[STEAL THIS IDEA] Talking Books

One time in college, I got drunk and went to the library's Biology section and pulled out creepy and inappropriate titles and left them on tables so everyone could see them.  I thought that prominently displaying titles such as The Breathless Orgasm (HOW??!) and What's Going on Down There? was totally hi-larious, and knew that it would piss of that bitch librarian who was my mortal enemy at the time (how does a librarian become your mortal enemy?  Try not paying to use the copy machine about 700 times and see what happens).

But artist Nina Katchadourian elevates this douchey tomfoolery to an art form, with her Sorted Books Project.  Essentially, she takes books and arranges them so that the titles on their spines make for a conversation or commentary.  

Think about it.  What do you do when you're in someone's apartment?  Look at framed photos and anything else on shelves, like, you know, BOOKS.  And I try not to be too judgy about a person's book shelf because I myself own a Jodi Picoult novel (I know, I know), but seeing what books a person reads tells you a lot about them.  Why not let them know how funny and clever you are by arranging your books to say pithy things?!

Off of the top of my head, here are some book poems I could display on my shelves*:

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell/When You Are Engulfed in Flames

The Ungarnished Truth/It's Not Me, It's You/Kick Me

See how fun?!  You can do it with DVDs, too, although, I'm not sure how all 9 seasons of The Golden Girls would really stack up to make me look anything other than crazy.

*Ok, this is a lie.  In my mind, I have a wall full of bookshelves, like the library in Beauty & the Beast (Belle: that girl is so strange!  She can read, LOL! Also: Marie, the baguettes! HURRY UP!), but in real life, my books have to go in boxes because I bought those stupid wall-mountable shelves from Target that can only withstand the weight of a feather collection.  This book project exists only in my head.  

[Via Daily Obsessional]