"It’s a funny, vertiginous feeling to stand in front of one’s own bookshelf and imagine each book as a sort of porthole opening, potentially, onto a nearly infinite network of other barely-transmittable experiences; to imagine all the ideas and emotions, not-quite-fully-expressed; the missed allusions, the various ways juxtapositions and metaphors might otherwise function, for myself at different moments, or for a different person at a different time. Funny. Dizzying—and strange. To think of all the crossed-out words and paragraphs, whole chapters or sections either deleted or completely revised… As well as—of course—all the books that didn’t get written, because of the one that eventually did."
Today, a #ShelfPortrait from Canadian-American writer, Johanna Skibsrud. Skibsrud considers the book as both an aesthetic and utilitarian object, especially in relation to the publication of her debut novel, The Sentimentalists (first drafted as a master's thesis in Concordia’s creative writing program). Published by a small-scale press, the book won the country’s biggest literary prize in 2010, sparking a debate in the Canadian literary scene over the relative value of content and form — a debate Skibsrud then teases out in relation to her library as a whole. To read, visit https://richlerlibrary.ca/.../johanna-skibsrud-shelf....