(no subject)

[oyceter]

Lalalalala I have new shelves lalalalalala!

I got a new bookcase for DVDs/CDs, seeing as how the current bookcase for them is too small. I remembered that there was enough room where they were for a taller bookcase! Ha. But it ends up that the boy is moving out, so now the new DVD bookcase is where his stand with all his gaming gear used to be, and the little bookcase that used to hold the DVDs has now been co-opted to act as non-fiction bookcase the second, joy! So now I have all my interesting non-fiction on that bookcase and the how-to type non-fiction on the old bookcase, which has now largely been taken over by general fiction and mystery. And now my YA gets a lovely bookcase of its own, and I even have one empty shelf to stack books I have borrowed from other places, because otherwise I just leave them stacked around the house.

Now I should rearrange my romance bookcase, which is very messy. Lest you think I have too many bookcases, I shall put forth in my defense that most of mine are only short bookcases about the height of my waist. I suspect also that now that the boy's CD rack has been moved, there is room for a really small and narrow bookcase... hrm, must contemplate. Actually, maybe I can move my filing cabinet so it sits next to the DVD bookcase and move my display bookcase over next to the TV and then there'll be room for a full-sisze bookcase! Yay! Maybe fannishly can put hers there. My eventual goal is to line every single spot of blank wall with bookcases. And once Angela gets moved in, we can organize our DVDs (two complete sets of Buffy and Angel, LOL!) and then I can organize my CDs, and everything will be lovely and alphabetized. Full, organized bookcases are just so satisfying.

And now, the order my non-fiction is arranged in, probably of interest only to me. I start from religion to my book on the lesbian nun in the Renaissance to Renaissance architecture to Imagined Communities. Then a little section with a book on medieval history and several books on war scattered in time period and place. Then books on the Asian-American experience, then China, Korea and Japan. Japan is so big I must organize chronologically, and then divvy out a little bit at the end of the modern period for Japanese pop culture and manga and anime. Which then leads to my one book on Japanese film, which leads to my books on film, which lead to my books on American pop culture and Buffy and fandom. Then my books on books and writing, then my two books on women in writing, then my books on women/feminism. This segues to my books on anorexia and eating, which then leads to Fat Land. And then my totally random books -- a few biographies and assorted.

The how-to non-fiction has books on depression, then Our Bodies, Ourselves. Then books on food and cooking, then my books on mini roses and then my knitting books. Then my books on rats. Then my language books and travel guides. And stuck in there is a random book on Italian Renaissance art, which really should be in the other non-fiction bookcase, except it's too tall. It sounds like more books than it really is, because each section is really just two or three books or so.

The knitting is still progressing. I'm still working on the back of the sweater jacket I'm making, largely because I dropped a stitch and didn't notice. I had to rip out 14 rows. Very irked. And my gauge was on target before, but now it looks off, and I am quite confused. Le sigh. Knitting group next week, and I found a few people interested at work, so we'll knit during lunch once a week! I'm very excited.

The rats are large and squishy and cute and rat-like. There's some sort of rat fair promoting rats as pets in San Mateo in about two weeks, and I said I would volunteer for a few hours at the adoption center. Alas, it is not out of any sort of goodness of my heart. Really, I just want to stand around and play with more rats and scritch them and stuff.

Comments

[ann1962]

Yes. Full, organized bookcases are just so satisfying. Yes again. And you can never have too many bookshelves, just as you can never have too many books. It is a rule ;-) Our living room is lined with almost completely filled bookshelves. We call it our library and it works just fine that way. It was something I alway wanted to do, so I did.

[actoplasm.livejournal.com]

So I guess that means no more racing chair and no more hilarious car crashes, boo hoo!

Just kidding!! (I say, as I look around the room wondering what we could get rid of to make space for more shelves, and them remembering that we're moving to Davis and will just have to get a place with lots of bookshelf space.)

And going back to one of your earlier posts that I meant to comment on about In the Wake of the Plague, another plague book that came out recently is The Great Mortality by John Kelly. I haven't read it, but it's selling pretty well and got some favorable reviews. A good novel on the plague is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, set in the sixteenth or seventeenth century during one of the later attacks of plague, but it's really interesting coming from a single woman's and mother's perspective, as they seal up the town with her inside it, and she survives, while everyone of every class of society just starts dying (of course, the rich aristocracy left early). But it was an enjoyable read.

[thinkum]

mmmBookcasesmmm!!!

One can never have too many, and seeing them all full and neatly organized¹ is a tremendously satisfying experience. Sounds like you're having fun with this. ;-)

¹Once upon a time, I had my books sorted by genre, then grouped by author (but not necessarily alphabetical by author). Two thousand books in the apartment, and I could put my hands on any title you named in under a minute, just by picturing the cover in my mind, then picturing the front of the bookcases, and zeroing in on the match.

Alas, there came upon the land a great upheaval, and in the course of moving bookcases and giving away books I wasn't wild about and getting all sorts of new books that piqued my interest, chaos conquered my home. My knight in slightly-creaky-but-still-shining armor arrived, but even this could not save me, as he brought his own library with him...

These days, the bulk of my library is in boxes due to lack of room in a small apartment. I have two large, floor-to-ceiling bookcases in my bedroom, wherein are housed (two or three rows deep) the books by my favorite authors, and the individual titles that I cannot live without having close to hand (eg for some reason I must have I Heard The Owl Call My Name visible on the shelf -- no idea why, but that book intensely resonates with me, and even though I only read it once every three years or so, I can't bear to pack it away). But even these are a jumble...

[oyceter]

Mmm yes. Someday when I have my own house I will have rooms and rooms lined with bookshelves.

[oyceter]

Alas, no more racing chair.

And thanks for the plague book recs! I've seen Year of Wonders floating around back when I was working in the bookstore, but didn't know about the other one.

[oyceter]

Ooo yes! I used to periodically reorganize my books back at home in Taiwan, and it would be annoying because my sister and my parents would never put things back where they came from, so there would just be this giant jumble. Ditto when I was in college with roommates. But now I have my own shelves and I can obsessively organize them as much as I like!