Is it Friday yet ?

[venta]

Oh look, it's Elizabeth trying to sneak enormous philosophical issues into a scratty little cut...

I'm currently reading Antonia Fraser's biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. Which has so far been interesting, although it has consistently unsettled me with its strange word-order within sentences. Owing to my unsociable habit of reading while eating, it's also rather more splattered with miso soup than any book on Scottish history should rightfully be.

However, in talking about the behaviour of the Scottish nobility around the time Mary returned to Scotland, it says:

"there is a basic code of human decency, which should not be violated even in times of insecurity" (quote approximate, as I don't have the book with me).

Which struck me as rather a sweeping assumption to just drop into the middle of a pargraph. I'm not even sure I agree with it. I'm wondering if it's the hypothetical should of someone who knows it isn't them whose going to be suffering the insecurity...

Discuss :)

Today's slightly less in-depth question: why, when placing multi-volume books on shelves, do the volumes always seem to go right to left ? It seems an odd convention, in view of the left-to-right nature of our society. I'm hoping addedentry might know the answer to this one.

I'm tired. My neck hurts.

On the plus side, a colleague brought me a CD this morning of what he describes as "home-brew chilled dance/ambient with celtic crossovery things going on" which he made, as is traditional, in his bedroom.

I'm quite liking it so far.

Comments

Defined end..

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

Because that way you know exactly how long the series is.
If you are reading along a shelf from left to right as you normally do (teeny little assumption there) then if you file from right to left you will reach the last book first and know exactly how much series you have to go to reach the beginning.
If you reach the first book from a series first it could be any length long and you won't know if you have certainly reached the last book.

Make perfect sense - just like my book filing systems ;-)

Re: Defined end..

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I thought your book filing system was "they're still in the order that John and Steve put them back on the shelf in when they moved the shelves".

Re: Defined end..

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

It is at the moment, but that is because I need to unpack the boxes of books and refile everything - its on my todo list for a rainy day.
They were in Andie filing order before I painted the room.

Re: Defined end..

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Why not arrange shelves to encircle the room.
Then there is no beginning, no end.

Books without end....

Re: Defined end..

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

It's a nice idea, something would need to be done about the door though - kind of provides a beginning and end.
Oooh, what about one of the dug out core wine cellars adapted for books... http://www.instant-wine-cellar.co.uk/product.html