Mm Mmm Good

Day 13: Books

Epitome of elegance

Doubles as a press for
plant specimens

Mm mmm Reader's Digest meals

Books are a knotty problem. If you've read and enjoyed them, you might want to read them again. If you haven't read them, you might someday. They add gravitas to your decor. They tell people who you are. They keep you company.

I counted 38 shelves of books, not including the shelves in the kids' rooms. To make the task manageable, I plan to make each shelf a single day's task. As I go through them, I'll develop a policy for what to keep and what to give away.

Reference books are an easy place to start. Who needs reference books now that we have electronic brains? Recipes, health questions, translations: these can all be asked and answered more quickly and accurately on the web. Goodbye, 2007 Florida guidebook, 20-year-old Mayo Clinic family health book, recipe books, and Dutch-English dictionary from my sophomore year in Amsterdam. Hello, iPad.

Also on the reference book shelf, a two-cassette audiobook thriller by Faye Kellerman. Cassettes. Talk about scary.