Big Listers

I am reading the most excellent book at the moment: ‘To See Every Bird on Earth” – Dan Koeppel I had a short fling when I was younger with the whole bird watching thing. It lingers in different forms… the ‘Beside Book of Birds’ – which I love for both the book design and the content. But really it’s the collecting thing. The listing. The organisation. The categories… I must go back to the museum again soon.

My mother is a big lister. She writes them in her spare time. Things like: Words that rhyme with xyz. Odd. Not just one here and there. Lots. And me: Font collections. Books. RSS subscriptions. Posterous. Collections fascinate me.

It’s incredibly satisfying being a ‘big lister’ in some way shape or form (if I can stretch the bird watching definition further, as Koeppel does anyway). I do hope that this book continues to resonate. Blair, I believe this is my ‘I get you Nick Hornby’, because, ‘I kind of get you Richard Koeppel’.

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2 Comments

  1. melinda beimers said:

    Ah-yes this resonates so much-the collecting gene -a weird and strange thing it is. Always strikes me as funny that I am such a disorganised .messsy person but am attracted to the” analness ” and order that collecting brings.
    Haha this is close to home for me too- made a list of every bird and wild flower/plant I saw while we were in central Australia last year-just compelled to do it!

    June 9, 2010
    Reply
  2. laura said:

    Oh… you’re reading it! Such a good book! Thought you’d like it!

    June 12, 2010
    Reply

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