I should have been a librarian
We’ve spent the weekend rearranging our bookshelves, a task long overdue. Every couple of years I go through and reshuffle books from one room to another, grouping according to the way we use them. Historical and realistic children’s fiction in one bank of shelves, kids’ sci fi and fantasy in another, nonfiction here, poetry there, and so on. Scott’s collection of composer biographies and music criticism used to have its own shelf, but those books have migrated all over the house because he reads in every room. Picture books have the most migratory habits of all: they’re everywhere, stacked on the hearth (it’s San Diego; in six years we’ve never lit a fire), crammed into baskets, piled beside beds. Most of them have a permanent home in the Rose-Beanie-Rilla room, but the lower shelves of almost every bookcase in the house (we’re upwards of two dozen now) are dedicated to overflow picture books. You never know when you might need to stop folding laundry, eating, or sleeping to read Caps for Sale.
Now that we’ve reassembled the historical fiction collection comes the really fun part—arranging them in chronological order. I utter that sentence without a trace of irony. If I ever got a tattoo (which I won’t, because needles), it would have to say BORN TO CURATE.
***
New Thicklebit today! Once you’ve served them chai tortilla soup, they’re forever wary.
Ami says:
Ah, but just think, if you were a librarian you would never have time to actually READ any of them!
On September 3, 2012 at 8:27 am
Ami says:
Because, of course, as a Mom, author, blogger, etc., you have TONS of reading time…
On September 3, 2012 at 8:32 am
Jeanne says:
This post really, really needs pictures…
On September 3, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
I only got one pic during the shift (a blurry one, at that): http://instagram.com/p/PDd1LqJsNh/
Unless you were looking for new improved spruce-and-tidy pictures? 🙂
On September 4, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Fanny Harville says:
There’s something so satisfying about getting the books in order at the start of the “school” year!
On September 5, 2012 at 6:55 am
Lisa says:
Your tech skills WOULD make you a great librarian today! (Says she who IS a librarian!)
On September 5, 2012 at 8:38 am