The "Stuff by People We Know" shelf

[serene]

I thought of this post while I was sitting in the jurors' lounge today (the guy took a deal and went to prison, so we didn't have to sit on a jury), reading Emma Bull's really excellent War for the Oaks.

In the acknowledgements, she mentions our own pameladean, someone I really like a lot, both as a person and an author, and she raised a logistical question for me: Does this mean that "War for the Oaks" can now go on my "Stuff by People We Know" bookshelf?

Don't laugh. Doesn't everyone have one?

Now, I know that people like wild_irises and other longtime fans/editors will have lists MUCH MUCH longer than mine, but I'm interested to see them. When I get home, I'll post my list, but the question for you now is this:

Which books do you own that are written by, edited by, or contain works by people you know?

I'll post a complete list later, but I know that I have stuff by at least the following LJers: dbubley, pameladean, papersky, final_girl, me, loracs, wild_irises, charliegrrrl, pantryslut, and gosh, I'm probably missing several.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I can't really think of any, though a book by my friend Simon is on my wishlist. I do have an author or two on my f'list, though -- nice people who don't necessarily write stuff I'm into.

I have an original joedecker artwork on my wall. :D

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Part of figuring out that I was bi was buying and reading this book Bi Any Other Name. In which there is an essay by the talented elisem by a slightly different name. It seemed all connected with the AHA! click for me, working out that someone in the book was actually someone I knew on line.

[pameladean]

We've got one of those shelves, and at first it was really simple, and then it became impossible, so now it's in a kind of limbo and the rationale for having or not having books there is non-existent.

P.

P.S. *blush*

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Not actually on your topic, but have you seen Shadow Unit?

http://shadowunit.org/

Really good stuff, and Emma Bull is Executive Producer and one of the writers - in fact, she's the writer for the first episode. Might want to take a look.

[catrinaz.livejournal.com]

a quick look at my bookshelf-of-people-i-know shows me works written or edited by:

catrinaz
markedformetal
fd_midori
jay_wiseman
moe, a member of the biobus crew
redmagnetic
ursulav
transientbandit
withlyn
yezida
also, non-LJers
joani blank
norman jane bumgarner
kathy dettwyler
susun weed
tristan taormino
brooke medicine eagle
susan cogan
gypsey teague
larry bierman
cindy crabb
tracy thompson

i hope one day soon it will also contain works by eldaradan, ellettra and other writers i know. and if we named works of art and music as well as books, my list would be huge.

[wimsey70.livejournal.com]

Emma Bull's "War for the Oaks" is indeed awesome. I should read it. (Or did Greg get that in the divorce? grumble)

I have no such shelf. Closest I've got is that my friend Paul (knappenp) is mentioned in the acknowledgements for Stephen Brust's "Dragon."

[leback.livejournal.com]

My answer is fairly dull... I own a whole slew of law casebooks by people I took classes with, and one to which I contributed material as a research assistant. I think I also own some books from my undergrad/MS years that were written by professors I'd met, although "know" is a stretch for some of those (i.e., if I ran into them, they wouldn't recognize me). And more recently, I acquired books by various political scientists whose departments I was thinking of doing my doctorate in, and since I started last fall, I've collected up books by a couple more professors I've met. Many of the other books I own are by people from whom I'm within just a couple degrees of separation, since my advisor is acquainted with them, and I am likely to meet many of them at conferences and so forth eventually.

(If any of these people are LJers, I don't want to know about it!)

But the literary stuff I've collected, meanwhile, is almost entirely by people I never have met and probably never will meet. Jane Austen, for example. :-)

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

The fraction of books we own that are written by someone either of us knows is sufficiently large that segregating them wouldn't involve a particular shelf so much as a particular room.

Heck, half of the poker books on my shelf are by people I know. There are many textbooks on my shelves by people whose classes I've taken.

And then there's the SF and fantasy....

It's a marker of a kind of privilege: that many of the books I read are written by people I know, and that, conversely, the people I know are much more likely than the average American to have written books. (I feel like a sort of underachiever because I haven't.) I've been to this person's wedding, and to that one's fiftieth-birthday party. This one surprised me by showing up to my daughter's memorial. That one called me when she needed to be driven to the hospital. Etc.

Here's a dangerous question for literati: How many books by people you know didn't make the cut the last time you culled your bookshelves? (For me it was more than a few.)

[baerana.livejournal.com]

the books i have by people i know aren't in a special area, they are just with the other books I own of that genre/subject — I have yesthattom's 1st and 2nd edition of sys admin book, and his time management book, and then a fictional novel about sexual abuse by Susan Palwick, David Allen Mills' “Science Shams & Bible Bloopers”, Tzipora Kline's (now Katz) Celebrating Life — and then a bunch by my college professors that they made us buy for their classes, some of which they self published.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

Some of the relationship stuff in War for the Oaks really pushed my buttons of annoyingness, or however I should put that.

my "Stuff by People We Know" bookshelf?

Don't laugh. Doesn't everyone have one?

I certainly hope that pameladean and papersky will write so many books as to each get their own shelf!

People on my friends list vary widely in terms of what "know" would or would not actually mean, but I also have a book edited by wild_irises, plus ones by yesthattom and tgeller, and a book with a story by elisem. My children and some of their friends have many books by tammy212. If I could figure out where some of the other bi anthologies have gotten to then that might rack up some more. Oh, and susiebrightfeed.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Depends on how you define "know." I know a lot of people entirely or almost entirely online; does their writing count as by someone I know? How about if it's someone I know mostly online but have met at one or two conventions? How well do I have to know someone before I know them?

Books by lots of my writing profs and a few other profs. Books by a few close friends. Books by a few people I fucked and a few I loved, not necessarily the same people. Books I wrote. Books I edited, designed, or did production work on (most of which I sold when I moved west). Books by a bunch of people I know and admire on LJ, some of whom have become friends in 3D or online.

And a movie written, directed, and scored by someone I love, Goddamit, and he's dying. And some art by joedecker and other people.

I feel funny name-dropping.

Oh, and then there are the people I knew online first whose books I later sought out. And the books by people in my various writers' groups over the years.

I know a lot of writers.

[snippy]

Hrm. How well do you have to know them for it to count?

For more than just "met the author at a con" (that is, I am or was reasonably close friends with in meatspace) I have:

firecat (of course, this is not fiction)
jaylake
joelrosenberg
Tara Harper (who is not, as far as I know, on LJ)
James Gifford (not fiction, again--he co-wrote a book on Heinlein)

I don't know whether to count papersky, she was an imaginary friend for many years but politics a few years ago seem to have ended that friendship.

If we're counting "had more than one conversation at a con, more than just shaking hands or signing my book" then I'd add quite a few.

[hmms-sio.livejournal.com]

Being Dutch may be the reason that I don't have that many, but I do have a couple of books written by Sandra Kooij, /the/ dutch authority on ADD in adults (especially women). There are at least two other books on 'living with ADD' from people with ADD that I know personally. Then there is one book and two poetry collections of a good friend of me, Baukje van Kesteren.
And there is 'The low sky, Understanding the Dutch'. Written by Han van der Horst.

Since this week I'm also the owner of 'Women at Large' en 'Familiar Men'. There's more than one friend involved in those!

I also have a couple of numbers from magazines I worked on myself. Do they count?

[supergee.livejournal.com]

30+ years in fanzine fandom means that most of my sf shelf is people-I-know shelf.

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

Well, let's see. autopope, thesideshow, dreadberry, rozk, sgloomi and tnh are all up there. Sadly I don't think Donald Harstad has an LJ, and I don't have any of surliminal's texts, not yet anyway.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Goodness. It depends rather a lot on how you define "know". People whose LJs/blogs I read and sometimes comment in? People I've met a few times offline and also read online? People who will actually recognize me next time we meet? (and that's hard, too, since I don't know how good people's face-memories are -- sometimes people I don't expect recognize me and people I thought might remember me don't)

A partial list of authors (people who do comics count) who are on my flist and my shelves, who I may or may not know, depending on definition (partial because I'm sure to forget one or more):

ceruleanst
coffeeem
e_moon60
elisem
firecat
jaylake
lmarley
matt_ruff
muskrat_john
naominovik
ozarque
pameladean
papersky
philfoglio & kajafoglio
pnh & tnh (edited by, anyway)
robinmckinley
skzbrust
ursulav
wild_irises (editor)
willshetterly

The "Stuff by People We Know" shelf

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

"people i know". hm. ok, that needs categories. (and i don't have an actual shelf.)

people i live with: mayaknife :).

people i've met online and then in person and feel a real connection with (which predates their authoring): papersky, firecat.

people i've met online and have interacted with so long that i feel we know each other to some degree, people i'd love to meet and spend one-on-one time with some day: pameladean, wildirises, ailbhe, beaq, bruceb, flarenut.

people whose journals i read, enjoy, and comment in, and who possibly recognize my handle from that, but where the knowledge is almost entirely one-sided. two of them i have met at the two cons at which i met new people, but they really wouldn't know me from adam either: autopope, beelavender, cedarseed, coffeeem, ianmcdonald, julineh, karentraviss, matociquala, ozarque, planetalyx, pnh, supergee, suzych, telophase, truepenny, ursulav, yourpresence, k_schroeder, paulmcauley, makinglight, officialgaiman. i wouldn't count these normally, but it was interesting to make the list. :)

beyond books, i have art from: elisem (jewelry), elissaann (music), 1ginko (glasswork), joedecker (photography), lorres (crochet, art cards), ursulav (painting).

wow, i have an enormously talented flist. i mean, i knew that, but making this list really brings it home. thanks!

Re: The "Stuff by People We Know" shelf

[snippy]

Unsurprisingly given our shared history, I'm with you on the jewelry, music, glasswork, and art cards in your penultimate paragraph. :)

Re: The "Stuff by People We Know" shelf

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, i forgot to add bathsheba_g (sculpture).

Re: The "Stuff by People We Know" shelf

[snippy]

I only wish I owned some of Sheba's work!

[misanthropoid.livejournal.com]

I just returned from a funeral (extended family) and find myself lacking the necessary ummph to go shelf-skimming or even lj user cross-referencing but far be it from me to pass a book-recommending opportunity. Cherie Priest, cmpriest sets the bar for me when it comes to "books I probably would have purchased even if the author hadn't typed clever responses to my online posts or comments." She works the "haunted southland" vein in such a manner that it makes me wonder if the voices in her head didn't once exchange rifle-fire with the voices in mine.

As I drift further and further from livejournal I find myself questioning whether I know many of the people whose names morph into calamityjon, drood, nihilistic_kid, yuki_onna or muskrat_john. I am more than willing to admit that my collection of skzbrust was well established before our one very superficial, but embarrassing interaction.

I am currently in possession of a horrible romance novel (is there any other kind?) written by a co-worker. I have bookmarked passages of poetry by one author in a treasured compilation and a fair representation of the textbook work done by an old and respected friend that I let down by not agreeing to continue his work when he died.

So as I look at my shelf it's not know but knew...and that's sad.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Long time no hear from (that road goes both ways, I'm well aware; I think and speak of you often). Sorry for your loss.

I forgot to post my list. Perhaps I'll do it tonight. I've put the only available Priest book on hold at my library so I can check it out; thanks.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oh, and feel like telling about the Brust interaction?

[misanthropoid.livejournal.com]

It was embarrassing because:

A. I still clung to my childish perception that having one's name emblazened upon the cover of a book meant that the author had been exceedingly well compensated for the work.

B. I, self-righteous and overconfident as usual did expound upon item A as justification for the existence and my patronage of a used book store.

C. Although I had his work in hand as a portion of the aforementioned patronage he shrugged off the discussion and graciously went on about his business.

I learned his identity from a clerk and realized that I had humiliated myself with someone whose work I held in high esteem. To put it quite simply I felt like I had just expounded upon my god-given right to steal from the garden in a conversation with the gardener.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Aww. I did a similar thing. I crowed to final_girl about how I had gotten a couple of her books at the used book store, and not until later did it dawn on me how obnoxious that was. Between that and the fact that almost no one showed to the poetry reading I booked her for, I had a hard time looking her in the eye for a long while.