Welcome to Litsy!

A man takes a job as a guard at the MET in NYC. His brother is dying & in the midst of the pain & turmoil, he finds comfort in the predictability & beauty of his new position. It's a quiet nonfiction book that wrestles with grief, finding purpose & the lasting impact of art. Moving if a bit privledged.

“A work of art tends to speak of things that are at once too large & too intimate to be summed up. And they speak of them by not speaking at all.”

LOVED this. And it was awesome that I got to read it while visiting New York and The Met. ❤️🤓

Firstly - this photo is from the Christchurch Art Gallery - not the Met Museum! - but on theme 👍

This book is a lovely contemplative piece by Patrick Bringley about being a guard at the Met Museum, about the impact of art on the soul and about specific works of art and what they came to mean to him. Its also about being a guard, one of so many, and behind the scenes at the museum. Beautifully written and incredibly thoughtful. A joy to read.

The author‘s advice to those you visit the MET as he ends his years long journey as a museum guard. His voice inspires me to visit again & again, to peruse those works he so lovingly engages with & writes about.
#monthlynonfiction2025 #February #StoryGraph #700to799

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“All the Beauty in the World” -every time I visit the MET I am in awe, feel such elation & connectedness to humanity & its centuries of beauty. Hope lies in beauty. #Artisresistence #StoryGraph #monthlynonfiction2025 #February

After the death of his brother, Brinkley left his job at the New Yorker in search of something quieter, allowing the headspace to grieve and ponder. He took a job as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and stayed for 10 years. This book documents his decade at The Met, how the art and his fellow guards changed him as he processed his brother‘s death and forged his own identity. It‘s really beautiful and interesting.

#DaysDevotedTo @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#ArtMuseum

#AboutABook #Published2003 @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I read an e-version of this because having a pdf at the end with links to all the art being referenced was amazing, but I sort of want to get a physical copy and fill it with little printouts of the images. Has anyone done something similar? Would you use a hardcover or paperback for a project like that?

Combining glimpses of his life with reflections on art, Bringley narrates his experiences as a museum guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I enjoyed this unique tour through the Met—and am so glad I read the digital version. A section at the back has links to the artworks referenced in the text, so I was able to read on my Kindle while keeping my laptop open to the notes page, clicking through to each artwork as it was discussed.⤵️

This isn‘t exactly a book about mindfulness. The author loses his brother suddenly to an aggressive form of cancer, it upends his world. He leaves a beloved ( but challenging) job at The New Yorker to be a guard at the Met, the most beautiful place he knows. This story covers his 10 years as a guard where the art soothes him and he begins to recover and watch how the art helps others. It was meditative to listen to #fridaynightshare #litsolace

I have yet to read this tagged book.
This past September 2023 we took a train to NYC to see the Manet/Degas exhibit. What an experience-
#storysettings #may26 #museum

#StorySettings @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#Museum

A lovely book that‘s part memoir of a man who spent 10 years as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to cope with the grief of losing his older brother to cancer. Meditative, funny, charming. Perfect for art lovers, lots of inside references, artwork mentions, and overall a lovely read.

Patrick Bringley writes about moving through grief, living well, and the meaning of art through the lens of his 10 years as a museum guard at the MET. This really spoke to me, and I went crazy highlighting kindle passages. There were several years of my childhood when I spent most weekends at The Met. With a museum that size I obviously don‘t know every painting or even every gallery he talks about, but I remember many.⬇️⬇️⬇️

For our last communal #hyggehour (though I‘ll totally be continuing this Sunday night tradition) I‘m bouncing between the kindle text and the audio of the tagged book, and taking many forays into Google to see color images of the art Bringley‘s looking at and refresh my background knowledge on the artists. #midwintersolace #naturalitsy

In the basement of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, below the Arms and Armor wing and outside the guards' Dispatch Office, there are stacks of empty art crates. #FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My 1st 3 2024 reads have all been about NYC, but this one is the best! After walking thru Central Park, my son & I spent hours in the vast Met Museum. The book brought it all back for me. Author narration is an acquired taste but I appreciated his musings on art, love, work, family, friendships, the city, the passage of time, beginnings & endings & everything in between. All the love for this gem. My fave work memoir since Skyfaring.

Listening to this one while running errands and this quiet book feels like the perfect counterpoint to all the holiday craziness.

PB left his job at the New Yorker and got a job working in what he considered the most beautiful place he knew after he lost his brother suddenly to cancer. His frank recounting of his overwhelming grief after the loss of his brother is hard to listen to while driving to work in the morning but the level of care he shows himself as he navigates his loss and tries to cope is remarkable.

Still working on this magical set

Roof is going on and I‘m loving this book

Marking, laundry, stew making, week planning and pretending I‘m doing none of it and spending time in the Met instead ❤️

I would recommend the physical book over the audio here. There is something older about the tone and cadence the narrator reads this in and I was confused when the author says he was born in 1983. It just doesn't match the tone of the book. This is a quick read, with many little gems but overall I am underwhelmed by it.
3⭐

A delight. Rarely have I encountered a non-fiction book about art and not craved most to be standing in front of those pieces being discussed, but the author's journey brings a unique and personal viewpoint to that art, to the time in his life where he chose to guard it as a profession, to the people he encountered there, to the events in his life that began and ended this period. It's beautiful in and of itself, for loving both art and life. 1/?

Yeah, the majority of my memories of studying Roman emperors backs up the comparison to temperamental toddlers. 🤨

Such a singular pleasure to read from someone writing about what they love. ♥️

"I think that sometimes we need permission to stop and adore, and a work of art grants is that." ?

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Poetic people-watching. I always appreciate well-considered categorization. ☺️

Respect this book more for having acknowledged the elephant in the room for western museums.
Re👏🏻pa👏🏻tri👏🏻ate!👏🏻

YES. 🎨♥️

I enjoy the idea of describing architecture as "very columny". If I could have gotten away with that in my art history electives I would have! ☺️

Took exactly one page to make me smile. I needed this. 😌

I was really looking forward to this one for #titlesandtunes #theworldismyoyster and it didn‘t *quite* live up to expectations.

Still a good pick, but not going to trouble my favourites books of the year. It just felt a bit dry in places to me and some of the museum lingo wasn‘t explained properly so I didn‘t ever get fully engrossed or feel like I was actually there, visiting The Met.

Both of my choices for #titlesandtunes #theworldismyoyster are rather ‘obvious‘ this month… nothing clever or witty here!

The book is one that I bought as soon as it came out but haven‘t read yet. As for the song, it came out in 1989 so definitely one of the tunes of my teenage years!

https://open.spotify.com/track/1DapqOfkDAQCiKnvfwKo0g?si=276rv-wYRtyS4lqGAnYbFg&...

A very easy and relaxing read. I spent as much time googling the art work as I did reading the book. 🖼️

I‘m about to buy some comfy shoes, quit my job & go to work at the Met. Or at least visit a museum.

At some points, I thought this book was about grief, then it was about art, then about being a guard in the diverse world of the Met, then about culture… Well written, easy to read, poignant. Good spam of essays that connect through the beauty of the Met.

This is a great memoir from a 10 year veteran security guard at the Met. It is about art, his personal life and the lives of other guards he befriends along the way. Touching and uplifting, a must read.

#independentbookstoreday Limited myself to one since I‘ve done a lot of Indy bookstore purchasing this month. #TBR #minibookhaul

My #camplitsy2023 votes. @squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

Would have done 3.5 starts if GR would allow it.... While the personal aspects of the author's experiences and the minutiae of security guard life at the NYC Met were nicely explored, the discussions of the art itself were sometimes a tad overwritten. Still, I'm visiting the Met this summer for the first time, and I'll be thinking of this book while I'm there.

A lovely book! The author quit his job and became a guard at his favorite museum to help work through the grief of his brother‘s death. His love for the museum shows on every page. He is a great storyteller & speaks with joyfulness about his work, his fellow guards, the visitors and, of course, the art. I savored this book & really wished I lived closer to NY so I could wander the galleries!
#52bookclub23 #setinaworkplace
#BookSpin #BookSpinBingo

What a joy to read. Not just about the fascinating art, he spent 10 years with but also his life. It made me miss the Met and now I want to go back soon.❤️

Memoir-esque, written by a guard at the Met, who takes the job after losing his brother, realizing he wanted to be surrounded with beauty, because life is short. Bringley is such a lovely writer!

I absolutely loved this book. Perhaps it was the right moment for it. Perhaps because the Met is the number one place I‘d go in NYC. The author talks about his personal experiences with art and people as a guard at the Met for ten years. It is beautifully written and heartfelt. My favorite book I‘ve read this year. ♥️