There is a thing readers do, like mavens of fashion. We walk into our libraries of a fall evening and sigh - all these books and nothing to read.
Or so I did the other night, and not for the first time either. This has picked up speed in the last few months while dazzling Scribd titles glimmer at me. At the same time I have encouraged my children to dig into their own shelves.
A reader collects books like a magpie gathers shiny trinkets from unlikely places.
I pulled a dictionary in disrepair and a pristine copy of Good Night Moon from the depths of the book bin at the recycling center the other day.
I borrow from three or four libraries, enjoy Audible and Kindle, and achieved Literati status on ThriftBooks eons ago. Readers read. It’s what we do, but I’ve overlooked my treasure trove for quite awhile. It is time to look to my own shelves.
A wise man once said that having more books than one could possibly puts a reader in the proper stance before the realm of ideas. I agree. But I also want to try conquering my shelves. Maybe if I succeed, my husband will let my buy more books to address my hubris.
A Short History of My Shelves
I have my first board books from when I was a little girl. I intend to get rid of each falling apart copy of Good Night Moon when I pick up replacements, but instead we have four or five or six copies. (At three children, I recommend getting the lap edition. ) This is a pattern that repeats itself throughout our library.
I also have my first readers, and second readers, my mother’s classroom copies, and my grandmother’s copies.
I brought a couple thousand books into my marriage. One of the first things he ever asked me was, “Do you read?”
Then trouble struck. I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up while pregnant and purging. I got rid of my Dickens. It was a dark time
To this day I’ll be looking for a book only to realize it didn’t make it through my feelings-driven library reduction of 2015.
I’ve repented. My library recovered.
My husband began a reading focused liberal arts degree. Our bookshelves groan.
What is there?
I have everything from Agatha Christie’s Train Mystery Collection to Augustine Through the Ages (a reference guide bigger than at least one of my children). There are shelves of poetry and form, writing mechanics and essays. I have a complete set of Adler’s Great Books published through Britanica as well as How to Read A Book. There is a small library of King Arthur variations from the Mabinogion to the Sword in the Stone.
We will read dictionaries and philologies.
We will read detective novels and house keeping guides.
Not to mention a four foot rainbow of cookbooks.
In case things seem too intense, I have Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, and TinTin.
I should have invested in Woodehouse’s
What will I read outside of my personal library?
I have two book clubs and the Canon App.
I’m including my Audible and Kindle libraries on this adventure, so there are a lot of audiobook options already, but the Canon app is edifying in unexpected ways, so it stays.
And on Sunday I can read whatever I want. It is a day of rest from all work always. So, if I get stuck in my 4 volume cyclopedia of botany or in the history of German infantry units during WW2, I can snag a library copy of Code of the Woosters.
Rereading
Yes, I’ve read books from my library. I’m a pretty steady rereader, so I’m hoping that by starting at book 1, the reread factor will help the whole project along
Further Up;
Further In
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