Now, children, what shall we do with these shelves...?

[desperance]

I built the shelves; I filled them. I quail, at the thought of how often I am going to have to do this, to get all the books reshelved. That's twenty-four linear feet of shelving, and - well, I suppose it might be one-twentieth of the collection. Might be. I'm not good at judging quantity, but I usually underestimate.

Maybe I should use this opportunity, this process, to LibraryThing the collection? That might encourage me to filter, even - 'cos some of these books, it would be hard to admit publicly to their ownership. And even this evening, I did find a few that I thought maybe I could let go. If I were strict with myself. It's that thing where you find you have vol three of an indeterminate series that you've never read; that's a fairly pointless position, and the alternatives are either to make a serious effort to find at least vol one, or else to pass it on to someone else. Like that. It happens a lot, on my shelves; I've picked up so many random books, one way or another.

But. They are my books. I know few things about myself, but this is one: that I keep my books. Even those I dislike, even those I'm fairly sure by now I'll never read. They are my books; I keep them.

Now I have to find a home for countless old videos, that were squeezed onto the old shelves in front of the books. That's going to be a recurrent problem, for the old shelves were deep and allowed of double-stacking. Not so the new ones. Sigh. Too much stuff. If I can't winnow books, maybe I can winnow videos...?

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I got quite ruthless at winnowing books when faced with an international move. If you need help, perhaps I could pop over and be cruel for you. :) And skritch the kitties.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Any time. Truly.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I alphabetize, too. I find it deeply soothing in a compulsive way. :)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup. Half the pleasure anticipation of this whole reshelving project is that I can get all the books into order. I have been very slow about this - been in the house twelve years, and only half the books are ordered - but as you say, it's a soothing thing. I sorted the children's books when my Sophie-cat was in hospital being operated on, and chances were she wasn't coming home (she did, for years longer - but that's a told story). I tackled the SF during one of my regular got-no-publisher crises. Etc. Sometimes it's obvious to me that I shoulda bin a librarian.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

And of course, if you were a librarian, you'd be writing novels as a way of hiding from the stresses of librarianship...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You see? It would have been ideal...