Not lost, just misplaced books

I saw some Twitter people get upset with Marie Kondo when she recommended people give away books. Most people just over reacted. She’s about keeping what brings you joy, and for me, it’s books.

I am definitely in the 'keep them forever' camp. I have dragged them to fifty different addresses and even to other countries. If I’ve read them, they stay; I may want to read them again.

So my house is a little bit crowded with bookcases. I have six in my bedroom alone. Kid Extra caught me measuring in the hallway to just squeeze one more in. If I had a design style it would maximal rather than minimal && but every item has a memory or a story attached to it, and they bring me joy. Moving house? Not so much.

But I digress. I have been trying to catch up on Tim Clare's podcasts. [So many podcasts, so little time] I was up to the episode where he talks to Lauren Groff.

Tim was utterly fangirling; it was kind of adorable. I looked her up to see if my local library have any of her works, and they do. She was on the Obama reading list and those books often make it to Australian shelves. And then I realised that *I* had one of her titles. The Monsters of Templeton. Ooh nice - but where is it? Buggered if I know.

I made an extra bookshelf on my Goodreads page for ebooks. My shelf names are pretty boring: did not finish, borrowed, ebook etc. Other members get far more imaginative. So if it isn't an ebook, then it's a physical book and it must be in my house somewhere but I have no recollection of where.

I buy a lot of books at the charity store sales where they are sold at one or two dollars each, so it's easy to lose track when you are shelving a few at a time.

The cover on Goodreads does NOT look familiar, I don't even remember the cover - it could be an odd Aussie cover change. For some reason we often get different cover treatments.

sighs.

Maybe it's time to reorder them all? I shelve by size - trade paperbacks are the bane of my life - they're so big. I can squeeze two extra shelves into an Ikea Billy bookcase with mass market paperbacks. Should I go Dewey? Alphabetical? I do try to put one author’s work together but that gets hard with people like Neil Gaiman with everything from trade paperback, to children’s books, to huge coffee table book size comics.

Sighs again. It looks like I’m going to need more shelves.

Woot! Found it.

Links:

&& yes, there is a maximalism design style. It kind of looks like Howl’s bedroom from Howl’s moving Castle.

Death Of 1000 Cuts - Season 2 Episode 31 - Chatting with Lauren Groff.