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Be honest. What percentage of the books on this shelf have you actually read?

I would say about 70%.  OK, maybe 65%.

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What book do you plan on reading next?

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I have made 5 or 6 false starts on this book, so it’s time to read the whole thing.

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Wild Card Question: Did you actually build the Titanic? What’s the deal? Inquiring Bushwick minds want to know…

I maybe have not exactly completely built this. I’ve seen it built before, though. Does that count? (*editor’s note: No) This project was for the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, which was last year. It’s pretty cool when it’s fully built – it’s to scale and about two feet long. Definitely building it on the next rainy day.

literaryMixer_bushwickBookClubThanks, Amy! Be sure to keep us posted on your Titanic project. I hope it turns out better than the real life Titanic (that did not end well).

And for those of you keeping score at home, you can meet Amy in person, along with a slew of other like minded book people on October 23rd at the next Literary Mixer. Tell them Bushwick sent you.

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