Books Off the Floor

The bookcases are up and 98% (give or take) of the books are on the shelves. What a project -- can't believe I lived with the "mess" (below) for so long. Built the first six bookcases 2-3 years ago, then finally got the remainder up over the last couple of weeks. Thanks to my friends Dave and Paul for lending time and expertise to the process on two different days -- many hands and backs make for light work.

The need for more shelves:





Dave helped me move the workstation out of the corner and into the middle of the room, and move the new bookcases from the garage to the office:





Paul helped me space out the books in the existing shelves and begin loading new books into the new shelves:





Finally, most of the books are in the new bookcases, with expansion room left over:



And a little tour of the whole operation (with accompaniment from the FolkAlley.com streaming radio station -- great background music 24x7 -- folk, traditional, Celtic, acoustic -- great blend -- I started filming when some guy started wailin' that "love can be a messy thang" -- profound, though I can't argue). Still a lot of odds-'n-ends to put away, but you'll get the general idea: (Click the arrow to play.)



Lots of these books will (hopefully) be gone in the months ahead as I winnow out what I no longer need or have interest in. I dug into several boxes of books I had brought from my parents' home in Alabama -- lots of my childhood books, gift-books from my grandmothers when I was small (9-10 years old): not children's books, but biographies, histories, "documentary" books. I was really amazed to see them, and realize how much my own love of books and learning was fueled by grandmothers and parents who were constant readers themselves, and who made sure we had challenging books to read and well-worn library cards.

My focus the last 8-9 years has been on food, health, gardening, agriculture, sustainable living, and the like, and books on those subjects comprise much of what needed organizing and shelving, which I did in four categories:

Food Production (gardening, farming)
Food Preparation (kitchen, etc.)
Food Processing (processing by the body -- health, etc.)
Food Promotion (books on worldview and philosophy related to the above subjects, including a dearth of books from a biblical/Christian perspective, more of which are needed -- not needed to be bought, but written)

Now -- back to work.

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