Thursday, April 9, 2009

Books and More Books



With company coming to stay this weekend, I at last tackled the long-overdue task of cleaning our upstairs guest room. This one doesn't get a lot of use as we have another, more convenient spare room downstairs. This one, originally a loft over the living room, tends to collect junk, waiting to be disposed of. It also collects dust, cat hair, and dead lady bugs. So it was a real pleasure to put it to rights, including taking all the books off the shelves, dusting shelves and books, and re-organizing.

The shelves to the left hold the books of my childhood and teen years. I was a great reader of science fiction in the Fifties and, now that I've handled some of these old friends, I have a feeling I'm going to have to reacquaint myself with this old passion.



Before sci-fi, I was a faithful reader of the Oz books; some of these are mine and some belong to my older son ( who left them to me as he acquired nicer hardback reproductions.)



To the right of the door are mostly gardening books and photo albums --each one a temptation to sit down and wander through -- one reason the cleanup took so long.

But what a pleasure, now that it's done -- floors mopped, shelves wiped with lemon wax, the bedding washed and (mostly) free of cat hair.

All the time I was struggling to finish Miss Birdie, I was actually looking forward to some really satisfying house cleaning -- and this was just the beginning.

Paint . . . I'm ready to paint some walls now. And reorganize the pantry and finish cleaning my workroom and . . .

Spring always does that to me -- the desire for a clean sweep, a new start.

Everything seems possible.



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8 comments:

Carol Murdock said...

I did some Spring cleaning yesterday too. Books do require a
bit of up keep but so worth it!
I'm working in the yard today.

Tammy said...

How funny that we are posting similar today. I love your little loft room...and those shelves! Someday I'd like to actually reorganize my shelves and put things in better order, but just having them clean helps. I often run my fingers along the rows of books as I walk by---books calm me and I enjoy them so much. Reading, touching, smelling and just looking at them. Thanks for sharing this post!
Tammy

Susan M. Bell said...

I love this room. I would so be nosy if I was there and search through those shelves to see what books lived there. It's a great room with great bookshelves.

My husband would have our books in alphabetical order if he could. He's that way when it comes to organizing. He even put my spice in alphabetical order at one time.

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

Well, I am impressed by how neat this room looks. I will never let human eye, other than my husband, see all the books I have all over the floor, desk, shelves, in my office. Dogs' eyes have seen this, but they don't care. They just leave their muddy paw prints over the stuff on the floor, usually old drafts of poems that I can't seem to toss.
I'll use these photos as inspiration!

Vicki Lane said...

Carol -- I'm constantly torn between the yard and the house, there's so much to do!

Tammy -- I know what you mean about books being calming.It's like having rows and rows of old friends standing by in case of need.

Susan -- A lot of my books ARE alphabetized -- I'm not compulsive about it but we have so many that it makes sense to organize them somewhat.

Kay -- This tidy room is a guest room and there'll be guests in it Friday night. Had to be done.

My workroom is another kettle of fish -- the book shelves got organized but there's a mountain of odds and ends piled on my cutting table waiting to be sorted out.

Tess Kincaid said...

What a cozy little booky nook! I read the Oz books, too, starting with "Ozma of Oz" in second grade.

Bonnie said...

I LOVE these pictures. Books from ceiling to floor - heaven! Seriously you should rent out this room, hope your company enjoyed it! My favorite childhood books include National Velvet and Anne of Green Gables.

Vicki Lane said...

Willow - I still occasionally reread the Oz books and I'm pretty sure that there's a doctoral dissertation lurking in the boy Tip's transformation into the Princess Ozma.

Bonnie -- I,too, adored National Velvet, along with lots of other horse books -- THE BLACK STALLION< BORN TO TROT, GREEN GRASS OF WYOMING -- And all of the Anne books are there on my bookshelf -- I had a godmother who gave me one every year.