Booklist for 5/31/06

Last weekend we had guests from Virginia. Before they came I took a hard and critical look at the house and decided to get in high gear and put things where they belonged - specifically, the books that have been languishing in the downstairs hallway since we moved here in December.

Sarah and Joan had finished scraping and painting the front bedroom upstairs, which we planned to use as a playroom/library. Tom put together the bookcases we bought from IKEA, and moved the rest of the bookcases from the hallway downstairs to the upstairs landing. Sarah, David, Jacy and I then carried up armload after armload of books - all up twenty-two stairs. Then we alphabetized by author and shelved the books, about 3500 in all. It took us two days, working 8 hours each day, but we finished before the guests arrived on Friday afternoon. Of course, I could hardly walk for the next two days and consumed much aspirin, but I'm so glad to have it done. Now we know where the books are! We can find a title! No more going to bookstores to buy a book I know we have, but can't find! AND we culled eight book boxes full of books that were either duplicates or ones I am certain we won't read again. Those we donated to Kim for the middle school's library because they are in desperate need of books.

As we shelved, we all started little stacks of books for personal reading. Hopefully, they'll all make it to the proper shelves after they're read. Marley made a very ambitious stack that I raided. I commend her for her taste and her appetite for good books, but I don't think she can get through all of them this summer. I reminded her that if they were on the shelf they'd be easier for her to find.

My stack for now consists of these:
Courageous Christianity by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers
Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Sackett's Land by Louis L'Amour
Our Covenant Heritage by Edwin Nisbet Moore
A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

I'd like to be reading more fiction, so I think as I finish the non-fiction I'll add more novels to the stack.

Summer in May?

I guess I'd forgotten how early summer begins in Alabama. Temps have been in the 90's every day this week. It's not unpleasant... yet. Sometime, though, the humidity will kick in and then we'll be mostly inside.

While we're inside, we'll read more, and the children might pull out the dozens of board games they have. And I'll knit sweaters if we keep the AC cool enough. And we'll be ready for autumn long before it arrives. Two days ago my brother reminded me of the sultriness of the dog days of August in Alabama. I was not filled with happy anticipation.

But I'll try to enjoy each day as it comes.