I finally had a breakthrough in the basement. I was able to clear enough space to put together the final bookcase and then rearranged a few other boxes. I also got the rug down, which makes it feel like a more appealing space. The problem is that I can already tell that there is still going to be some overflow. I lost roughly 15 linear feet of shelves because the ceilings are lower here, though at least the shelves fit downstairs in the first place. And there are far fewer places to just stuff things here. For instance, after the boxes are broken down, I can't just toss them in the garage.
On the positive side, this will probably force me to start getting serious about tossing out books that are only marginally of interest after I have read them. I'll also have to get off the pot on one of these academic projects I have been considering for a long time. If I am not going to follow through with it, I need to part with the relevant books (ideally donating them to the UT library if they don't happen to have them). And I really need to start paring down my CD and DVD collection, so I'll have to find out which shops actually buy them and start up a routine of visiting them and dropping off those things I can part with.
Just looking at the shelves of books that I have tentatively marked as read once and discard, I just wonder if I will have time to get through them all and how would I start narrowing that massive bunch down (without reading them...). It just feels overwhelming right now, but I'll probably get back to some equilibrium down the road, i.e. I'd still be pushing off some tough decisions in the hope that I could get through them all. I guess what I really need to do is to rip through a bunch of 150-250 page books and clear them out, and I'll feel so much better, but I really do want to stick to my program of Russian novelists and thinkers for the time being.*
The other tough decision is whether to push through and get most of the books on the shelves or to just do a bit each night. I'd really prefer the first approach, but I just have too much real work that is intervening. For that matter, I promised to complete a bunch of reviews for TRB and they are all due tomorrow. So instead of going off to the AGO (and a stop off at work), I think I'll take the kids for a quick trip to the park and then come back and get caught up. So I will try to do the right thing, which basically means unplugging from the internet for a couple of days. I'll check back with my progress after the reviews and in and the TransLink document is submitted. It could be another long night...
* I will admit that following through is a real problem because there are just so many ideas I want to pursue and books I want to read. And then I get an idea like scanning journals or digitizing cassettes or even VHS tapes, and I get about halfway through and run out of steam. It's not that this doesn't make an improvement since I can toss stuff out along the way, but in general, it would probably be better to try to see one idea through at a time. Well, as always, easier said than done.
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