March 5, 2008 | Me, myself, Quirky notions
We’re getting ready to sell the house. (Oh joy unforeseen…) As part of this thrill, we get to open up vistas throughout the house, so potential buyers can see how much space actually exists in our little townhouse. (Riiight.)
In other words, everything we can possibly live without gets to go into storage so strangers can traipse through our home. If this works, we get more money. I call this A Big Incentive. What I’m having a really hard time with is watching all my so-called spare books go into storage.
Every piece of fiction - gone. All of my Linda Howard collection, Elizabeth Lowell, Angela Knight, Georgette Heyer, Lora Leigh, volumes of Secrets, and more - vanished into boxes and locked up. Okay, they’re carefully labeled and I do have a key. But can I wander over to my bookshelf and grab one? Can I look up a quick bit of DREAM MAN for a fast bit of inspiration? Or how about THESE OLD SHADES for Vidal’s sublime way of putting pretentious idiots in their place? No, I have to rely upon my memory. Well, I do have these well-loved, well-thumbed keepers memorized but, even so, my friends aren’t with me any more!
I even had to prune my research collection. I pray my editor doesn’t want a detailed explanation of the Texas Ranger history behind BOND OF DARKNESS; most of those books are now sleeping peacefully. My Arab histories of the Crusades - well, I made it through BOND OF BLOOD so I probably don’t need them any more, even if they do help explain Don Rafael’s broad cultural tolerances. I even had to pack up many of my Civil War histories, which is dreadful for somebody who likes to prowl Civil War sites on free weekends.
Still, who’d have thought I could take sixty boxes of books out - and still have so many books left in the house? I still have my basic research library here, more than capable of taking me through the next Devil book and my 1920’s paranormal romance.
Plus I do have a few novels stashed away. My Treo is still stuffed with ebooks, including NY Times bestsellers thanks to eReader. I’ve got a complete collection of JD Robb novels hidden there.
And my copy of Dakota Cassidy’s THE ACCIDENTAL WEREWOLF arrived the day after my other novels went into storage.
Hmm, I seem to hear a novel calling to me. Please excuse me while I go check out Dakota’s book.
Happy reading, friends!
Michelle Monkou says:
Good luck with selling your house.
My husband seems to think that by dragging out the boxes of books from the various conferences that it will motivate me to do something with them. Actually it just serves as a reminder that my TBR pile is enormous.
I wonder what our selections would say about us long after we’re gone.
Michelle
Posted on March 10th, 2008 at 1:36 pmDiane says:
I remember family squabbles over my grandmothers’ books when they were gone. Grandmother Julia had a complete set of Zane Gray, which caused a huge tug of war among the grandchildren. They were such good stories everyone wanted at least one.
Grandmother Elizabeth left all sorts of classic children’s literature - AA Milne, Peter Pan, all of The Wizard of Oz books, even Churchill’s history of the world for children. She’d run a Montessori school for years, then become a counselor for abused children. She’d used those books to make reading and the world beyond one’s own home into a friendly place.
Nobody suspected she still had that stash. When we found it, we sat down and shared stories about our favorite moments with her and a book. In some ways, finding that stash was one of her best legacies to us.
Diane
Posted on March 15th, 2008 at 5:58 pmScarlet Wharton says:
My house is very small and I am forced to pack away books I have no wish to sell…At least until I get more shelving! I feel for you I love to reread books so I keep a running list of what is in each box, but it’s not the same.
Posted on March 20th, 2008 at 1:27 pmDiane says:
Oh, Scarlet, I understand! I’ve got a running list and labels on the front and sides of each box. But I mourn for the missing books every day.
Posted on March 20th, 2008 at 9:34 pm