The Library and the dismantling thereof...

 I couldn't live a week 

without a private library - 

indeed, I'd part with all my furniture 

and squat and sleep on the floor 

before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.

~ H.P. Lovecraft

One of my favorite parts of the movie, City of Angels, is the angels in the library. Angels certainly live in ours. There are books written by our Uncle Irving, books owned by my parents and others, gifts from ourselves and those who love and loved us...so angels...or maybe ghosts...probably both.

I was blessed to have a "book uncle."  You know what I am talking about. The book uncle (or aunt) provides those interesting and magical tomes parents may not see. They are always on the look-out for that perfect gift. My mother's brother was the book uncle (he was also the art uncle, but that is a story for another day). His gift to my sister, The Tall Book of Make Believe, lives on in all our hearts if not in our libraries.*

Our parents encouraged reading and we have always been readers.**

DH and I used to spend more money on books than on food. Really.

Our first child had more than 40 books in her library before she was born.

Our youngest, a literature major finishing her 4th degree, recently moved 40+ boxes of books and still enjoys carte blanche access to the Amazon account.

The middle child often confirmed "like-mindedness" in friends and others with a glance at the new acquaintance's bookcase.

DH and I have a goodly number of bookcases in the house - 5 in the living room, 4 in the hall, 2 in the master bedroom, 1 or 2 in each other bedroom, and 2 in the office.*** We have many boxes of books that came home with us from our work offices when we retired. And slowly, very slowly, we have been culling our library.

I know. I know. No one needs an encyclopedia anymore (No, I never use it, but I once did). And Stayton Texas Forms (legal forms) was out of date when in Dad's office. <sigh>

Some sorting can be easy. I have had a bad habit of buying used books when the title amuses me. Really. I have a small shelf of "funny titles." These can probably go. Do you know anyone who needs a volume of "How to Butcher," all about different cuts of meat. [Now I take a photo of an amusing title or an amusing grouping of books. I suppose this post will give me a place to save those.]

Some sorting is difficult. I have a collection of "little" books. They are not "tiny" books, just small. - maybe 2" x 3"  or 3" x 4." Some are pocket dictionaries. Others are testaments or other religious volumes. I like them. Some sing.  They certainly tell a story. They stay, for now.

Some of the small books. I give away those "colorful" testaments all the time and they keep coming back. The 7 books in the middle in camouflage are from different deployments and such. I had no idea they were on the shelf. One can tell the action based on the type of camo. I guess those sing in marching cadence.

I have attempted to attack a shelf at a time and had some success. I was able to clear the "Ireland" shelf in a few hours. It was cleared to display my pottery. I could use more space, but this way I cull my pottery regularly - moving pieces along when I have the opportunity. [If I can clear the Ireland shelf, I can do anything.]

This week I received three books in the mail. They are "field guides" in support of our recent work in the wilds of the state. I attempted to add them to the "naturalist" section of our hall library only to find that the shelf was already over-full. I thought we had 10 or 12 guides. I stopped counting at 40, shaking my head.

What guides could we possibly need, you ask. Perhaps a better question would be, "what guides do you have?" With the Internet and the "right" app, one probably needs no field guides. But we are book people. Over the years I have discovered that experts disagree. One wildflower book says one thing while another gives a different opinion.**** The insect books (yes, we have 2) include different common insects and one include arachnids (9th grade insect collection).

Whatever. I have at least 3 Texas (and one Irish - it's new and survived the Ireland book purge) wildflower books. I have no clue how many bird books I found on the shelf. At least one is Mom's. I'm keeping it. There are also guides about seashells, rocks, insects, fossils, trees, bird nests, and butterflies.*****

So, did we really need another wildlife guide (much less 3)? Well, yes we did. We now have 3 new (and one on the way) guides for Texas herps (Freshly printed at the University of Texas Press). We met one of the authors in a class a few weeks ago. He recommended a different guide (the one on the way), but we saw his book and like the way it is organized. So, snakes (very useful already), lizards (also helpful in identifying 5 creatures this week) and amphibians (Dr. LaDuc's work) are now covered in our library.

And as the wildlife shelf fills up, books are shifted. The cardboard boxes fill up with books for donation. I attempt an hour of ruthlessness each week. I sometimes fail, but progress is being made.******

I once had a student stand at my front door and exclaim, "if you ever move, I won't help you...too many books." My goal is to reach a point where a move, books and all, would be easy.

On the Same Page, a quilt by Linda Anderson (I felt like this woman knows me). Exhibited at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, November 2016.

NOTES:

* A collection of stories and poems, illustrated by Garth Williams. I cannot imagine a more magical book. I hunted down a copy are refer to it regularly. It is the one children's book I will be unable to give away...well, and maybe Just Go To Bed by Mercer Mayer...and...okay, I'll have a few children's' books. My book aunt, my father's sister, gave me The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe. I'm surprised I haven't read all the ink off the page.

**As children we also were already "into" audio books - 45 rpm recordings of kid's books. I could still sing the songs. I bet my sister could too.

I remember we had The Poky Little Puppy and The Saggy Baggy Elephant on 45.

*** When we first moved here a woman asked me why we had so many books in the living room. "You need to get these bookcases out of here," she said. "Sorry, but we have these in the living room because this is how we live," I replied.

****Then the wildflower center says something completely different OR that both books are correct.

*****The butterfly book was a surprise. I remember most of the others, now that I have seen them again and thought about when I found them in the used bookstore or at the garage sale. But I don't remember buying the butterfly book at all.

******One day I filled two boxes to donate to the library bookstore - mostly books I never read on Ireland. If I haven't read them by now, I never will. On a couple of occasions I have spied a book at the used bookstore and realized it was once mine. So far I have avoided buying any back. [We take classes at this library some 30 miles from our home. This is a little pay-back for the use of the facilities. But we don't want to buy our books back!] In any case, we need to downsize for ourselves. We need to minimize so our children don't curse us someday.

Second hand books are wild books, 
homeless books; 

they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, 

and have a charm 
which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.
 ~ Virginia Woolf

I learned to read on these New Cathedral readers. We had John and Jean and Baby Judy. The animals and toys were the same as the public school books. I looked for this one for a long time. There is a story about sharing that has stayed with me all these years.

The brother shared his flowers with everyone while his sister hoarded hers and refused to pick them.

Here he is taking some to a sick friend. In the end the sister's garden went to seed because she wouldn't share, but her brother's had beautiful flowers. Of course he share them with his sister when the time came to put flowers on Our Lady's altar.

OK. HERE are some of the wild books...at a junk store.

These at an estate sale look ready to jump off the shelf.

Okay, I took these photos because I love to see the rows of things...maybe a quilt in this?

These made me laugh. Found at a thrift store, they could not tempt me...no need to worry about "work teams" any longer.

I believe I found this at Politics and Prose Bookshop in D.C. I love when the staff provides a review.

Another from Politics and Prose.

I will always love bookstores.

I have more than 7 bad ideas. Wait...this is about economics. Here are 7 good financial ideas. I know nothing of economics. Save your money. Don't spend your principle. Start saving for retirement as soon as possible. Don't buy the most or least expensive house in a neighborhood. Diversify. Buy no load mutual funds. If you have little you live on little - if you have a lot, you will live on a lot (I believe this saying of my German grandmother means budget).

Overall, the library held a hushed exultation, 

as though the cherished volumes were all singing soundlessly within their covers.

~ Diana Gabaldon, Outlander