Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Biblioholism. I Have It.

The book about jazz is finished and set aside to be blogged about. It's time to select book number 6. Actually, I knew what I wanted to read, a novel I've had in the stack for a long time. The problem is, it's a larger paperback book, not the small "trade" paperback size that Discworld novels usually come in. I'm not sure what determines the ultimate size of the book but it can make stacking them an engineering nightmare.

In order to get to book 6, I would have to take apart the right stack. But the left stack leans onto the right stack. To remove enough books to get to book 6, I would have books from the left stack tumbling onto the right stack. I might as well just disassemble both stacks.

As I started, the dust from years of sitting became evident. If I was going to do this right, I needed to dust the books before restacking them. And look here. I have this book and this book twice. Hmmmm. I need to pay more attention to what I have before telling people what I want on those birthday and Christmas lists. Well, the copy I bought went into the give away bag. The copy I received as a gift went back into the stack.

There are books, fortunately, only a handful, that left me shaking my head. Why did I keep this? A couple were gifts from well meaning friends. I know they were gifts from friends, but which friends I haven't a clue and, thankfully, the front plate is not inscribed. Into the bag they went. This is one reason I never spontaneously give someone a book. "Oh you'll love this," is the first clue that I probably won't and calls to mind my oft-used and favorite Dorothy Parker quote. "This is not a book to be cast aside lightly. It is to be heaved with great force." If you ask for it, then I assume you want it, but you'll never get an "I know you'll love it" from me.

It took me an hour to go through all of these, dusting and sorting into piles according to size. I removed 10 books from the stack. Some, I will blog about later. The others were the duplicates or the "You'll love it" that go directly into the give away bag. I have 3 that I'm on the fence about but I stuck them back in the pile. I've been known to give books a chance and then wonder why I'm reading something I dislike. (Looking at you Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison.) I still have two stacks but they aren't leaning against each other. Every book is visible. I will still have to take a stack apart if I want something from the middle downward but I now don't run the risk of foot injury from falling literature.

Best part of all this, the "I didn't know I had that" moments. I think all my books for this 12 months reading adventure have been found.

Beverage:  Berry flavored seltzer

Deb

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