There is a bookshelf in our living room that I haven't quite known what to do with. It was shoved against a wall when I was moving in but I never intended to leave it there. While unpacking I stacked books on it without thought or order and filled in around them with odds and ends that needed a quick spot to live for a while.

The shelf has stayed there all these months because I haven't known what else to do with it. The space on them is desperately needed but I didn't know where I wanted it. Finally I have decided to give up and leave it where it is. We have company coming this weekend and I just want thing to look orderly so I have started pulling off the books that don't belong there and arranging the ones that do.

Now the real problem: what to do with a stack of old romance novels!

Reasons for the Neglect

I didn't realize it had been so long since updating this. There is a part of me that wonders if there is any point after all this time but, on the other hand, why not?

I have legitimate reasons for the neglect. Remember that business my friends were starting? They made me a partner shortly before it opened to the public and the three of us have been working away ever since. We work crazy long hours, have become super popular with local gamers and have generally been riding the roller coaster that is the first year of a small business. You can see our website at www.justbychancegames.ca. In three days we will celebrate our one year anniversary.

And if that wasn't enough to keep us busy over the past year we had to add in another major event. In September Justin married me. Needless to say we were a little distracted.

As far as The Books go, in all the upheaval of our personal and professional lives not much has happened with them. They were moved into Justin's house when we got married but have still not been unpacked. They are living in our basement collecting dust while I procrastinate dealing with them. I hope to change that soon.

A couple of interesting things have popped out at me while sorting The Books lately. The first surprise came when I looked down at a stack of books and saw my father's name on the cover. Did my father write the book? No, but clearly someone who shares his name wrote a little volume about child-proofing your home back in the 1980s. My brother and I both thought it was hilarious.

The second surprise came while looking over a book about ballet. I was considering giving it away as a gift but wanted to take a closer look first to make sure it was it was the right book for the person I was giving it to. But as I flipped through the pages I noticed the faces in the photos started to look familiar. Then I looked at the background in the pictures and that started to look familiar too.

"No way," I thought, but as I looked closer I saw that I was right. The photos had been taken at the Quinte Ballet School and the faces I recognized were Brian Scott and Len Stepanick, two of my old teachers. It suddenly hit me that it has been about ten years since I've seen either one of them. What a shock to find their pictures in amongst The Books!

Needless to say this is one book that I don't think I'll part with.

The Dangerous Allure of the Public Library

As I make the inventory of The Books I realize that I have hundreds - HUNDREDS- of books on my shelves waiting to be read. So why am I checking books out of the library?

Inventory

I have begun to make an inventory of The Books, a process that is driving home the reality of just how many I have here. A hundred children’s books don’t even take up one of my book shelves and I have filled many, many shelves. It may seem a bit much to make a list of every book I’ve acquired in this deal but there are a couple of reasons why it might be a good idea. 

The first is taxes. From the beginning I have considered selling off some of The Books and since I paid next to nothing there will likely end up being some profit. Maybe not a huge one but probably something. That money will be taxable income and needs to be declared on my income tax return so it’s a good idea to keep track of exactly what I have and what I dispose of it for. 

The second reason is that I’m a nut. I’d like to be able to look back and see what has passed through my hands and what I did with it.

A Book Crossing Find

A few weeks before The Books entered my life I discovered a website called Book Crossing. On this site members can register copies of books with unique ID numbers that allow the books to be tracked as they are passed from person to person. Once a copy of a book has been labeled with a Book Crossing ID number it is passed on by either giving it directly to another person or by doing what's called a "wild release" where the book is left in a public place for total strangers to find. Needless to say I was enchanted by the whole concept but before I could really get into it I was bombarded by the Rescued Treasures books.

What I was not expecting was to find a book tagged with a BCID sitting in my house.

The book was called Onwards and Upwards by Arabella Weir and it was just by chance that I noticed the number inside. I was moving books around to make room for the furniture my brother was bringing and getting hopelessly sidetracked by reading covers of books. This book was giving me a hard time because the first page was sticking to the inside of the cover, preventing me from reading the description on the dust jacket. I carefully pulled them apart. There, written in pen, was a BCID number.

I was stunned and couldn't believe my luck. Normally when books are numbered the ID goes on a label that is glued to the inside but there was no label in this book. I suspect that it had one originally but someone along the line removed it. That would explain the stickiness. It was a good thing the person who first labeled the book had the good sense to also write the number in pen on a page.

The fun part about bookcrossing.com is being able to see where books have been. In this case the book was registered by someone who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and it looks like it has been about three years since someone reported on it's journey.

All book lovers should check out this website.
www.bookcrossing.com

From Home

My brother showed up yesterday with some of my things from home. I was looking forward to getting the rest of my furniture but you know what else he had in the truck with him? MORE BOOKS!!!!