The Stockholm Shelf

Welcome to my blog.  My name is David House, but feel free to call me David, or Dave (if you project onto me a jaunty sort of cuteness), or perhaps  just “out to lunch”.

Here is a little information about myself:

A day without reading is an untenable prospect to me, worse by far than a day without food or sleep.  I don’t know at what point reading tipped from a way to pass time and spilled over into an obsession, but by high school I was clearly beyond help.  I knew something was awry when I realized that I was the only one in class who not only didn’t hate The Scarlet Letter, but found it riveting.  As much as I loved Jane Eyre and The Old Man and the Sea, Eliot and Shelley, English class was not going to supply what I increasingly needed.  On my own I discovered Turgenev, Defoe, Kafka, and Wilde.  I credit these authors and their books, together with classical music, with completing the job, begun by my parents, of raising me.  My parents were both musicians; it seemed inevitable I would follow that path as well.  Today I am a pianist, teacher, and composer.  I am also a psychologist.  A few years ago I gave up a private practice so as to more fully engage with music and literature. I also have a great love for cooking, and for movies, especially foreign. I live in Denver, Colorado, with my partner, Sam, also a pianist, teacher, and passionate reader. Right now, the stack of books by the bed includes Saul Bellow, Wallace Stevens, John Cowper Powys, James Wood, and Milan Kundera.  I’d put them back on the shelf, but there’s no room.