Thursday, September 10, 2009

Why all books should be paperbacks


Mom slacked off and took this picture while I was moving my piles of books from her room to mine. She labeled it "katebookhoarder."

This spring, Mom and I swapped rooms for the summer since the master bedroom stays hot and the smaller bedroom stays cool. I like heat and Mom doesn't, but we were planning to switch back after summer. When we talked it over this week and decided we liked the rooms we had, I said I wanted my bookshelves in my room instead of the ugly old wardrobe I wasn't using anyway.

I will not dwell on the misery of getting that hideous wardrobe down the stairs and out to the shed. The bookshelves weren't nearly as hard to move. Now, of course, I have to put all the books back--but that's fun because I get to sort them as I go, and I can add books to my LibraryThing that I haven't added yet. Unfortunately, I have to do this before bedtime because most of the books are on my bed. If you'll excuse me, I'll be busy for the next five hours.

(Oh, and to keep this writing-related, I've typed up the first chapter of the Bell-Man WIP and I've got 3,000 words already! That's a lot more than I thought, and I have a few more thousand still to type up.)

16 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

I love my books. When my wife and I moved into our home, I cried unpacking them. Lame, maybe. But I love my books. They'd been in storage too long.

Danielle Birch said...

I like a good opportunity to sort through my books.

Jameson T. Caine said...

It amazes me how much time I can spend "playing" with my books - sorting through them, rearranging them, etc. Currently I'm engaged in the long process of cataloging all my books (since the original list was lost in my hard drive crash). Fun stuff, but wow, it takes a long time.

K.C. Shaw said...

Aaron--Okay, that is totally adorable. Sorry, it is. :)

Danielle--I've been enjoying myself mightily. I'm covered in dust, though. Poor dusty books.

Jameson--You ought to sign up for LibraryThing. It's a fun way to catalog your books and not lose the list.

Jamie Eyberg said...

organizing books stinks. do you organize them by color, author, topic- What?

K.C. Shaw said...

I had them organized by subject--all the fantasy together, all the YA horse stories together--but this time I just arranged them by paperback and hardback. This may or may not work. The NF is still more or less by subject. I'll probably reorganize them all at some point.

Cate Gardner said...

My book shelves are beginning to overflow which means a trip to the charity shop.

K.C. Shaw said...

I really need new shelves too. My "to be read" shelf is now piled on the loveseat and next to the bed to make room for keeper books.

Paula RC said...

I find the trouble with moving books is you spend more time reading them than you do moving them. When we cleared my writing room to paint it as i took the books down I was having a quick peek as you do to refresh your mind and found myself reading bits. You suddenly find you are making yourself comfortable and reading a bit more than you expected too.

Good luck with the move.

Anonymous said...

Books. Lovely, lovely books! Also, the book that you're working on sounds fantastic!

-Mercedes

K.C. Shaw said...

Jarmara--I know, I kept stopping and thinking, "Oh, I haven't read this one in ages! I love this book!" and then having to resist the urge to just dip in for a few paragraphs....

Mercedes--Thanks! I'm around 7,500 words in and it's proceeding very well. I'm still in the fun stage with it.

Alan W. Davidson said...

Going by Jamie's recent bookshelf pic, I'd say that you and he should combine resources and open a used book store!

Anne Spollen said...

I never had guilt about buying books (as opposed say, to antique spoons or something of that nature)

When we moved, I had so many boxes of books, my husband asked me if I had a disorder.

K.C. Shaw said...

Alan--I think Jamie has me beat, actually. But back when I actually did work in a (very large) used book store, I had a TON more books than I do now.

Anne--If you have to have a disorder, a book-acquiring disorder is the best one to have. :)

Richard said...

I sort my books alphabetically, according to the last word on page 67. The only trouble with the system is deciding how to file pamphlets.

K.C. Shaw said...

As long as you can find the books, your method is as good as mine.

Pamphlets should be sorted by staple type.