THE 3 R's - READING, 'RITING, & RESEARCH

Life has been a little irregular around here lately. Hubby and I have felt the need of an emotional lift. My motto in times like this? When all else fails, move the furniture. It's cheaper than remodeling but it has the same effect. Change.

In this situation we wanted to move two bookshelves from one room into another. But, moving furniture is work. And moving bookshelves is the sort of tedium that forces one to dust and organize! I assured hubby I'd do the book moving and the dusting and later he could help move the furniture.

So he went off to his responsibilities.

And I promptly proceeded to get bogged down. It took me all afternoon to move and dust one bookcase of books.

Of course I had to check my email and visit my BLUE facebook page and comment on my LiveJournal friends' entries in between. Oh, and yes, I did a smidgen of writing.

Each of these things, it turns out, is more fun than dusting books. Or making decisions about letting go of books.

Back before the turn of the century, I was a member of Writer's Digest Book Club so I have lots of this sort of thing on my shelves. Never mind that many are dated. They still have useful info which I hate to let go of, except for loaning to beginning writers.

I am drawn to old books like a woman to dark chocolate. Here's a few I've picked up. Definitely not letting them go! And of course, there are just books that I love - some by my contemporary writer friends Chuck and I are trying to declutter our lives a bit. We both have a tendency to behave like pack rats over anything that has the slightest bit of usefulness left in it. But I did manage to come up with a discard pile.

I do not intend to throw these books away. I heard on NPR about a woman who makes handbags from books. Not sure this is the same person but check this out! Maybe I should contact Double Booked Designs about making me a purse from that hefty Writer's Market.

Meanwhile if you need some writing books and want to cover shipping and handling, get in touch!