I used to be a reader.

Before all kinds of things happened.  Now I'm a knitter with a lot of unread books.  Not that I hold knitting to blame.  Things unfold as they unfold - maybe knitting rose up to fill the gap left by the absence of bookwormishness, maybe it was time for a lifetime emphasis to shift.

I just got so raw that the fictional emotions and experiences of characters would haunt me.  I don't really believe in fiction in some ways - if it came out of human imagination, then it is true, one way or another.   Some times calling it fiction, making it a story rather than a tale, gives a narrative even more power, creating a road of access to things the audience might reject awareness of if the things were "real."

Whatever the reason, I kept buying books that interested the self I was becoming, but I mostly didn't read them.   Happened again last week, got a recommendation here, a review there and suddenly there's a box of books on its way.  Started me thinking about this reading thing, and what it used to mean and why that changed and what place I want it to have and how that matches up with who I am.

Introspective might as well be my middle name, really.  If this bothers you, you should maybe read something else.

So I went into all the corners of my house and picked up this stack there, and that pile here.  And while I was at it, maybe these history texts can move on and that pile of historical novels too and let me just alphabetize that and before I knew it, I had a library again, rather than a jumble of books.  It has really been awhile.

I had to move the drum carder first, which kind of tells you how things have been.  Needed doing anyway.....look at this:

Definitely time for some housecleaning.

So once I cleared a shelf or two I started filling it with this jumble of unread things. 

Some of these I have owned for a decade or more, some for only a few weeks.  I'm aiming to make a decision about each one - read it, or send it on.  How long will it take you think?  3 years? 10?  Forever?

With all the book shoving about, not as much knitting as originally planned.  But this is still moving along quickly. 

Comments

[Melanie]

I'm trying to keep the books down to a dull roar and only keep those that I will reread. I cleared out a ton of books that failed that test but recently I've been falling down a lot in the used book section of my local bookstore. I have to ask: did you get the name of your blog from The Grand Sophy (which may be my favorite Heyer)?

[--Deb]

Please tell me I'm not the only one trying to read the titles on all those books . . . Of course, my reading addiction is pretty well established by now, huh?

[Gina]

When you are ready to let go of some books, try http://cash4books.net/index.php?ref=42236.
You'll make less than if you list on Half.com, etc., but they buy outright and pay the shipping. Instant unload -- I like that.

[k]

They are just a savings account, for when you need it.
I am currently blessed/cursed with not enough money to buy, so I go to the library. I still have to drag myself out of Bookworld once every month or two and am proud if I keep it in the $50 range. It's depressing though, to not buy more poetry books, which really have to ferment.
And the sweater looks great. I love the details and the shaping. I'm getting to that level on socks, but I still do box sweaters.

[Miss T]

It's never possible to get through all the books. Or all the yarn stash.

[Cheryl, the knitting Jungian]

For most of my life, since I learned to read, I always had a book I was reading. I would read 2, sometimes 3 books in a week. And I would read anything, the drive to read was so strong -- magazines, popular stuff, mysteries, serious professional books. I think having a different life for the last 8 years created a change in that. I am in a happy marriage now, after having lived a long time in a very unhappy one. I love where I live. I love my work. And I read a lot online, a reading venue that wasn't part of my life way back when. I have a lace knitting obsession. I used to be able to read while knitting row after row of stockinette but not now with lace. I have a whole bookcase of books I bought because they beckoned -- they remain unread.

A couple of months ago I started listening to audio books while I knit. Knitting provides the necessary element to enable me to listen to a book being read -- I am not an auditory learner. So I am slowly finding my way back into the mysteries and novels that have been so much a part of most of my life.

Meanwhile, the stack of New Yorkers grows higher -- maybe I will get to them someday.

[Margaret]

It's not a book stash. You're a book collector. ;)

[David]

I finally let go of a ton of books about two moves ago. I had more than a bookshelf's worth, many of which I had not cracked since the week I bought them. Your collection looks far more interesting.

[Jess]

I used to read a ton, too. Now, not so much unless it's a parenting book. I feel pretty awful about it, but the truth is that I don't have enough concentration to make it through much more than a kids' book these days and even that's tough.

Your sweater is looking fabulous, though - I love the cable rib at the waist.