A longhorn in the living room

Many years ago an old friend visited my home for the first time and was taken aback by the lack of I suppose what she considered a substantial amount of books on my shelves. She asked where my books were in my home. I was momentarily rendered speechless and could only mutter something to the effect that they were in my head. (I didn't mention the attic for fear of setting off a lecture). That incident prompted me make some hard rules about what books find a home on my shelves. Which in turn prompted frequent conflict and guilt when I found I have violated my rules, mostly out of laziness, acquiescence and primarily inattention. My shelves also show that I am conflicted. I have let some things creep into the shelves that ought not be there, mostly because there is not one other person I can think of that would appreciate a permanent loan of them. But mostly the creep is due to the fact I just feel honored to have the chance to enjoy books and that the keeping of them is incidental. That I choose not to display them does not so much reflect who I am and what I believe as much as it reflects my choice to share them freely and often. Recently I began reading essays and blogs about bookshelf etiquette. It seems there are a lot of people out there who have the ongoing debate with themselves about what to keep, and not only that but how to keep them. A few of particularly amusing quotes provided by Jennifer Shuessler in an entry entitled Bookshelf Etiquette Papercuts , found in the NYTimes online. “Bookshelves are not for displaying books you’ve read…. Rather, the books on your shelves are there to convey the type of person you would like to be.” —Ezra Klein “My experience is that some books end up accumulating out of a misguided attempt to win the approval of authors already well-entrenched on my shelves.” —McLemee “Books represent the overriding point of conflict in my marriage.” —Richard LeComte A relative of my husband once curmudgeonly remarked, "There are too many books written". While I laughed to myself at the time, he certainly made me think that he was a kindred spirit in many ways. Certainly there are too many books for my living room. So what books do I consider reference books, and therefore keepers? Those that I go to often. The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children, the atlas, Barbecue, Biscuits and Beans: Chuck Wagon Cooking (Cauble and Teinert). And anything written by Cormac McCarthy. Are they on my living room bookshelves? Probably not. I have probably loaned them out.