Joy of Spring Cleaning

Oh how righteous I feel today! I've neatened -- and dusted! glory be!! -- two bookcases. It's the cleanliness next to godliness paradigm. But in a sense it's the whited sepluchure effect -- two books cases are in great shape but two, well really three others ... plus even from my chair, I see six magazine slip cases of Quilters Newsletters to go through and on the piano bench piles of books and boxes to stow somewhere. The work is NOT done!! But I've made a good start.

So many books to read! Well, that kind of ambition is not a bad thing even if it does lead to frustration .. because I KNOW more books will come into my life and clutter up that book case -- I know I can't keep myself away from the book shelves in the Housing Works Thrift shop and every time I go into Barnes & Nobel something demands I buy it. I rarely regret money spent on books or traveling. It's an expenditure that enriches my life.

A moment of insight comes, not quite like an epiphany, but very compelling, when the foolishness of keeping certain books is suddenly as bothersome as a wart on the tip of the nose. I've got to find a good sized box and put the books in it and gradually tote them to the thrift shop ... books are pretty heavy en masse. I will give away any I can and give only to a good thrift shop, not to the crummy Goodwill store nearby where the books on their shelves are paperback mysteries and romances and "best sellers". I read good books and I want them to go on to other good readers. They are worthy of respect and I hope they will get it in their next life in someone else's hands.