ii.5. Books I Haven’t Read (Yet)
Issue No. 2
Books I Haven’t Read (Yet)
There are two large piles of books sitting on my bedside table. Some have been there for a few months, others longer than that. Then there are the titles jotted down on paper scraps in my desk drawer, and the screenshots snapped while browsing for books online. All of these are evidence of the books I haven’t read yet. Of course, I do plan on reading them one day, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Issue No. 2 of library library is a series of bookmarks deposited in selected volumes at the Toronto Public Library, each one identifying a potential future read. Performing more like digital bookmarks than analog ones, each marker tags a whole book rather than a specific place between two pages. Each includes a short description of a book on my list, as well as a note to the librarian and call number meant to guide the interested bibliophile through the shelves of the library along a similar path to the one taken when the bookmarks were dropped there.
Because this issue was essentially “shop-dropped” in a public place, a polite note to the librarian is included on each bookmark, requesting that they kindly leave the marker in place.
Although there were no other contributors to this issue per se, I count all of the books’ authors (dead and alive) as unintentional collaborators on this project as their work is a key component of the project’s content. What’s more, this issue’s audience is also somewhat accidental, as it is made up of all the strangers who happen upon the volumes in which a marker was dropped.
See the books currently on my reading list (and their Toronto Public Library call numbers) here.
—Bookmark format: 2.5” x 8.25”
—Printing: standard laser color
—Book list avaiable online