Monday 4 January 2021

On The 10th Day After Christmas.....

 On the 10th day after Christmas my Christmas treat will be......

Yet Another book
A Pack of paints
4 Steaming puds
Some Salted Cashews
The Radio Times
Choca Mocha Coffee
A New Craft to try
Chocolate Liquers 
A Paperback book
And a Big Tub of Chocolates just for me.

 


 Several months ago I read her book Thinking Again,  a diary of her life as it is now (approaching her century) in North Wales with memories of her past travels. I'm just going to read the first part of her diaries  'In my Minds Eye' which I have on loan from the library. But the library didn't have the book above so I found a cheap copy secondhand as it sounded interesting. 

Then I heard Jan Morris had died aged 94 in November. Before reading 'Thinking again' the only thing I knew about her was her change from male to female in the 70's - quite a story back then when I first started work in the library and the fact that she wrote travel books which people were always keen to order but her obituary mentioned her involvement with the first Everest ascent and more about her travels when she was younger.

Talking about books - I must look through the Books Read 2020 list and do a blog post about my favourites out of the 88 books read this year. That's 6 less than the year before which is odd considering how much more time was spent at home.
 AND after thinking about where things will go in my new home I really need to downsize more books. Here I have my two big bookshelves upstairs on the landing - which is big. At the bungalow no landing - obviously - and the hall areas are only the width of a door so no room there either. The main bedroom is a good size so I'll have my craft/office stuff in there but no separate dining room so my big dining table will take up a lot of room in the living/dining room and I'm not sure there will be room for the two tall bookcases plus the one I have downstairs by my armchair. 
 
So going through the bookshelves again is my job for today. Ruthless - that's what I need to be! 

Back Tomorrow
Sue

27 comments:

  1. Good luck with the ruthlessness! Books seem to breed. xx

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  2. 'Morning Sue, I'm up earlyish today as I have a 'shielded' blood test for yet another thing - they keep on coming, (smile).

    Anyway back to your post today. We had this problem about space when we moved from a largish three bedroom terrace house with dining room in Wales to a small two bedroom bungalow in Devon without a seperate dining room. We do have a conservatory which we use as a dining room and it's also where I sit for most of the day doing whatever I am doing, craftwork, reading, puzzles, knitting etc., but it isn't ideal and I can't use the second bedroom as my husband sleeps in there. We've already had to get rid of a load of stuff, yet there is still more stuff without a designated space. I don't envy you having to declutter your treasured books.

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  3. Feel free and start again. It can be magical.

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  4. Good luck with being ruthless with books! I got rid of a huge number before downsizing but more will keep coming in. It's the most difficult thing to be hard-hearted about. I think the golden rule should be: how hard would it be to get this one again?

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  5. You have my sympathies as I had to do this recently. Ruthless starts off being SO hard, but the more desperate I got (we had hundreds and hundreds of books), it began to get easier.

    That said, my Literary bookcase and antiquarian horse books have remained pretty well intact, plus my Victorian social history, and myths/folklore area, and my West Country books. The Archaeology books will be culled VERY deeply once we've moved, but I will sell these and not gift them to the charity shops.

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  6. When I had a massive clear out of books a few years ago I had a pile over which I was dithering whether to keep or let go. In the end many of them went as I checked them on Ziffit and Music Magpie- any which raised some money went that way - I found the thought of the money usually more appealing than the book itself (these were the 'unsure books) - ones which the selling sites didn't want were shelved for another couple of months and then re-looked at (by which time the sites wanted a few more of them and the vast majority of the rest went to the charity shop, with only a handful from the original undecided pile remaining :)

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    1. I've been downsizing books through Ziffit and music magpie since 2016 and now have mostly things that are older and they dont want them

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  7. I will be joining you I think in the book cull. It's against everything I believe, but sometimes needs must.
    Re: Yesterday. Not a difficult machine to learn to use. On/Off button, select a programme, and hit 'Go'. Easy peasy. You do learn how your dishes best fit in the racks, but that comes quickly too.

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  8. It is not easy to get rid of things. I have taken the decorations down and my big bedroom is a tip, I am going to get rid of a lot of decorations mostly of things I have made, I will have to put them away now and hopefully in November I will give them to the charity shop.
    I have lots of craft books that are ready to go to the charity shop when they are open I might try and sell them in our village for sale page.
    Best of luck with your books it's not easy to part with them especially when you have had them for a long time.
    Hazel c uk ������

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  9. I always thought the idea of everyone having an off site library of their own a good one - where we can keep the books we love to go and retrieve when we feel the need yet not have them all to keep in our house!! Getting rid of books is a hard task I find - so good luck with the downsizing of them.

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    1. But I often get the urge to read an old favourite just as I'm going to bed...

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  10. Good luck with the ruthlessness. That sounds so hard.
    How about a garden room to be used as a library/reading room? :-)
    xx

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  11. Books are like fabric scraps to me - they seem to breed when I'm not looking. I sometimes have a cull but then more seem to suddenly appear! Good luck with your culling!

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  12. I found it really hard downsizing books at first and then it suddenly got easier and easier, especially with making so much from Ziffit with the first three batches of books sold on there.

    I am actually enjoying my collection even more now that I can find books that much easier and am looking forward to reading through them again.

    Do you have alcoves beside chimney breasts in your new bungalow, when I moved into my first house years ago I had shelves fitted into every alcove by a local carpenter for a very reasonable cost, they held all my books and also my massive VHS video collection at the time ... there that ages me nicely ;-)

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    1. No chimney, no alcoves, enough shelves but not enough floor space!

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    2. Ooh, that's no good then. Have you a doorway that a shelving system could be built around?

      https://www.decoist.com/built-in-shelves-around-doorway-ideas/?edg-c=1

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  13. I must get round to reading some Jan Morris. I know the part of Wales she lived in well - I've been there on holiday twice a year for nearly thirty years.

    As for bookshelves, in one of those moments of blog synchronicity I was just working out what to do here, as I've more books than I've bookcase-space for. I've often thought of "building in" some shelves.

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  14. Just discovered your blog! I love Jan Morris's travel writing and had not heard that he had passed on. I'm going to check if my library has anything I haven't yet read and try to read at least one Morris book this month!

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    1. I could see your blog on blogger but couldn't get into the link.

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  15. Whenever I have moved to a new place, I try to get floor/window dimensions for each room/space and then I make a scale model on graph paper. I would use the rough measurements of my furniture to see whether or not items will fit or if they might block windows/door openings--or stick out too far into a room. It helps on moving day to know ahead of time where items are best placed. There are plenty of software pieces that do this, but I like simply penciling it out on paper--and saving money.

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  16. I am a library patron so I do not buy or keep many books in the house - I am a bit on the cheap side, too, so don't like to spend the $$ on books!
    Looking at your list of treats for today, it just hit me that we could do that everyday! Just list what we get to do and get to eat and treasure them as treats each day. What a positive way to look at our lives! Thanks for your post!

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    1. I'm doing a one off 12 days of Christmas treats. Something nice for each day - not everything on one day!!

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  17. Good luck with the books. That's a hard one for me and I do need to reduce my books and everything else for that matter.

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  18. I read that book you mentioned Sue, 'Wintering'. It is only 99p on Kindle. I really enjoyed it, and will return to it next Christmas. Thank you for the recommendation. Happy New Year :)

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  19. I've definitely read more books this year than ever. I must count them but it can't be far off 100. I've bought most on Kindle (not my preferred medium) as I've not been out to shops and they are a lot cheaper.

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  20. Enjoy your downsizing! I always find it hard to do but the rewards afterwards are well worth it. Sometimes I think that if I had kept all the books I have ever owned, there would not be room left in the house for me!

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  21. I really have a problem being ruthless when it comes to books. I cried the last time I needed to winnow them. Hopefully that does not happen again for a very long time.

    God bless.

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