The Library

When Mark finished installing the glass doors on the (ubiquitous IKEA Billy) bookshelves and I sorted the books, we stood back to admire the view. This looks so much better than before. The books used to be so jumbled. The cleaning lady used to empty the shelves, vacuum and wipe, and pile the books back in random order. (We asked her to keep them in the same order, but she works too fast to pay attention to little things like that. ) Consequently, our book shelving system had no rhyme or reason. Now that we have these glass doors, she doesn't have to empty the shelves or shuffle the books anymore.

I entered half the books in this picture into our LibraryThing catalog. We noticed that the shelves are heavy with the books that one or both of us haven't read. If we read a so-so book, we get rid of it. (We are not completists; if we hate a book, we don't finish it.) If we read a great book, we want the other one to read it. Alternatively, we loan it out to as many friends as we can so that we can discuss it with them.

In an organizing book, the author cautions against hanging on to books that you have never read, and will likely never read. We will read these books some day. Just not today. Over time, I think we will read and discard more of these books.

I am at a stage in my life where I get more satisfaction from losing 'stuff weight' than acquiring more stuff. Mark is reaching the same conclusion. Iris has to hold on to everything. We have a secret plan. When we ship her off to college, we are going to move into a smaller place. That's why we are starting the stuff diet early.