# Curious Juxtapositions **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 23, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696 "2004-02-23T16:29:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696/1 "2004-02-23T16:29:43Z")
Tidying up the other day I noticed some odd groupings on my bookshelves. Just to cite a couple of examples: Bottom shelf “F105 Thunderchief in action” sandwiched between a Bidget Riley\* book and an illustrated program to a Cathy de Monchaux exhibtion. These books do _not belong together_. In a library they’d be at opposite ends of the building, not nestling next to each other on the same shelf. Top shelf Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (The Friendly Ones as it happens) sitting next to sheet music for George Formby’s “When I’m Cleaning Windows”. Come on guys what’s on your bookshelves keeping weird company? \*60’s Op-Art. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696/2 "2004-02-23T17:05:22Z")
You mean like those? (left to right, german unless noted otherwise) Selected Poems of Publius Ovidius Naso (in latin of course, 1894 edition) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (englisch) … The C++ Programming Language The Bible … The Brothers Karamasoff I & II The Nostradamus Code (hey, I was 14 when I got that one) … Parzival (middle high german/new high german bilingual edition) Functional Programming ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696/3 "2004-02-23T17:14:49Z")
**kellner** that’s the idea. A coincidence: My C++ books are stacked with a Bible, but there’s a perfectly logical reason for it. They’re all heavy books and they keep the sub-bass unit in place. I’m a non-believer and I don’t use C++ so this is about as useful as these books can be for me. ---
**Author:** ![gooti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gooti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooti)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696/4 "2004-02-24T01:33:52Z")
On the bookshelf in our bedroom theres: The First Man by Camus & The Age of Reason by Sartre next to Stealing Jesus, The God We Never Knew and Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. One shelf below: two Harry Potter Books next to two bibles. We have lots of interesting discussiions around these parts. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696/5 "2004-02-24T04:34:08Z")
I just realized that I have a trashy romance novel (_The Lady and the Outlaw_ by Joyce Brandon, for those who are interested, an old school bodice ripper: now with more rippling pectorals!) next to _Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn of the Century New York_ by Kathy Peiss, which is basically about how allowing immigrant/first generation women to work granted them more freedom than they had ever had before and allowed them to invade male spheres such bars, without suffering social consequences. Guess which one is the better book! ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696/6 "2004-02-24T05:56:48Z")
Six in a row: _Pioneer Days in Weyburn_ (a commemorative pamphlet from my home town in Saskatchewan) _Journal of the Herbalist of Erdendorf_ by Howard H. Hirschhorn (herbal medicine and hiking in Bavaria) _Mutiny - The Floating Republic_ by Manwaring and Dobree (Spithead and the Nore in 1797, of course) _Perelman’s Home Companion_ (humourous short pieces) _Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers_ by Martin Gardner (recreational math) _Winnie ille Pu_ by A. A. Milne, translated by Alexander Lenard (a Latin classic) The scary thing is that I could have picked at random and found a similar mix just about anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![AnnaLivia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@AnnaLivia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnnaLivia)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-juxtapositions/230696/7 "2004-02-24T11:14:51Z")
Eamon DeValera, by Tim Pat Coogan The Joys of Yiddish Prick Up Your Ears, John Lahr (about 60’s playwright Joe Orton and partner Ken Halliwell) Lanark, Alasdair Grey. (think Kurt Vonnegut. Think Glasgow. Riiiiiiiight.) Skywriting by Word of Mouth, John Lennon Toilers of the Sea, Victor Hugo Not too eccentric. I’m always rather heavy on the Irish and the Jewish. The Scottish is a new development. AL