Saturday 2 July 2011

Famous last words

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

When I moved apartments a week ago, this girl made a lot of sense. I think our culture is really focused on "stuff," (unfortunately) and that's never more obvious than when you attempt to pack your life into boxes.

One of the things that bothered me the most is that it took three and a half boxes to pack my bookshelf. Don't get me wrong — I love to read, that's why it took me three and a half boxes. But three and a half boxes? Just for books?

I've already experienced one bookshelf purge, when I finally parted ways with my Babysitter Club series maybe five, seven years ago. (Remember those?) I think it's about time for another.

I have my favourite books, of course. They're the ones that I always reach for when I feel like relaxing with a good book (which, granted, hasn't been often in the past four years). The other ones are there "just in case," but they never really get picked up.

So packing up these three and a half boxes, I decided that this summer, I'm going to read every single one of the books on my bookcase and decide if they stay or go. The "go" ones will find a new home on a friend's shelf or be donated.

The timing actually worked out pretty well — there are no unlocked wifi networks in my new building, and thanks to the genius of Telus, they can't hook up my Internet for another week (don't ask my opinion on that, you don't need to hear those words).

So I have a lot of time to read. The problem is, I'm falling back on old favourites. The books I always read, I want to read again. Other books, like Number the Stars, are from my elementary/junior high school days and I should part with, but it is a topic I'm interested in. I know I should part with them, which is maybe why I'm subconsciously dragging my feet on picking up that book, so I don't have to read it and put it in the donate box.

We'll see what my bookshelf looks like by the end of the summer.

By the way, I also need to do the same thing with my clothes, but I think I'm going to time that with a (shopping) trip to Edmonton. ;)

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