To the many pages written about organizing a library the Italian Roberto Calasso added his own a while ago, a small work entitled ‘How to Organize a Library’ has the simplicity of what a treasure hides. Released in Italy by Adelphi in 2018 and now edited in Spanish by Anagrama, Calasso’s essay is an erudite and humorous lesson about that exercise that all book collection owners have undertaken at some point in their lives – their life in the bookstore, perhaps literary. that arduous undertaking that postpones the person concerned for eternity until he runs out of excuses, at the feet of those hundreds or thousands of books that require immediate redistribution. But it turns out, oh, it’s a joyous endeavor. A puzzle, a game, a journey through your own biography, to which the books both relentlessly and lovingly point out.
A metaphysical theme
“It’s a very metaphysical topic,” Calasso writes on the first page of his essay. “I’m surprised Kant didn’t dedicate a short dissertation to him.” Computers in his personal libraries around the world agree: it’s not trivial. “Organizing a home library, however small, involves work,” he writes Lluís Agustí, professor at the University Library’s Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media (or, what is the same, professor of future biliotecarios), in his article ‘Organització of a personal or family library’. In it, he discusses practical matters such as furniture and lighting (capital letters, every bibliophile knows) to the core question: how to order. “It’s work and you have to have a certain amount of time for it, but it is a task that is usually pleasant. It enhances the memory of lectures and there are little jewels to read or reread ”. Sort your own library presupposes an encounter with oneself, with the previous reader and possibly with the past in general. It is an important activity.
A mind map
Because a personal library is a map, everyone knows that. Calasso writes that, “upon entering a room, it is quickly recognized, even just by the color and typography of the spines,” what is the homeowner’s mental landscape made of ”. Or, as Gabriela Olmos writes in the beautiful issue that the magazine ‘Artes de México’ dedicated to libraries a few years ago: “What fits in a personal library? Everything the man who brought her together suggested. The library is an extensive and eloquent portrait ”. Hence, some are extremely modest at the prospect of someone rummaging through their books. Considering that it is an exercise in mental naturism, see biographical, best of all, it’s someone you trust.
La Central, the “ideal bookshop”
Plural, full of labyrinths and twists and turns, Calasso’s essay pauses for a moment at the concept of the “ideal bookstore”, which for the Italian is none other than La Central de Barcelona. “I remember buying Italian books at La Central that I hadn’t seen before”, the author writes in the middle of a handful of additional paragraphs. For the Italian, The Central fulfills the rule that he believes defines the ideal library: “The one in which at least one book is bought every time, and very often not the one (or not just the one) they thought they were buying when we came in.
Calasso – recalls bookstore director Antonio Ramírez – first visited the bookshop about 15 years ago. And then, the few times he has returned to Barcelona, he has come to see us. Your first comment about us appeared on an article published in ‘La Stampa’ in Turin, on the occasion of the book fair in this city. It was quite shocking as it was preceded by another article by Umberto Eco at the top of the page wondering what “the ideal bookstore” should look like; below Calasso replied: “It exists, it is in Barcelona and it is called La Central.” After the publication of the article, booksellers from Rome, Catania, Padua and other places in Italy traveled to Barcelona to meet her. “It was our moment of glory, suddenly we were the most famous bookshop in Italy ”. Broad, Ramírez says Calasso’s formula can be applied today “to not some of the bookstores recently opened in the city,” adding that they are all based on criteria such as “careful selection” or the presentation of an offer. “Like someone who designs a harmonious landscape.” Ramírez emphasizes French bookstores as references, and especially Ombres Blanches, in Toulouse.
Infinity of models
About the specific way to order a personal library, the only consensus is that there is no better way than another, and that it is ultimately a personal matter. Alphabetical order, sorting by genre, country, publisher, color … “In some areas it is inevitable that the alphabetical order would be lethal if applied to all areas,” Calasso writes. “From certain books – about mushrooms, about the factories in Cornwall, about famous chess games and countless other cases – the subject is remembered, but the author is often forgotten. If you put them in a general alphabetical order, you would lose sight of them ”. In Nick Hornby’s novel ‘High Fidelity’, the main character proposes to classify his checkers in the order in which he acquired them, with the intention of forming a kind of autobiography, a criterion that could be perfectly applied to books (some have done it, or at least brag about it). In any case, it should not be forgotten that, as Rafael Vargas writes in his own contribution to that edition of ‘Artes de México’, “A library is not just a storage place for books. You have to give it an address. Without it, it grows like weeds. It’s about designing a garden ”.
Writer’s Library
Questions: Enrique Vila-Matas, how do you think the ideal library should be organized? Answer: “As you want to order it from the owner.” Question: What criteria do you use to order your library? Have you always accepted or changed the same thing? ‘I don’t remember ever changing my mind. Over time I have created an unclassifiable order, more like a geographer than a librarian or bookseller. A secret classification far from alphabetic tyrannies and protected by a visual memory that allows me to remember every spine and locate it on the shelves at a glance. And I estimate that I have more than 5,000 books at home ”. Question: Are your books in a separate place or are they included in the established order? Answer: “They are modestly included in the general order.” All of this is a matter to consider anytime, anywhere Writers’ libraries are a world of their own in the world of libraries. For example, about Carlos Monsiváis, Rafael Vargas writes that it was “a self-expanding jungle in which only he could orient himself properly”.
It may interest you
To conclude
As a highlight, go to Calasso’s comment on the criteria of Aby Warburg, founder of the Warburg Library of Cultural Studies, when ordering the books: “An attempt to reproduce in space the plot of Warburg’s own thinking.” Also visit Vila-Matas the personal library of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and remembering how easily he found copies of Shakespeare. “A few mythical copies for me, because the author of ‘El Gatopardo’ (what a great novel!) Would take them for a walk on his excursions to Palermo. The truth is, I loved to play them ”. And go like Lluís Agustí, our library expert, arranges books from you: “I have also arranged literature alphabetically by authors, regardless of languages, genres and times the novel coexists with poetry, Catalan with Spanish, French and Portuguese. The history books, through times, from prehistoric times to the present day. Books on Spanish exile, according to specific themes. Books about books, libraries, bookstores and reading, on specific themes. Philosophy books, also by times, and within them, in alphabetical order, starting with the Greek authors. Books on religion, by traditions: Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, heterodoxy … Reference works (dictionaries and encyclopedias), by formats and by hand. Finally, the old books from the 16th to the 18th, on formats ”.