Shelf Esteem is a weekly measure of the books on the shelves of writers, editors, and other word lovers, as told to Emily M. Keeler. This week’s shelves belong to Sam Sutherland, a music journalist and the author of Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk. I was supposed to go to his house and do this interview the night that the big storm hit Toronto, but my basement flooded, and instead I stayed home and bottomed out the house with the other people that live in the building. I went the next day instead. Sutherland’s building didn’t have power. We kept running from the bookshelf to the barbeque, which was out on a deck with a great view of Toronto’s southernmost slaughterhouse. Without electricity, it was the only way he could make dinner for himself and his girlfriend, Ashley.
We used to shoot a TV show at my old house that was basically just a fucking Wayne’s World rip-off, one of the first shows I ever did for AUX. That was when we were in a smaller place, and we had all of our books and CDs and records all in the same spot. They’re split up now, because there isn’t a good spot to have them all together, but it was just such a great thing.
I loved reading Mark Medley’s Shelf Esteem, where he said he and his wife hadn’t combined their collections. I thought that was really funny, because I remember what a big deal it was for us. I was like, Oh my god. This would be a hard thing to disconnect from itself. Once these are combined, that’s more commitment than I can fucking imagine.
It’s in alphabetical order, but in terms of subject matter? It’s a mess. The heartbreaking thing, I’m realizing right now, having you here to look at these books, is that so much has been loaned out. We’re sort of like the fucking party house for our friends, and what happens is people are like, Oh, can I borrow this? And you’re like, No problem, and in the end you lend out every good book you own, and you don’t even know who the fuck has it.
It’s pretty obvious what I’m into. It’s gone, because I leant it to somebody who was tattooing me once, but Dave Bidini’s On a Cold Road—I think Dave Bidini is a criminally, critically underrated Canadian author. I think that he writes about music and sports, which are integral to our national identity, better than anyone else currently writing. On a Cold Road was his first book, and I think it paints this crucial picture of what it’s like to be a band touring in Canada. It really identifies the Canadian rock and roll aesthetic, and that was super important to me, growing up.
Shelf Esteem runs every Tuesday.
