adventures in storage

[i'm going to pretend that i've been blogging regularly and just launch into it again.]

i spent way too much time in my storage facility in brooklyn this past november and december. way too much time. but i did my inventory and counted up my things. 58 boxes! of things i've never allowed to buy again, tote bags top the list. no matter how cute, no matter how indispensable they seem. i have boxes of tote bags. it's ridiculous!

i did sell books though -- boxes and boxes of books. i never thought i'd ever sell a book. gift, give-away, loan, donate, sure. but sell. i always had some sort of irrational opposition to selling my books. but i got over that fast! a musty roomful of boxes that you have to move in and out of the room every day for over a week will shake the irrational out of your brain. so i sold a bunch of books. well, i didn't. j.h. took them to the strand and i got nearly $200 from his efforts. yay! j.h. also took a stack that he would try to sell online. hopefully, we get good money for them. apart from the big bucks, this whole ordeal has marked a new way of thinking about books. but, even though i did get rid of a lot of books, i still held on to a whole bunch of books. the criterion for a book to stay in my storage room was whether it fit into any of the following: (1) a book i have read and reread or that i can honestly say i will reread; (2) a book written by a friend or by someone i know; (3) a gift with sentimental value (sorry, bro, that hardcover grisham you gave me for christmas didn't make the cut); (4) an art book; (5) books i haven't read yet, or have read only parts of; and (6) certain reference books (but not ages old law textbooks). so, i'm going to try to keep that method alive as i accumulate new books.

my other book-related new thing is that i have been writing down which books i've read. this came about when i realized that i forgot i had already read "the fourth man" by k.o. dahl and i re-read it, not once but twice! each time realizing part-way through the first half of the book that i had already read it. i am shaking my head writing this down. but yes, that is why i decided i would write down the names of books i have read. i started keeping track this summer, shortly after the second re-read of "the fourth man".

keep book recommendations coming because i am always looking for new books to read.