The Post in Which More of My Geekiness is Revealed..
We're slowly putting our house together after a major renovation/addition. Part of this includes a new dining room, complete with book cases! This thrills me on several levels; I get to put all of my books in one place, where they will be easily accessible and I can look at them and admire their beauty and, well, generally revel in my love of bound paper.
I'm in the process of moving books from their scattered resting places around the house and trying to put them in some semblance of order. This is a huge cause of Type-A misery for me. Do I shelve them alphabetically by title? By author? Do I group them by genre, and if so, do I separate the "general reading" from the "canonical literature"? Do I put the "teacher" books apart from the "poetry" books? Where do the candy-reading books go? Do I put The Joy of Sex in the bookshelves in the dining room? I mean, really?
If these worries weren't testament enough to my genuine membership in the Geek of the Month Club, add to that the fact that, as I put books away in the new shelves, I’m meticulously listing their ISBNs (notice that I didn’t say ‘ISBN numbers’ because the ‘N’ in ISBN stands for ‘number’ and I hate being redundant. SEE? I really AM a geek!). I’m doing this so that, sometime in the unknowable future, if I happen to obtain a bit of library software that can catalog my books by ISBN, I shall have that information readily available.
Still not convinced? Here’s a list of the books I’ve encountered so far of which I have more than one copy:
Hamlet
The Taming of the Shrew
Romeo and Juliet
MacBeth
Frankenstein
The Essentials of English
The Elements of Grammar (no, really - two copies!)
Wicked
Jane Eyre
I’m sure there are more that I haven’t come across yet - these are just the books I’ve put away so far.
LOSER!
(author's note - once my laptop is back among the living, I'll post a picture of the book corner. I can take a picture today, but can't get it on the site until I've got my own laptop back....)
I'm in the process of moving books from their scattered resting places around the house and trying to put them in some semblance of order. This is a huge cause of Type-A misery for me. Do I shelve them alphabetically by title? By author? Do I group them by genre, and if so, do I separate the "general reading" from the "canonical literature"? Do I put the "teacher" books apart from the "poetry" books? Where do the candy-reading books go? Do I put The Joy of Sex in the bookshelves in the dining room? I mean, really?
If these worries weren't testament enough to my genuine membership in the Geek of the Month Club, add to that the fact that, as I put books away in the new shelves, I’m meticulously listing their ISBNs (notice that I didn’t say ‘ISBN numbers’ because the ‘N’ in ISBN stands for ‘number’ and I hate being redundant. SEE? I really AM a geek!). I’m doing this so that, sometime in the unknowable future, if I happen to obtain a bit of library software that can catalog my books by ISBN, I shall have that information readily available.
Still not convinced? Here’s a list of the books I’ve encountered so far of which I have more than one copy:
Hamlet
The Taming of the Shrew
Romeo and Juliet
MacBeth
Frankenstein
The Essentials of English
The Elements of Grammar (no, really - two copies!)
Wicked
Jane Eyre
I’m sure there are more that I haven’t come across yet - these are just the books I’ve put away so far.
LOSER!
(author's note - once my laptop is back among the living, I'll post a picture of the book corner. I can take a picture today, but can't get it on the site until I've got my own laptop back....)
posted by Mrs. Chili at 8:58 PM
8 Comments:
First of all the Joy of Sex goes under the bed. Easy access and, frankly, you don't need anymore trouble at Christmas.
And you SHOULD have more than one copy of most of those books, different editions, something to lend, for reading aloud with a partner.
Hmmm, if the partner thing is part of the criteria maybe you need another copy of the Joy of Sex.
How goes it with the teaching lately? Haven't heard anything about how the "Jessie" issue came out. Can you update?
Claudia, the teaching is GREAT! I love my job and am really excited to be where I am.
The Jesse situation hasn't really worked itself out yet. I came to work on Monday to find a progress report form in my mail box - I've filled it out and printed up a little narrative about how the student is doing and am going to hand it back tomorrow.
Class on Monday was pretty much as it always is, though I separated the two boys and moved Jesse up to the front (he was NOT happy. Too bad.) I don't see either of those students passing the class - we're about halfway through and neither of them has turned in a damned thing. It will be interesting to see how their speeches go.
I'm so glad that this is going well,especially after the dues that have been paid with your other teaching adventures! Thank you for being in the front line of preparing these kids to deal with the real world.
Bookcases?!?! Oh sweet mother how I long for bookcases! Built in ones that don't sag. Oh, yes indeed. I think, maybe, for the sake of Thanksgiving dinner you should leave The Joy of Sex off the bookshelf. Maybe. And you can send me your extra copy of Macbeth if you like. :-)
Claudia; ME, TOO!! I was beginning to feel a little put-upon and was wondering what the hell the Universe wanted from me. I'm happy here, though, and am offering up much gratitude.
Snob: YES!! BOOKCASES!! It's VERY exciting. Even though they're not built-in (they're IKEA - Billy beech, if you were wondering), they are LOVELY! Husband used a bit of the kitchen to make a corner seat between them, though, so they almost look built-in (we bought a big hunk of wood to frame the oven that, it turns out, we couldn't use because the oven just BARELY fit in its spot and didn't need the framing).
I moved more books down this afternoon, though the JoS is staying upstairs for the sake of holiday harmony. Oh, and it turns out I've got two copies of Twelfth Night, too, though I've (thankfully) not found any more duplicate grammar books. There's only so much geekiness I'm willing to cop to, you know?
Bookcases in the dining room are so COOL!
Alas, Evil Genius Husband and I have so many books that I fear they will never all be shelved. I actually have a library in my home (have done in my last several houses) and we STILL have books everywhere - bedroom, family room, parlour.
*sigh*
Bibliophilia is a blessing and a curse.
PS: I'd not hesitate a second putting Joy of Sex in my dining room!
-Blue
As you know, I have a bookcase in our dining/commonroom. And Joy of Sex is among the books. I never gave much thought to others' sensibilities. I mean REALLY. I always figured that most wouldn't even notice,and those that are offended probably NEED to read the book!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home