In this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and FriendFace reconnecting with people from your past is about as novel as a fax machines, which is just as well since I'm a complete hermit and never leave the house.
No, for me, the reunion was all about finding this.
This happens to be required reading for my class this term and it was a book I read, probably, 6-7 years ago just because. The problem? It was in one of 14 boxes that had been sitting in our garage for the past 3 years.
Digging for the book was unearthing years of my life. It's odd how just seeing a book can bring me right back to the time when I read it, good or bad.
It's funny to find a long ago book on astrology in the box I opened after the box full of tomes on skepticism. If I laid everything out chronologically, it might well function as a sort of auto biography.
But what's even more telling are the arts and crafts books
Sorted in piles I've tagged here, here and here, they are a cornucopia of good and ill conceived ventures in creativity. But even the country cross stitch and 80s teddy bear sweater books have a special place in my heart, not so much because I will ever (EVER) use them but because they take me back to another time in my life that I can hardly remember, some days.
Oh books, how I love you so. Now all we need are some book cases.
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Comments (7)
I think I'm like you if I'm catching your meaning. You used to do stuff like astrology or tarot and now you are into critical thinking/rationality/skepticism? That's me anyways. I have boxes and boxes of books that you would never know ever belonged to me if you met me last month. And I, too, get a bit nostalgic.
Posted by Kelly | September 30, 2009 1:23 PM
Posted on September 30, 2009 13:23
I've always had a thing for books! When I was a kid my dad would drop me off at the library because I wanted to go and read all of the books I could find. I was a voracious reader when I was a kid. I was always paranoid that the librarian would kick me out for not staying in the children's section. Thank goodness she never did!! So started my love affair with all kinds of books.
Posted by Samantha | September 25, 2009 6:01 PM
Posted on September 25, 2009 18:01
Have you seen High Fidelity where he organizes his records autobiographically? You should do that with the books!
Posted by Mia | September 25, 2009 3:10 PM
Posted on September 25, 2009 15:10
Leaving the house is greatly overrated.
Posted by Cookie | September 25, 2009 2:03 PM
Posted on September 25, 2009 14:03
It is my dream to someday accumulate enough books to have my own library. A room full of books, floor to ceiling, every wall, with a window or three and something comfy to read on! How does the quote go? "I have always imagined that heaven will be a kind of library." Borges.
Of course, packing, moving and unpacking personal libraries sounds like a kind of hell, if a nostalgic one.
Posted by Corvus | September 25, 2009 9:03 AM
Posted on September 25, 2009 09:03
Books are an autobiography aren't they? And each one is sooo significant, even if only for its insignificance! Love your comments about the arts and crafts books. Keep them, if only to keep someone else from mis-using them! lol.
Posted by Jamie Grace-Duff | September 25, 2009 7:47 AM
Posted on September 25, 2009 07:47
I love books as much as you do, but I have to say I am loving your shiny wood floors! Do the puppies slide on them?
Posted by MJ | September 25, 2009 1:06 AM
Posted on September 25, 2009 01:06