The log of book-drops:

 

June 2, 2008:

I installed the first books today. It was surprisingly easy. Today was my self-referential day: place one in fiction and one in non-fiction, where my name would be.

I know that the placements seem to make little sense to begin with, but as I photograph them, I find relationships. The "One" novel, set amongst childrens' books about art; "Against Oblivion" residing next to Delillo's "White Noise"-- The Genesis (of Plato's thought) next to The Genesis of Secrecy, not far from books about criticism and resistance.

Read more ponderings in my experiment with using a blog.

 

 

June 7:

A little more difficult on this day, mostly because of my own state of mind. I felt criminal. I felt the absence of the books that I had left on Monday (they were all empty gaps in the stacks). And the library was full of people. I never realized there were so many security guards.

But despite my anxieties, it was still a joy: to discover another place in the childrens' section that made sense, to leave a book amongst books about book-collecting, and to leave the last in the young adult section, beneath a sign that gave me permission to place it in the display.

June 10:

Another four books, a milder feeling of transgression, the strange feeling of absence as I visit old placements, and there are gaps in the stacks.

 

June 11:

Three more books and the discovery of three placements, still intact. A feeling of elation about selecting an open (and vulnerable) location, musings about place and belonging.

 

June 17, 2008:

These placements were rather obvious and child-centered. The "Concise Dictionary" amongst religious storybooks; "Bookkeeping" alongside runes and coded texts; "Discarded" (my own name for the book and the painting) beside books of legend. "East-West" was the only departure from this theme-- it had to go next to Maugham's work...

The log of book-drops continues here.