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.
