Since Jessica took over the family blog, she's been writing story after story worthy of a Pulitzer prize*, so I figured it was about time I lower the standard a bit by writing something inconsequential and of no interest whatsoever.

On our bookshelves we have a diverse collection of books in French and English. I noticed some time ago that book titles are written top to bottom on the spines of English books, while it's written bottom-up on French books. Mixing such books on your shelves means that reading titles involves a nice little head dance: lean on the left for French books and lean on the right for English books, twist and turn, clap your hands and do it all over again. Puzzling isn't it?

Well, now, thanks to Reza, I have the beginnings of an explanation. Apparently, in most of the world, the title is written top to bottom so that when the books are put in a stack, cover up , you can read the titles on the side. That actually makes sense.

So I took a bunch of books in French, stacked them up and looked at the side... and sure enough, the titles are upside down. What's going on?! Maybe stacking books is 'untidy' and not well regarded, I don't know. Maybe French librarians have a code of honor that states that a book should always stand upright and never be put in a pile.

Well, I'll keep investigating and I'll make sure to keep you updated on the reasons for this important cultural exception.

(*) There's actually a Pulitzer category for "distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author".

Boudiou ! C'est ma foi vrai ! C'est donc pour les anglophone que le coup de la pile marche, pour les francophones, les piles, c'est pas bien…

D'ailleurs je ne mets jamais mes livres en piles. ;-)

Glad to see you writing in the blog. I am sure if you work on it you could turn the delima of book tiles top to bottom/bottom to top into a video game that would sell round the world. Maybe a stack of books could be turned into a word search game. AHHHH. The possibilities.

See You Easter Sunday.

Love Ya,

C'est ce qu'on appelle l'exception culturelle française. Pourquoi mettre des livres en pile ?
Cela a fait débat lors de notre dernier cours d'anglais, Laurent dit qu'il suffit de mettre la pile dans l'autre sens, mais pourquoi mettre les livres en pile ?

Mais si tu retourne la pile pour pouvoir lire la tranche, tu ne voit plus que le dos de la couverture du livre qui est en haut de la pile, c'est pas pratique..

Eh! oui, ce n'est pas pratique. Peut-être que les français ne sont pas si intelligents que cela ! Mais pourquoi mettre les livres en pile ?