Books.

I knew I wasn't cut out for military service when I had a Platoon Sergeant tell me I had too many books. At that time, I think I had a dozen or so. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Stranger in a Strange Land, a couple of field books, and a half dozen or so miscellaneous paperbacks is all I had, but they were too many. How could a person have too many books?

I like to be in the company of books. I like bookstores. I like yard sales where there are lots of books. I love libraries. I like the way books feel, the way they smell, and the way they have a sense of mass in my hand when I heft one up. I like opening a book up to a random page to read a section, just to see if it speaks to me. I like to see if the person who owned the book before I bought it left me any clues as to who they were. Is there a name on the inside cover? Did someone write a note; Happy Birthday or I love you, perhaps?

I bought thirty-six boxes of books five years ago, and I should have done it then, but I didn't. This weekend I finally did do what I should have done a long time ago, and that's organize the books I have. Had I known what a mess it was, and what a mess it would turn out to be, and what a mess it still is, I might have listened to that Platoon Sergeant.

First off, let's get the geography straight. I have five bookcases. They are as follows; the Bedroom Bookcase Of The South, the Fireplace Bookcase North, the Fireplace Bookcase South, and Writer's Reference Bookcase, and the Little One In The Spare Bedroom Closet Full of Paperbacks. None of these are small, except the Little One In The Spare Bedroom Closet Full of Paperbacks. The Fireplace Bookcase North is just plain massive. It serves as a repository for my CD, DVD, and other media collections as well.

The plans was quite simple; stack all my hardcover fiction in the Bedroom Bookcase Of The South, then see what sort of space I would have for other parts of the collection. As I went through the fiction books, and quite honestly, I do not read a lot of fiction, I realized I had a subcategory going on. In the massive book buy of the thirty-six boxes were a lot of old books. Old Books deserve a better place than the Bedroom Bookcase Of The South, so I decided to give them the top shelf of The Fireplace Bookcase North as their own.

I have a set of encyclopedias called "Nations Of The World" from the late 1800's. There are another dozen or so books from that era, of various sorts, too. Then come the newer books, those from the early 1900's, and finally, completing the top self of honor, books from the middle of the 1900's. I took each books, wiped it clean with a damp sponge, and place it on the shelf, squeezed the sponge dry, took out the next book and repeated until all the old books were done. I did this for all the hardback fiction, too.

While I was doing this I realized how wasteful it was for me to have this many books, no, oh dear god no, not the old books, for I will take care of them, and treat them as well as anyone can, but there was a lot of hardback fiction I have never read, would never read, and have no interest in keeping. I started stacking books up that I didn't want, or didn't need, and before long, there was a stack of books higher than Bert's head. An hour later, there were two stacks, then three, and finally I started taking them all out to the truck. One hundred and twenty-five books later, I had a lot of shelf space open.

I took the books to the Brooks County library and left them in the back doorway, where donated books are left. Usually, people will leave a few, maybe a dozen, but I was dropping off one hundred twenty-five books, of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Novels mostly, but some were books about politics, religion, and that sort of thing. I felt like I was dropping puppies off at the pound. What if no one loved them? What if they didn't want them? What would become of them? Horrible people do terrible things to books, and after all, I did have space for them, didn't I?

I rearranged the CD, DVD, VHS and other media collection and called it a day. All the hardback books are done now, and all that is left is shelving all the paperbacks in order. I'm going to do the same thing with the paperbacks as I did with the hard covers; anything I won't read I won't keep.

I may wind up with two or three bookcases staring out blankly at me before this is over. But books, like puppies, need a place where they're not only loved, but where they can get out and play. Someone may peruse the books of the library and discover someone donated a novel they haven't seen in years. Maybe they'll check the inside cover and read, "Happy Birthday Uncle Mike, love, Linda and Phil" one of the books did have that inside the cover, you know.

The time has come to simplify my life, somewhat. I've released one hundred and twenty-five books back into the wild, and quite honestly, it's an alien feeling to me.

Take Care,

Mike