Libri: The bookshelf project, David Benedetto and Jerika Marchan

DB: Ohhh. That’s a good question. (hums)

JM: I guess I’ll go first.

DB: Yeah, yeah, go.

JM: I wouldn’t mind. I think I’d be more nervous if they plucked something and didn’t put it back where they had it. Most of mine are alphabetized and they’re also in a certain order that’s conducive to me and how I work. So, I’d be nervous if they picked something out and didn’t put it back where they found it.

Besides that, I’m of the mindset that if it’s not a particular type of person, like if a stranger or someone who’s not sharing my interest saw my shelf, I think they wouldn’t be that interested. Most of my books are niche contemporary poetry books that a lot of people generally wouldn’t be interested in, from my experience. Not so much self-consciousness there, but just assuming people’s lack of interest in my interests.

DB: I kind of feel you with—we both have our books where they’re for us more than for the decoration. They’re there for the decoration as well because books are really lovely and we love them. Mine are a little bit more diverse in their subject matter and type. There’s a lot of histories, as well as fiction and more fiction and some poetry spread throughout there. I’d hope that there’s enough topics there that somebody who walked in could see something that they’d be interested in or have read or knew about. And it would lead to a conversation. That’s what my hope would be.

JM: My favorite book. Hm, let me think. My favorite book? Like, ok, my favorite book…Ah! I know. Easy, easy.

DB: Oh, yeah.

JM: It’s a cop-out. (laughs) Well…Yeah, so my favorite book is the book that’s meant a lot to me for the past ten years. It’s this collection of Rilke, the German language master poet. Translated by Stephen Mitchell.

I started reading poetry seriously in sophomore year of high school. Actually, this book means even more to me now, because my teacher who gave me another paperback version of this book, she died a few weeks ago. Brain cancer. She was the one who gave me this book and said, “You need this in your life.”

I started reading it and I was like, holy shit! Words can do this. Words can feel this way. That’s why I started writing poems and reading poems. This, Rilke, this collection…It’s called Ahead of All Parting. It’s multilingual. It’s German and French on one side and English on the other. I slept with this book. Yeah, I try not to write in it too much because I love it so much…Yeah, I probably have more of him than anybody else.

DB: I’ve got three. I was thinking one non-fiction, one straight fiction, and one New Orleans hybrid work, which I’m really in love with.

JM: Cop-outs!

DB: Cop-outs? Uh-huh.

JM: You pick one! Your favorite.

DB: UH-HUH.

JM: There’s only one!

DB: Well, these are the ones I’m thinking about constantly each day, because I’m kind of working in these different things or thinking about these types of things. Especially being in New Orleans and being from Louisiana, a lot of these books are Louisiana-centric books. So, the book that I chose for that one is called Unfathomable City. It’s edited by Rebecca Solnit, who’s written a lot of really wonderful things, including Men Explain Things to Me.

CB: She’s great!

DB: She did one for San Francisco initially and then she came here and worked with a woman named Rebecca Snedeker. It’s a collection of twenty-two essays and maps.

The writing is beautiful for each essay and the introduction by both Snedeker and Solnit is amazing. It’s changed a lot of how I feel about New Orleans and the city. I think I’d recommend it to anybody trying to find a good in way to 2015-era New Orleans. It’s really wonderful.

OK, two more! My Non-Fiction pick is a history book called The Impending Crisis: America Before The Civil War 1848 – 1860 by David M. Potter. I was interested this year in doing a deep reading through all of American History and I wanted to start with Reconstruction, because I wanted to understand how we got to Jim Crow era and a lot of our modern problems with inequality and race in this country. So, before reading that I thought I better refresh myself on what led to Reconstruction–The Civil War. And then I thought I better read what led to the Civil War!

So I stumbled on this book. It took me a while to get through, like four months because it’s one of the densest books I’ve ever read. It has a steep curve in learning how to read the book, but how it moves through decision making and political maneuvers is really skillful and beautiful. The way it deals with major figures and events during this time period on a second-to-second, decision-to-decision basis really helps to give a clearer picture of how such a horrible event like The Civil War could happen. It wasn’t zero to one hundred. It took time and multiple misunderstandings and manipulations and stupid ego driven mistakes to get us there. It takes these decisions step-by-step and puts a microscope to them. It’s incredible.

And it helped me to clarify my understanding of the origins of anti-immigrant nativism and white supremacy and racism and how they’ve evolved to current day. It also helped me to better understand the process of how major issues are debated and how elections are performed in this country. All these things are not new and this book helped put that into better context.

The cop-out as you would say. Fiction, One Hundreds Year of Solitude by Marquez. It was a game-changer for me. Between reading that and Faulkner, just mind blown, never look at books the same again.

JM:Yes!

DB: Yes!

JM: I don’t publish often, but when I do in journals, I get contributor copies. I think it’s always fun to get them in the mail and to see my work in a bound book with other people that I admire. Those are always the best presents.

DB: I’d say the one that I think about the most is…before I left for Europe, the book that she chose as her favorite book was the Rilke book. Before I left for Europe, she gave me a copy of that. Nice, wonderful hardback. I carried that with me everywhere I went. She wrote this really wonderful note in the very beginning. I can’t remember what it is.

JM: Oh yeah! So romantic! (laughs)

DB: I carried that book everywhere. Even when I had to leave certain things behind, I made sure that was with me when I was traveling. I picked it up and would read it. So, that’s one of the best gifts I got.

JM: Noooo.

DB: No.

CB: That has been every answer!

DB: I’d like to meet the person that’s read every book on their shelf.

DB: I think mine would…at this point in my life, it might say different things at other points, but at this point, it would say, “Do the work.” I’ve been thinking about a lot, simply because I have taken quite a bit a break from writing. Looking at these shelves and looking at what people have accomplished, not so much for themselves but in the actual work, I think it would tell me to keep on putting in the million words, the two million words. You have something to look up to. You have some sort of plan for you. Do the work.

JM: Right. I totally agree. Mine was really similar to along those lines. I think my shelf is telling me, maybe because of where I am in my life right now because I haven’t been working on the “new” stuff. The shelf is saying, “Work hard! Finish, bitch!”

CB: Yeah!

JM: Do the shit! Finish the shit!

DB: Finish the shit. #finishtheshit.

JM: (in Mortal Kombat voice) Finish her. Yeah, that’s what my shelf is saying. Do the work. BE BRAVE.

DB: That’s in all caps too, when you transcribe that. (laughs) BRRRAVE with three Rs.

JM: That’s what the shelf says.

*Other alternative autobiography titles for David:

With All Three Cheeses: A Life

Yes, I Know The Guac is Extra