My wife was complaining about my study the other day. I showed her the following picture of another writer’s office and informed her that she is officially no longer allowed to complain about my office.
Yes, if you grew up in the 80’s then you will probably recongnize the title of this post as a not-so-veiled reference to a popular rap song by a presently popular box-office star.
Ok, and because now I know you’re wondering what my wife was complaining about, here is my office for comparison.
If you come over to visit, this shot is taken from the chair that you can sit in while we chat:
Here is the view as you walk in the door (except I’m normally sitting in that chair):
and here is my view:
admittedly, I just re-shuffled my shelves and moved books I’m not using as much recently onto other shelves around the house, but you have to admit…this really isn’t too bad, eh? It’s the books sitting on top of other books that really gets Elisa going, and I’ve cut that down to just a few.
So you tell me, entirely acceptable right?
Long-ing For Life 
Not too bad; however, if you use the public library the books do not stack up on your desk, but on the library shelves…
Nate!
Nice office…nice library. I wish that mine was this neat.
There was a study in the news this past week that provides evidence that organization efforts cost business more than they are worth. I have always felt this way. Your office puts my organization to shame.
kol tuv,
Peter
Sharon!! Well, you are persistent about the library. And by the way, the un-named writer whose office I compared mine too, is a professor at William & Mary College in Virginia, and she currently has 300! books indefinitely checked out of their library!! Many of which form the piles you see in her office.
Now, let me admit, however, that you have been influential. In fact, some of the books in the stack on my desk and on the floor behind my desk are library books! Thus their location; I can’t put them on my shelf…so library books go on my desk, around my desk or on the back of my favorite porcelain reading chair.
Peter, I have a similar philosophy although I have noticed that if my desk gets much messier than its current state, that I have to organize or I can’t think straight. Now I can persist in a less than ideal desk state for some time, but if I come to a particularly focus-intense project than I have to straighten.
The other problem I have run into is that I have a shortage of actual writing space. While I use one of a couple keyboards for almost everything, there are still ocassions when you just have to physically write something…
I discovered my favorite Israeli author of historical fiction just recently at my local public library. The author is S.Y. Agnon, who wrote during the early days of Zionism. He speaks from his own experience, having made aliyah in the very early 1900s. I have read so far from Agnon, “Betrothed” and “Eddo and Enam.” I am currently reading “Only Yesterday” which so far is the best. All of the books are translated into English. I became very frustrated with some library loans of other Israeli authors such as A.B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, and the third escapes me – because of both unnecessary sexual content and other aspects that annoyed me. So next time you are at the library and you want a good read – look up Agnon.
The professors have the life when it comes to book availability. Who cares about a messy office when anything you want is at your fingertips!!! Often I have borrowed books from MSU’s cold storage library. It is a six month loan if they are in cold storage.
I should add that Elisa has not complained about my office in a long time now. She did buy me two additional book shelves, both of which were filled immediately!
Anyway, my point is that Elisa is an amazing woman, my office is distinctly different in appearance than the entire rest of our home, and I am thoroughly grateful to her for tolerating it.