This is what my bookshelf looks like right now.
No, I’m not selling my books for plastic surgery money. I’m moving! The hubs and I are relocating, but we’ll still be in the greater San Diego area, so we don’t have to say goodbye to Shamu.
It really is amazing how many boxes it takes to hold all the books we have. Book boxes have to be small — too big, and they’re super heavy. So, I have a ton of these around the house right now:
A friend of ours has his own moving company, and he’s helping us move our big stuff like couches and mattresses when the time comes. I already know that I’m going to get a ton of flack from him for these two boxes:
Yes, I did have to dedicate an entire box to craft fabric.
I also have about four or five trash bags and one plastic storage shelf-thingy stuffed with yarn.
Sigh…what can I say…
Can I get an amen?
The one good thing about packing up the house is that it gives one lots of time to listen to audiobooks. I actually listened to “Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures” by Kate DiCamillo.
This was a truly adorable kids’ book. Half chapter book and half comic strip, it’s a nice combo for kids who don’t like to read … or who at least like the text punctuated by illustrations here and there.
There’s a manageable but colorful cast of characters, headlined by Flora Belle Buckman, a self-proclaimed cynic with a very round head, and her superhero squirrel Ulysses, who can type on the typewriter, understand human speech, and fly.
Together, they battle their foes — a knife wielding donut baker, a devious fat cat, a temporarily blind 12-year-old boy with a precocious vocabulary, and even Flora’s own clueless mother.
In the end, it’s a simple story about simple folks who are simply trying to connect with one another. It’s funny, heartwarming, and everything you want from a kids’ book. The audio recording was pretty good, too. It played da-da-da-daaaaa superhero music when the actress was reading the “comic book” parts of the story. Overall, a great addition to a child’s bookshelf.
It will have you exclaiming, “Holy bagumba!”
I decided to ditch “The Lowland” for now. It was too depressing and it took a few weird turns, and I just wasn’t connecting anymore. I moved on to teen novel “If I Stay” by Gayle Forman (watch the trailer for the upcoming movie here), and I’m really, really hoping for some redeeming value. As of now, it’s kind of a moral drainpipe.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
What bugs you most about moving?
My books have lived in boxes (…and boxes…and boxes…) for 5 years now 😦
If it makes you feel better, we own way, way, way more books than that. Our entire living room is lined in book shelves, the kids have book shelves in their common area, we have stacks of books everywhere.
I packed two or three big boxes of fabric and thread when we moved (and I’m only a novice seamstress), and I had several cartons of yarn and knitting supplies. Plus plastic tubs. Plus what was in my bag. It took up some serious real estate in the moving van.
Wow! OK, I don’t feel so bad now. 🙂 We decided to spring for a new bookshelf after we moved in to the new place. I had my bookshelves double stacked, and they were still spilling over. And now that we’re down a bedroom, the books are going in the living room, too! (I’m pretty excited about this.)