Books Alive

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Love, love, love them.

My first official bookshelves are . . . alive.

I’ve been dreaming of having my own “library” since I was a wee little tot (okay, maybe not a tot, but definitely since I was a small girl). Each time I moved, I dragged my book boxes (which eventually exploded into a large and heavy number) along for the ride. In every place I’d pile the boxes in a corner with an announcement that ONE DAY I would have my own library.

The bookshelves came in two sections. One is downstairs in the reading room and the other is upstairs in my home office. Before Thanksgiving my brother and sister-in-law helped me put the shelves together, the next day my dad anchored them into the walls, and then . . . I went NUTS.

In between dancing jigs I tore through moving boxing and raced up and down the stairs putting books away. When Ron came home from work I showed off my collection as I jumped around him in circles.

He said, “Can I have a row for my books?”

Har har har. I laughed so hard. Funny guy, that Ron. A row for his books. As if! My vision involved a library of memoirs and my favorite fiction. It did not include boring books like The Trouble with Physics and Financial Accounting and Statement Analysis (no offense to whoever wrote those, but I mean really – don’t those titles scream closet? Or attic?).

Two weeks later, when Ron requested “just one row” for about the millionth time, I stopped laughing.

“Oh my gosh. You’re not kidding are you?” I said.

He wasn’t. He claimed a library should include a breadth of material.

We both turned and scanned the current holdings.

“You don’t think The Vagina Monologues, Girl, Interrupted, and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter is a breadth of material?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said.

I got very, very quiet. For about three days.

Finally I agreed he could have half a row. And only if I could approve the books he picked first.

He was so floored by my generous offer he accepted the terms without any negotiation. (Ha – sucker. I probably would’ve been willing to cave a bit further.)

When he tells me the books he wants I’ll post the list on the blog for input. You guys have got to help me decide between stuff like Real Options and Investment Valuation and The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities. Actually, no, you don’t have to help me with that. The hard part is going to be which books I’ll take off the shelf to make room. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing or The Year of Magical Thinking?

Hmm. See, now both of those are definitely staying. I can tell this is going to be agonizing.