Am I, or am I not, a hoarder? This is the question that I carefully considered today as I attempted to figure out what to do with hundreds of books. I had acquired a hefty stash before I embarked on the Bright Lights Book Project. Since, I have acquired more. My small upstairs workspace had so many books that I had to be careful where I stepped when heading in the direction of my standing bookcase computer desk.

I had put considerable forethought into acquiring these books, so deciding what to do with them was difficult. Also, they’re all good books. I finally decided that there were four options. I could take some to the hotel and get them into the outgoing nonfiction stream. I could keep some in this very room, or I could move some into my writing cabin.

Alys's writing cabin

My telling about it makes it sounds like it was a linear endeavor, but what I ended up doing was a rather random and chaotic. I packed up some of the upstairs books and put them in my truck. I then went into my writing cabin and put books there, away, keeping some and discarding others. Then I packed up more of the upstairs books and moved them into my writer’s cabin.

I didn’t have much fiction or poetry. I have a lot of nonfiction. I didn’t categorize because this would have involved using the part of my brain that is now on vacation. I have books on the subjects of writing, Alaska, the great outdoors, and the not so great indoors. And I am not going to part with these books; although realistically, I now have more books on hand than I’ll be able to read in a lifetime. I, however, am not lacking in ambition. I’m going to curtail bringing books home and see if I can’t make a dent in my stash.

I do not have a lot of shelf space, so my extra books are in bins, on the floor of my writer’s cabin. Now, some would say that because I have more books than shelf space, I’m a hoarder. Those who have more shelf space than books are not considered to be hoarders, no matter how much space or books they have on hand. Why is this? This must have something to do with the fact that hoarding and being impoverished are closely related. Let’s say someone lives in a small apartment and has a half dozen unpacked boxes of books – they are hoarders. Yet the someone who lives in a mansion and has all their books on shelves is considered to be a book collector.

A year ago, I went to a friend’s house. She had shelves for her books. However, the titles attested to the fact that she and her husband were low brow readers.

Me, I’m middle to highbrow, a statistical anomaly since I do have books on the floor. But no, no, no, I am not a hoarder.

Next: 147. May 28, 2024: Under the Stars