a Postcard from sunny Barcelona
Hi friend,
I’m on a long-distance train from Paris to Barcelona. We’ve just pulled back into Perpignan to change tracks, to get around a technical issue. I have no idea when we’ll arrive — a liminal space, when combined with a thermos of hot tea and all my devices charged, typically puts me in the mood to write a Postcard.
This is a Postcard about personal libraries.
One of the things I enjoy most about working from home is access to my library.
During my years commuting to the AQ Tokyo office, I knew by memory which books we had (that were relevant to me, anyway). After I moved to Paris, I continued to tend to our collection. I didn't have a great place in Paris to keep new "company" books, so I bought sparingly, and hauled to Tokyo the ones that I hoped someone else might read.
Nowadays I no longer feel connected to the office library, which grows and shrinks without me. I have just the one library, which is mine, and since starting to work from home, it’s come alive like forest mushrooms after a big rain. I stopped expensing physical books because I intend to keep them, and dissolving the artificial boundary between work and non-work books was a turning point. That, and getting in the habit of re-arranging furniture so that I can keep adding bookshelves!
It brings me a lot of pleasure to be on a Zoom call and lean over and pull out a book to reference in the conversation. There are lots of little moments like that. I’ll wander the apartment to collect a stack of books, and sit down with them for an afternoon of design work. I’ll put away a book that’d been on my desk for a while, and be inspired once again. I’ll unpack my bags after a long trip and find books I’d picked up along the way.
The physicality of these moments are striking to me. While I do my “consuming information” type of reading on the Kindle or Audible, the book-books are intended for my future selves to reference and integrate. It makes sense then, that they are present and easily accessible at home.
What is your personal library like...?
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Related — I'm acting on my intention for less "doing" and more reflecting, harvesting, digesting and documenting. First output: write-ups of cycling the Camino Ingles and Camino del Norte 😋
Catch you again soon!
Tomomi
