Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Paging Through the Past

One of my recent projects was to go through our bookshelves.  

Some books went off to new adventures in the hands of others.

 

Everything came off the shelves, including my Go Away, I’m Reading sign, and the two small stone tortoises Mrs. Larry likes to check in with when she’s walking around the house.

 

I dusted everything. Sneezed. Dusted some more. 

 

I put most things back, reorganizing the books as I went. My previous system of loosely shelving by genre no longer worked - mystery/suspense/thrillers spread like sinister shadows onto other shelves, and some favorite authors write in different genres so it was like their books lived in different apartments in the same building. My brain did not care for that – it much prefers alphabetically by author’s last name. 

 

As I held each book, I was reminded how a book can be so much more than the story within its pages. There’s often a story outside its pages, too . . . 

 

Books with garage sale stickers when that was the only way my husband and I could afford to buy books. 

 

Back before anyone had heard of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, my husband and I were in our favorite independent bookstore and one of the people there literally pushed it into my hesitant hands – it wasn’t my usual kind of thing - telling me I had to read it, I would love it. I don’t know why I doubted her. She was right. As usual. 

 

Books where I wrote my name inside the cover, that younger version of my scrawl actually legible.

 

Many years ago, author Chris Bohjalian gave a talk/reading/signing of one of his early novels. I went to get my book signed and somehow the subject of my writing came up (it was probably my husband, he’s always telling people I write.) Even though a line was forming behind me, Mr. Bohjalian took the time to ask me about my work. He was so encouraging and nice, I remember that feeling to this day.

 

Books with pages gone yellow, that slip from spines as if too tired to hold on. Some with print too small for me to read now. Others with ties to people – family, friends, authors - who are no longer with us.

 

Books hold stories in their words, in their pages. We hold stories in our hearts, in our memories. And sometimes all those stories turn and twist and tangle and become a whole other story, one uniquely its own. 

 

*****


Have any favorite book memories? How do you organize your books – or do you? What else lives on your bookshelves – plants, photos, etc? Any summer projects you’re particularly proud of completing? 

12 comments:

  1. I've always loved reading, and books have helped me through the challenging times in my life. That's great that you're reorganizing your books.

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    1. Books can really be such amazing resources - comfort, guidance, entertainment, etc.

      I really should redo ALL the bookshelves in the house, but I focused on the main ones, and that's plenty. :)

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  2. Our books share a book shelf structure with all our games, and we commit the sin of putting books in front of books. Most of our books are my father-in-law's old collection, since as a family, we go for audiobooks more than physical ones. I have stacks of writing books in my office on floating shelves, and then my kids each have a book shelf in the room. But organization is more of "where it fits" versus any logical choice. We're pretty bad about that.

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    1. Oh, floating shelves! Hmm, maybe I should try that for my writing books. There's no way I could use those for all of our books - forget floating, those shelves would sink! :)

      Any system - including "where it fits" - that works for you and your family is the right one!

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  3. I used to organize my books by genre, then author, but the shelves are so full now (of both books and Funko Pop! figurines) that I've adopted a 'if it fits, it sits' mentality.

    I have some from when I was a kid that have my name written on the inside cover in my very clunky cursive. There are a lot of memories on those shelves.

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    1. Sounds like you and Loni have the same philosophy. :)

      Yes on the memories! It really slowed down the project because I kept stopping to remember things, but it was a wonderful trip into the past.

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  4. Our display cabinet is grouped by author or subject. The rest of them are all mixed up!
    Nice of that author to speak with you a bit longer.

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    1. Funny how so many of you have a system that isn't really a system at all. :)

      It really was nice of him!

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  5. What a cool post. I go through my bookshelves at least once per year. I regift some books at Christmas to my children. We all love the same genres. And I find that books I thought I would re-read are no longer keepers. It helps keep the count down.

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    1. Thank you, Susan!

      It really does help to keep the count down, but I used to feel bad about getting rid of books. Then, when I started thinking of it as sharing or passing them along to new readers, I felt better. :)

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  6. I've never had a special way of organizing my books on the shelf.

    The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is on my shelf, waiting to be read. Long overdue. Maybe this is the nudge that I needed.

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