Our Books, Our Selves

The "Do Now" project is a weekly challenge for students that encourages discourse using social media tools.  The current challenge was posted in various #clmooc spaces yesterday, inviting not only students, but participants in the mooc to post an object that could serve as a personal symbol.

I chose my bookshelf:

It's not just that I am a reader and collector of books that makes this picture appropriate.  The tattered state of some of these volumes shows that many of them have traveled a very long way with me. I have owned some of them, including the copy of Strange Wine by Harlan Ellison, over thirty years and have carried them through almost a dozen household migrations.  More than that, the books reveal my enthusiasms and escapes over several decades.

This photo reminded me of another.  When I heard a bout "bookshelfies" a couple of years ago, I created one and used thinglink to annotate it.  By visiting the pic here, you can 'touch' the pictures and read the annotations.

Just like our taste in music can make us feel expansive and defensive at the same time, our bookshelves can both honor and indict us.