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One year on

October 17th, 2011 · Posted by Skuds in Life · 1 Comment · Life

The den last October

This time last year we were living out of boxes, getting ready to move house. It doesn’t feel like a whole year (well 51 weeks today) since we moved here.

Today I spent a very large part of the day moving my desk about 2 metres. It took so long because I had to take a couple of shelves down and put them up in a slightly different place, but that involved taking all the books off them and then putting them back afterwards. I am beginning to think that maybe I should thin out the library a bit, but that is easier said than done.

Although I have accepted the principle that I have too many books, I find it hard to pick any particular ones that I really don’t need or want.So far I can only identify a few that I should ditch (but in most cases won’t):

  • Some teach-yourself accountancy books
  • Some out-of-date technical books (a 1998 book about the internet – lots about Usenet and Gopher for example)
  • Do I really need a +10 year old paper encyclopedia?
  • Likewise, can I really justify at least 6 normal dictionaries + thesauruses + dictionaries of slang and several books about English usage, including two editions of Fowler’s when I always look everything up online?
  • Manuals for software I don’t use any more
  • Books I have electronic copies of or can get electronic copies of for free from Project Gutenberg
  • Ian Rush’s autobiography
  • Out-of-date maps and guide books of places I probably won’t go back to – plus lots of phrase books for those countries.
  • The 1997 edition of Halliwell’s Film & Video Guide and a similar vintage Time Out film book.

I have books that I have never read and never intend to read but bought because the title amused me and it was only 20p or something similar in a remainder bookshop – my favourite has to be The Individuated Hobbit: Jung, Tolkein and the archetypes of Middle-Earth.

Somebody started an informal book exchange at work, where some shelves in the break areas are filled with mostly genre fiction. Perhaps I should sneak some in there? I could start with the complete works of Oscar Wilde, since I have all of them electronically.

The den now. I'm wondering if it wasn't tider when everything was in boxes.

Anyway, that was my day. The desk is now flush against the wall in the corner instead of sticking out halfway along the wall. It makes the room look bigger now, with room for a nice comfy chair, maybe one that folds out as a guest bed, or a very small pool table, or a multi-gym.

Or a drum kit 🙂

 

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One Comment so far ↓

  • skud's sister

    Hmmmm. I think you may have more books than us (although this is because I am not counting the 6 plastic boxes full in the spare room due to their soon to be car-bootyness) but thats okay – you are older than me….