Books and Bookcases

Brian and the boys went camping this weekend. It was wonderful. I've taken the boys camping a lot in times when Brian's out of town, or off the continent, and I did lots of camping as a girl, but Brian hasn't had the camping opportunities I've had, so we were both excited at the chance for a boys-only trip. I got 24 hours of Brooke time! Mostly, I ran errands: car washed, car oil change, car new battery (good timing on that one, it was about dead); also lots of little errands I'd been putting off. I meant to also use the time to write everyone back on emails, but as you can see that didn't happen. I did get to do my favorite pastime, though, which is cruzing around Borders on a Friday night. But I'll get back to that in a minute.

One errand I ran yesterday was finally ordering our three custom-made bookcases. It was my 3rd trip to the place, we had a hard time choosing all the details and the color to stain the wood. So, after two weeks of changes, we finally decided for sure what we wanted on Friday morning. It will take a month for them to be made, but they will be great. They are being made to fit specifically in our loft (hereafter to be called the library). Eventually, we will get two more pieces, one for under the window, and another bookcase to finish off the wall, so then it will be two solid walls of bookcases. Well, actually it'll be that right away, because I'm putting the bookcase I already own in the position of piece #5 for now (about 2 years). I bought some stain from the bookcase makers so sometime in the next week or two, I will stain my already-owned bookcase to match the new ones that are coming.

The main problem is that books and other shelf-requiring items are piling up, and I need to organize them in order for my brain to work properly again. So, I think I'll make a space in the loft / library, then just begin making stacks of books that I'll leave there for a month until the shelves come. That way, I can begin organizing books into categories, I can stain this bookcase, I can remove the installed shelf in the loft (also with books on it), and I can begin removing books from around the house to make space everywhere else.

By the way, does anyone know a good method of labeling subjects in a home library?

The funny thing is that these shelves will be ready to install almost exactly when the school year will end at our homeschool, so I'll have to get everything taught and tested and done this "year" in my dis-organization. I will work hard at it, though, because it's important to teach them everything and to have a full year. The good news is that I just began my end of the year testing, and they have each almost completely finished the lists of things to learn this year, as listed on my site here, so this last month will be lots of fun.

Then, we will start on next year's school, in pieces, throughout the summer. We don't normally do this, but this fall we will have a 2 month school break in the middle of fall next year, so we need to get 2 months ahead in the schoolwork this summer to allow for that.

Back to Borders. I've finally decided Borders is better than Barnes and Noble. I like B&N, it was the first large bookstore I knew in Tucson, it's beautiful, and my sister, Kim, and I have many good B&N memories. But now it really comes down to the fact that Borders has better selection. Even bn.com doesn't have as many choices as borders.com, which is probably because it is teamed with amazon.com. When I buy a new book -- which, if it were averaged out, would be about one book every 2 weeks -- I am picky about which book I want. I look online in advance, scour the options, read parts of the book in advance, etc., so by the time I get to a bookstore, I know exactly what I want. And, the every time in the past year I've then gone to B&N to get the book, I've been disappointed. Probably 20 books were not there and needed to be ordered. And that's out of 20 books that I was looking for in that year. That's it, I've learned my lesson.

Not that Borders is perfect, but they're much, much better. Probably 40% of the books I seek are available in the store at any time. That's pretty good, considering the rare topics I demand in my reading material. Anyway, I currently have a list of 13 books that I'd like to get. Two of which I've already read, but they were borrowed, and they were good, so I'd like to have my own copy for reference and loan-out. Last night, I bought one more book, and I'm enjoying it!

I really noticed this weekend with the boys gone, that the main thing I do when I have free time is absorb information. I love it. This weekend I read books, I researched ancient history and languages on the internet, and I watched history and science tv programming. Well, that and the new Stargates which came out last night. :-) I also got to do a lot of singing in the car which is fun.

So, that's the point for today, that I like learning more than I remembered that I like learning. This is one thing I love about being in my 30's. I feel like the 30's are a time for self-actualization, for finally becoming who you will become. And I like me!