July 19. A bookshelf

I moved in February and very few books made the cut because boxes are heavy and I knew the books were safe with my ex because he loves books as well.

This picture is about an eighth of the books at my house right now, not including whatever my two daughters might have upstairs in their rooms. My choices were sometimes sentimental, sometimes interest-driven.

This shelf is above the couch in our basement ratskeller--St. Louis for "basement hang out room" (which turns out to actually be a German term for kind of just that). You can see the painted foundational brick behind the books. My basement is very dry (one of my non-negotiables when I looked for a house). It is Leo's favorite place because that's where the TV is.

Anyway, some books:

a: quilting books, simple how-tos.
b: nature journals kept by me and Sophia
c: photo album from my mom's side of the family
d: Family of Man, a photographic collection from the 70s.
e: Listomania, a graphic depiction of all sorts of categorized things (weird ways to die, or how much of the following liquids are consumed in the US), one of my favorites when I can't sleep
f: Chelsea Handler's discussion of her sex life. I'm not ashamed
g: The Giving Tree, from a friend to Leo
h: The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales. One of my favorite kid books
i: Volume One of a series of veterans' photographs as they look in the mirror (and the image is different--I'll have to show you before the month is up)
j: Vogue Knitting's dictionary of knitting stitches
k: Home Ground, a dictionary of sorts of terminology used in US geography (for instance, what is the difference between a cliff, a bluff, a bank)
l: Dandelion Wine
m: a butterfly field guide
n: roadside flower of Texas
o: another nature journal
p: Powers of Ten, the book that goes along with this short film
q: A book of hobo signs made into quilt blocks
r: The best tree field guide
s: short essays about the periodic table. Also not ashamed.
t: nature journal
u: Another tree field guide but the first one is still best
v: a photocopy of the American Dialect Society survey from the middle of the last century. It is fascinating.
w: unsure. I know it's a field guide of some kind
x: Butterflies and moths of Missouri