Shelf Control

When I was a young girl, I had a dream. That dream was to have a library full of books. I imagined it to be cozy. Overstuffed couches in cottage floral prints, dark wood, and bronze lamps with stained glass shades diffusing just enough light to read comfortably. The scent of biblichor, suffusing the air. Blessed silence. The deep kind of silence that seems like it encompasses everything. If any noise, in my dream it would be soft piano music. I imagined lounging under soft blankets, drinking hot tea, and reading to my heart's content. I was never much of a dreamer. Even now, I only have one dream endeavor, but that is for later. The library was my reaction to growing up an avid reader. An avid reader in a culture and era that was not really into books. I mentioned going to the bookstore and buying Signet Classics on the cheap to satisfy my hunger for books. When I was in high school, my mother's cousin discovered I loved to read. She started bringing me the books she didn't want a few times a year. I remember the joy of cracking open a big box full of books, just for me. She said that she only read books once. I was shocked! I had re-read my beloved books so many times that the prose was interwoven in the deepest part of my soul. I could not imagine having the luxury or wherewithal to resist re-reading.

A few decades have passed and I don't have a dedicated library. I will confess that I might as well though, because I now have many books in my home. I have stacks of books on bookshelves, floating shelves, coffee tables, dressers, and nightstands. A bookshelf proudly resides in my kitchen. Nestled with the small appliances are cookbooks, and graphic novels about food. Travel guides about food, food history, and food memoirs. God, I love the food memoirs. Lyrical and inspiring and beautiful to look at.

With the blessings of a dream come true come the cold logistics of reality. And physics. I am, quite simply, running out of room for books. No... I ran out of room long ago and am hanging on a thread, space-wise. I know I need to curate. Enter the Project Shelf Control. I got the idea from Ezeekat, a content creator I found on YouTube with a similar dilemma to mine. So I'm going through my physical shelves, reading my books, and donating the ones that are not integral to the library of my dreams. So far, I've read 5 in the past month and have kept 3. I have a feeling... that this will take a while, eek. But now that I have my "library" I feel I need to expand my dream to the "as perfectly curated as possible library".