Apr 09 2007
Shelf Life
It is said that you can learn a lot about
someone by just looking at their bookshelf.
…Some of my green books…
A little Project Spectrum experiment. I don’t keep my books sorted by color, but I do enjoy putting them in this arrangement every once in awhile to see what titles and topics end up next to each other.
Indeed, the books on my shelves tell stories about me.
I had a hard time narrowing down a major in college. I liked so many things equally. I went in thinking that I would be an English major - I loved language and writing, so why not. I bopped around and took a few classes in all of the humanities and social sciences, and found a very loving home in the Ancient Studies department. It was a small faculty that focused mainly on classical studies of Greece and Rome. I took ancient Greek every day at 8am. We worked our way through Xenophon’s Anabasis [seen above], telling the story of the Greek armies battling with the Persians. We also read the Greek New Testament, the Septuagint, as well as many notable Greek philosophers and poets. A daily dose of the ancient language for three years… and I am lucky if I can remember the alphabet now. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly it goes if you don’t keep up with it.
While I enjoyed the classical studies, my true passion was for the Near East. I petitioned my professors to offer more courses about the Eastern Mediterranean: the history, the archaeology, the religions, and the language. I supplemented my major of Ancient Studies with a Religious Studies minor. My professors in the two departments knew of my interest and were able to organize some very interesting courses throughout my tenure at the university, among them a course in Jewish Mysticism, encompassing ancient and medieval mystic practices. It was a fascinating class with an exhaustive reading list; the book above, Major Trends…, is an incredibly dense book, yet so chocked full of information on the subject. It was one of our textbooks for the semester.
The last two years of my undergraduate career were steeped in Hebrew - both ancient and modern. (At one point I was taking Greek in the mornings and Hebrew in the afternoons - I was definitely living in the past!) I went to another university in the area that offered ancient Hebrew and transferred my credits. Before taking this first class, I had no experience with the Hebrew language. The majority of the people in my class were Jewish and knew their aleph-bet, but I started from scratch. However, in a matter of weeks, we were all reading Biblical passages with ease. Hebrew is surprisingly easy to learn once you get started! My background in the ancient language made it easier for me to pick up the modern language when I did my study abroad in Israel in 2000. When I returned from Israel, I took a summer ulpan, and actually had phone conversations entirely in Hebrew. I marvel at this now, as I am SO out of practice, and while I still can remember some words and constructions in speech, it takes me much longer to read.
I graduated from college in 2002. I wanted to continue my Near Eastern Archaeology studies into graduate school, and I applied to several universities. I was rejected from my first choice, and I lost steam. I began to evaluate: did I really want to be in school for seven or more years studying long-dead languages and the stratigraphy of a tel? The truth is that I really did want to continue, but I became very nervous about actually finding a job in the profession after devoting years of my life to it.
So, I took some time off. I worked in a book store, and then I moved into library work at the same institution that rejected me from their graduate program. I read lots and lots of books - I devoured them actually - reading three to four books a week. I had always been a voracious reader, and had often considered a career in library science. It wasn’t until this break that I felt a strong pull. After some consideration, I applied to two library school programs and was accepted by both. I knew that I wanted to continue my study of history and culture, like I had done in undergraduate, and I enrolled in the Rare Books/Special Collections/Archives tract of the program in 2004. I was also accepted into the History department for a double Masters degree. Over the two years, I took a broad range of theoretical and methodological courses on library science, archival studies, museum studies, and history.
After a particularly difficult semester (fall 2005) I decided to postpone the History degree. By that time I was working as a contract archivist for a great institution (the same place I currently work) and the Library degree was the most important rite of passage. By December 2006, I graduated with my degree in Library Science, and was hired as the full-time archivist for the collections at the same institution.
You never know where you will end up. I realize that I am still at the beginning of my journey. One minute I thought I would be doing the whole academia/professorial thing: years of dissertation research, publish or perish, tenure-track. For so long I thought I would be compromising if I did anything else.
Archivist/Librarian by day, knitter/blogger by night. I would never have guessed that five years ago!
Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with my choices. It is because of these choices that I now have the time to devote to my true passions: knitting and crafting, blogging, reading, exercise, and travel. (All represented on my bookshelf!)
…and who knows what the future holds?
Yeah, and those are just the stories that my green books tell! 
Hi Lolly — Love reading the re-cap of your career path. When we had lunch, I was fascinated to hear about your interest in Hebrew and Jewish history. (You know far more than this Jew!)
Leslie
I’m always hesitant to sell/donate my books because I love the stories they tell about me. I always loved moving and rearranging my books alongside my husband’s to see how they spelt our lives out. Now, with a toddler around, our books are all in boxes, but I love digging though them. Thanks for sharing.
Oh boy do I understand the pressure to go academic, and I’m so thrilled for you that you found a way around it so early on. (I came very late to the realization that academia may be more trouble than it’s worth, so now I have to finish playing this hand before I try something else.) Congrats on finding work you love!
What an interesting path! Mine was sorta similar. An undergrad in history, then I wasn’t ready to give up history yet, so an MA in that and then MLS. Of course my intention all along was to stay in academia (the library at least) but I ended up at a public library. It has it’s own rewards, but I sure miss academic research.
It was all meant to be for you! What a fun and fascinating story–you’ve really had a full life so far! I really enjoyed reading about your path.
Hey I have that Ernest Gellner book! Oh wait, no I don’t… but I do have a copy of the introduction. Hehe.
These are my green books (at least, the ones I can see from here): Keynes’ Economic Consequences of the Peace, Palgrave World Histories, Webster’s Italian Dictionary, The Third Reich by Williamson, Tocqueville’s Old Regime and the French Revolution, Lenin’s State and Revolution, The Age of Revolution by Hobsbawm, and two library books by Maurice Agulhon. All these were books I’ve collected since starting grad school (in European history, if you hadn’t guessed) except the Tocqueville. It’s an interesting idea to sort them by color, but for now they do me more good sorted by country.
Hello, nice to meet you. Were we separated at birth? Are you my long lost twin? Probably not, but there is a lot of similarity going on here missy.
As you know, I was a religious studies major. Jewish Mysticism was one of my favorite classes. Did you go to Sfad? (I’m sure you did - very cool, no?) Scholem wasn’t my favorite, but very necessary.
And what a huge, facinating story it is. Thanks for sharing. It’s always interesting to hear how other people happen upon their current path.
I learned the Greek alphabet (by name, not by character) in 4th or 5th grade. I’ve never forgotten it. Just one of the little known facts about me.
Glad to see Literary Spectrum has caught on!!
See my first edition here: http://knittingphilistine.blogspot.com/2007/02/literary-spectrum-blues-grays-whites.html
The Greens, Yellows, Pinks edition yet to come…
Great stories Lolly!
Thanks for sharing…you never know where life will take you…it’s all about the journey.
I love these little glimpses into your life via your books. I definitely think a bookshelf says a lot about someone, which is sad and scary because I lost pretty much ALL my books in the divorce (except for my cookbooks and books I edited), so my bookshelf is a strange amalgam, but mostly it’s kind of devoid of content. But right now in my life, that’s a good representation of my relationship with books–not that enthused.
The way your books show your past through titles is really cool. I do love that somewhere in a box–and thus someday on my bookshelf–I have dozens of physics textbooks but also literature and pop culture and reference. Embracing all the sides to our personalities is what makes our lives more interesting!
I always look at people’s bookshelves- it does tell you so much about a person!
Nice to hear your journey to where you are. You never really know what will happen.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse into your college career and choices. I ended up far from where I started as well. I started out as an Applied Behavioral Science major wanting to work for the FBI, and ended up with a MA in Theology teaching religion at a Catholic all girls high school.
Hi Lolly! Thank you for sharing your path. I’m still trying to figure mine out these days, so it’s great to hear how others have made their choices.
And I know what you mean about languages… I took three years of Russian in college (at UW which has a phenomenal Slavic Studies department) and can only speak a few phrases now, ten years later. I still have all my Russian books but they are boxed up in the garage. Every so often I think about trying to pick it back up again, and I even contacted a few tutors a year or so ago, but gave that up. For now at least. They say you never lose it, it’s in there somewhere…
Happy green!!
Thanks for sharing your journey. It’s great to hear, as I am in one of those decision making places where I may need to change my own path.
Wow Lolly! I’m glad you’ve found your niche in life and that it’s perfect for you!
Thanks so much for sharing your path through academia! I love to hear about other people’s experiences, since I feel I’m just getting started myself. The only other thing I have to say is “Ah, the joys of reading BHS”
Thanks for sharing! Through reading a blog we only know so much of a persons, so it is very nice to read about you (in a non-knitting way
).
Wow, I thought I was the only one who took Hebrew and ancient Greek in college! (I took a little Italian too, just for kicks!)
what an interesting journey!!! I learned Hebrew in Hebrew school, and am amazed that I can still pick up some words, etc…I haven’t used it or read it since my Bat Mitzvah! I think the dead languages are so much more interesting - the mysteries and mythology they hold….
What a great journey through your green books and how you came to be at the point you are today. It is amazing to look back on your journey?
I love how surprising life can be. thanks for sharing your story.
What a cool story and I’m totally jealous of your career! It sounds interesting!
isn’t it amazing how the crooked zig-zag path can take us exactly where we need to be? i saw myself at so many moments in this story (i was a religious studies undergrad, with women’s studies, then latin american studies in grad school) and i am still on the zigzag path to finding my way. so different than what i would have imagined several years ago, but it’s good.
this totally makes me want to go home and organize my books by color, just to see what would happen.
What an interesting trajectory you’ve had! I ended up getting a Ph.D. in French and going the academic route, but always loved taking languages (Moroccan dialect of Arabic, Italian, Chinese, German) but frequently wish that I would have done a Masters in Library Science as sometimes being limited to working in one language isn’t quite what I wanted. Thanks for the glimpse into your (non-knitting) life!
The Book of Salt….hmmm, strangely enough, I am curious to read it now.
Thank you for sharing this piece of yourself. I studied Koine Greek and Hebrew in College and Seminary. I loved textual criticism and studying copies of ancient manuscripts and someday I imagine I’ll pull the old books out and pick it up again. The beauty of the library is in the endless possibilities and paths that are always there to explore and re-explore.
Isn’t funny how we end up doing something else sometimes? You have quite an interesting collection on the shelves. Ok, you just totally blew me away when you said how many books you read in a week!! I wished I could do that. There are so many books I would love to have read already. I bet Isreal is so beautiful and full of so much history. The travel channel is something that we watch almost every single night. It makes me feel as if I were visting all of these neat places that I have never been to before.
Lolly - such a great post - I am in my first semester of library school, after being a medieval studies major, and getting a masters in Islamic and Medieval art history! (After taking Spanish, Russian, French AND GERMAN I couldn’t face ancient persian, farsi, and Urdu that a PhD would have required). With ten years of experience in contemporary art I, too, am looking at special collections/archives but in a museum environment.
And I was going to ask you a question that I thought was COMPLETELY of subject, but now nicely dovetails with your post.
What library related blogs do you read? Which do you find most interesting and relevant?
what an interesting post, Lolly! I took Greek for about two weeks as an undergrad. I wanted to be a ancient lit major. I ended up switching to American Lit which has come in really handy as a public librarian. It’s kind of strange where you end up and how it relates to the choices you make
It really is amazing what course our lives take when we make the choices that just feel right for us at that particular moment!
Thank you for sharing that. Very very interesting and inspirational!
I used to sort my books by colour, mainly to match my curtains. They’re now arranged in a system that matches that of my uni library, to make it easier to find books there when I need them. They use a version of LoC, but with their own added twists…
Thanks so much for sharing your story! I’m always interested in how people have arrived at their particular place in time. It’s even more exciting when those people have found themselves in the midst of something they love!
What an interesting career trajectory. I am now in library school myself, I began as an artist/curator, became a paralegal to support myself and ended up in library school after ruling out law school. I had planned to become a law librarian as I love to look things up and am obsessed with the news, but am taking an internship (with some promised paid part time work, crossing my fingers) in an academic library. Much to my surprise I find I actually enjoy doing reference work.
Don’t let your fellow librarians know you sort your own books by color, you will be teased without mercy!
Valerie
I didn’t realize that you had been interested in ancient studies! I’m a Classics PhD candidate and a knitter. My research interests fall into the realm of Latin and Greek poetry.
Apparently my library is quite shocking. The first thing that people notice when they enter my living room is my bright orange copy of Adams’ Latin Sexual Vocabulary. I love reorganizing my books! Right now they’re all sectioned off by genre, then alphabetized by author, except for all the OCTs and Loebs, which go into their own special bookcase.
Ahhh books. And the pathways of majors. Amazing journeys both. I traveled a wayward path in college starting with art history and ending in anthropology to work in a science museum teaching kids. Who knew! Never thought about organizing books by color.. they are all sort of by subject or author. And only about half are in librarything. Love my books, glad to see other book lovers expounding on the loveliness of books and learnin’. OH and since you are a Library Science MA ,my favorite webcomic has a tee-shirt you might appreciate, I think it’s cute anyways.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/merch.php if you haven’t see in it before anyway.
Me? Total bookworm. Always have been. I love to read. These days I devour a book on average every 3 or 4 days. History? IRL, I love history. It’s fabulous, fascinating, incredible. I love going to museums. In class? Always hated it. Dry as a bone. You’ve obviously had much, much, much better history teachers than I ever did (except 2: a substitute for the history of California, he was awesome; and my western civ teacher–both in college).
I had tons of trouble picking a major in college, too, but my choices were, uh, different than yours. I ended up majoring in computer science after my limited exploration. LOL
You think you’ve forgotten a lot now. Wait until you’ve been out of college for 20 years, like I have! LOL
Your post really got me thinking … I’ve always thought that leaving academia — or the professorial track — would be a compromise as well. Now I’m not so sure and, like you, have gotten more and more interested in archives and special collections work. Too bad it has taken me four years of graduate school and a master’s degree to figure it out. Anyway, thanks for sharing your story.
You are still steeped in history and an ancient language after all, if you were to ask a non-knitter to read a knitting pattern written by someone from today, they wouldn’t be able to. I bet though, that we would be able to figure out a knitting pattern written by someone from centuries past, if there were an accompanying picture of the finished product.
Knitting is such an ancient craft, that it is like connecting with all the hands and needles throughout the millenniums past.
Oh my goodness, do we have some things in common! I went the academic route all the way until fairly recently. I did an undergrad degree with major in English, minors in History and Education. I taught high school for ten years. I ended up at a seminary, working my way through a very long and intense masters degree (I got halfway). I was studying biblical Greek. I wanted to do Hebrew, but didn’t have room for it in my program. I loved Greek and took four courses in it. I had plans to go on to do a PhD in New Testament, specializing in the narratives of the parables. I had a pretty serious health crash about four and a half years ago, so I didn’t complete that plan. Now I have the best part time job ever. I dye yarn. Just started about a month ago, but I love it! I also love knitting — took it up nearly four years ago as something to do when I was sick, and it is with me now for life.
Thanks so much for sharing your story.
Come join us for the Wren Along!!
Books were my original obsession before the yarn collecting began. And while they are packed away now from the kiddos, I can’t wait to move into a bigger house where we can build more bookshelves to show them off.
You are tempting me with the library science path for grad school…I’ve got to move on to that next challenge!
Thanks, Lolly!!
Love it! I just arranged one of my bookshelves by color and I was also amused by the subjects that ended up next to each other. I was drooling over a masters in linguistics program today and I never even finished my undergrad degree! I’m a sign language interpreter and fascinated by languages and linguistics. Have you read the book Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher? I’d say you definitely fit her definition of a scanner (I’m one, too!). Check out the Scanner bulletin board for other likeminded souls at http://www.barbarasher.com.
I am catching up on some blog reading this morning. I love your green books and their history. I have a degree in medieval studies and am getting another in music composition. These are just undergrad degrees. It’s hard to convince oneself not to do everything.