I read books all the time, as much as possible. I usually read three or more books in various states, and I am anxious that I will not finish the books I have on hand. Yet, I still purchase new books on a consistent level. So, I’m very good at various bookstores, but the space in the house is limited. Like my imaginary record store, I want to have my own bookstore so that I can only have one customer—me.
I would love to hire a bookseller whose only purpose is to recommend my books. I have 2,391 books in my library and a list of 949 books I want to buy or obtain soon. My books are placed by size and whatever I can squeeze between other books. In some spots, if you try to remove one book, you may get three books due to the tightness of the bookcase. I have various bookcases in the house, but most are in my office space, also a walk-in closet for my clothing. The clothes are not a concern of mine because they are mostly stripped T-shirts, with the majority being red and black stripes. Perhaps a bookseller is not what I need, but a Librarian who can help me locate a book or put a system together for me in which it would be easy to track down a book title. My pet peeve is buying a book and realizing that once I get home, I have it already. That really pisses me off.
I’m currently studying Charlie Parker and his Jazz era. I need to be available momentarily for a stack of books about the Yardbird. I also have another stack of books about my dad, Wallace Berman, and my mom, Shirley Berman. I used these books as references while writing a film script based on my memoir with Nick Ebeling. Almost every book or magazine I have in the house goes into my writing. Our home is large, but the books and vinyl make the rooms smaller, which can cause anxiety. I know it, but I need these objects in front of me as much as possible. As mentioned, my books are usually randomly placed on the shelves and tables. Still, I have a section for the authors Yukio Mishima, Osamu Dazai, Raymond Queneau, Andre Breton, Michel Leiris, Marcel Proust, Georges Bataille, and Roland Barthes. I aim to have every author placed in their section and with their other titles. But to do that, I need a beautiful, obsessive Librarian who won’t yell at me but will organize my library to make it easier for me to find things.
On the other hand, I do enjoy randomly walking by my bookshelves and finding something unexpected. So, my librarian must know that I occasionally want to find the unsuspected title. There needs to be flexibility or a bridge between order and chaos.
When I lived in San Francisco I would regularly visit the Prelinger Library and admired their organization system -- books were ordered loosely by region, from San Francisco in the first shelves, expanding outwards to Space in the last shelves.
I would love this job. I’ll send my résumé.