Stinky-Shelf

Thursday bought the last new (used) bookshelf that will possible fit in this apartment. (Maybe I'm intentionally buying more and more stuff so I HAVE TO get a bigger place when my lease is up in January? Or else accumulating a bunch of crap that they'll find me buried under when I die in this one room 30 years from now, albeit after my 15-minutes-of-fame-feature on "Hoarders"...) And afterward spent a very satisfying evening (4 hours or so!) rearranging all of my books. OK, on the surface, enjoying such an evening could possibly sound very sad! :) But, seriously, if aesthetics and/or books mean something to you, it's kind of like interior decorating AND a psychiatric session:

"I found this never-would-have-picked-up-except-what-did-she-have-to-say-about-living with-Ingmar Bergman Liv Ullman bio plus 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar' in the basement laundry-room of my 1st roommate's apartment in NYC (along with a cool pink lava lamp and weights that I had to leave behind...); and this random '96 memoir 'Drinking: A Love Story'--by a then-young woman who's since died--in 2010 at a thrift store in San Antonio, a 'shopping trip' that was one of the few pleasant occasions spent with my mother when forced to live with her...; and I remember carrying around this Rilke translation for MONTHS on campus back in the '80s; and was I trying to prove that I was an intellectual and not just a secretary when I ostentatiously read and copiously marked up Prokopios's 'Secret History' for 2 months straight at my desk last fall?..."

ETC. ETC. Psychology aside, I also like to keep my books grouped by category -- all the fiction together, all the movie stuff together, all the plays, all the non-fiction/history, etc. Usually a particular group tends to fit on one shelf, or a couple of small shelves; but when it doesn't... Yes, I have to sit there and THINK about what to do/re-do about the arrangements! Which is why shifting around a few books took over 4 hours! :)

I'd really hated having to stack books on top of each other (or store them away), though, which is why I was so happy getting this latest bookshelf -- everything can now finally BREATHE!

The shelf is real wood (as opposed to particle board), 5 feet tall by 30 in. wide, AND delivered...all for $45! Thanks, craigslist! But I have one beef: The couple who sold it to me and delivered it were very nice, but... the woman SMELLED. The second I opened my door to say hello to her, she absolutely reeked (like one of my bus-drivers, also grossly overweight -- a "haven't bathed for at least a week" smell). The man with her wasn't stinky. After he and I got the shelf into my apartment and they'd left, a smell still lingered... Was it from her? Was the shelf also stinky from having been in their home? I honestly couldn't tell if what I was smelling was pine or BO... Today, a day later, I still can't tell. (My own smoking helps mask any true odors wafting about!)

Below:

1) New Stinky Bookshelf.
2) History/sociology books freed up from storage by the new Stinky Bookshelf.
3) Jealous old book section of the one-room that didn't get much attention, aside from the winnowing out of the essays from the fiction and re-addition of the paperbacks. (Also jealous 'cause the CDs and Joan rule this corner!)