I just rounded up all the volumes I could find from
the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and put them on a shelf together in
my living room.
For the past thirteen years, my books have been
scattered and in disarray. It makes me crazy. It’s also quite unlike me.
Usually, when I move into a new dwelling, organizing my books is one of the
first things I do. My books bring me great joy and satisfaction. But the
circumstances, over several years, of my move to Oregon, having a lot of my books
in storage, my grandmother’s passing, and my marriage and move into my husband’s
house—well, the books have remained in chaos.
Gretchen Rubin has noted the tremendous effect that physical order has on our happiness. I agree in theory, but you’d never
know it from the condition of my house.
Ever since being completely overwhelmed by lovely
Ann Voskamp’s 25 Point Manifesto for Sanity, I’ve been toying with making my
own list. What contributes to my sanity? I even did a mindmap about that a few days ago. “Organized
bookshelves” was nowhere on the radar. However . . .
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series is one
of three current series (along with Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs
books and Laurie King’s Mary Russell books) that I try to follow as they
appear in paperback and I get around to it. There were stray volumes in my
office, in the living room, and in the piano room.
Enough was enough.
In about two minutes, I was able to round up eight
out of the first twelve volumes and shelve them together.
It’s not much, but it’s a start.
You're so darling! :) I, too, love to have my books arranged and visible. I have boxes in my garage, but managed to work some into my decor in the house. <3 Good luck on getting the rest of them there! Loved this blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tori! Why am I not surprised that you identify? :) Books make me feel so at home. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
DeleteThe disorganization in my house makes me truly insane (not a far leap, I know...) and yet, day after day, I let it get to me instead of just doing it differently. Some of that is ADD... the act of sorting things and deciding where they should go is almost physically painful - like having teeth extracted. If you do not have ADD, that will sound over dramatic and ridiculous... so for you normal readers, i will say that the priorities in my life always seem to involve things that are so very IMPORTANT and must be taken care of so IMMEDIATELY that of course, there is no time for making my living space more... livable. The tyranny of the urgent wins again. So you having your "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books neatly in a row on a shelf seems like quite an accomplishment to me! And on top of that - you took time to write about it. You are my hero. Keep up the good work!
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