Self-isolation is the perfect opportunity to organize our Lesbian library. Again. The shelves on our bookcases, our 25-year-old, cheap bookcases, had been sagging badly. The backs on a few had been broken during our last move, and they leaned suspiciously to the right (had they leaned to the left, I would not have been suspicious, but right-leaning? Not in my house!) They needed to be replaced.
So last year we upgraded our bookcases to Ikea brand, and when the library books went back, the order was off. With COVID-19 self-isolation, a lack of personal outdoor space, and temperatures in the negative numbers (then positive, then negative and now it’s raining!), it seemed like a good time to organize the library.
Day 1
Day 1, we got most of the books off the shelves and into piles by author last name. It took only 6 hours, including fending off curious cats, breaks, lunchtime and an hour-and-twenty-minute nap. COVID-19 is really messing with my daily schedule. Anyway…
This library organization doesn’t include all the paperbacks that sit on 4 shelves, doubled up, and doesn’t include the coffee-table books on the bottom shelves, and doesn’t include that collection of serial killer books, my non-lesbian books nor books on other bookcases in different rooms.
We put A and B back in order, and took photos. And aspirin, lots of aspirin.
Day 2
Oh sweet Sappho, my back is killing me! I started taking photos of the Cs, then placing them in no order on the shelf. Taking photographs is my thing, while Kelly is responsible for putting the library in order on the shelves. It is 10:30 in the morning and I already need a nap…
And now it’s noon, and I need a coffee to wake me up from my nap. Take photos of the D pile. Then the E pile. I am zooming along.
1pm, lunchtime. I will start to work soon… I am so glad this isn’t a paying job, I would have fired myself for not showing up to work on time and sleeping on the job.
Okay, a healthy salad for lunch, covered by oodles of unhealthy bottled Caesar salad dressing. Get some vague sun outside while nibbling on Oreos, our “organize the library” treat of the day.
Losing it
I’m losing it. Let’s start again. G gets done, and then Kelly finds more books with all kinds of author names. No problem, put them in their respective piles. Except… 3 letters are missing. The letter I had disappeared, and could be hard to find as there were only 2 books. The J and K piles though, they were big. I can’t find them. Now I am really losing it. I REALLY would have fired myself by now. I’m sure they will turn up. It’s time to take a break.
But after nap #2, it’s now past 5pm, quitting time. Start thinking about dinner, and come to find we have lost our shredded cheese. No, I really don’t know how you lose frozen shredded cheese, but we’ve both checked the freezer. We’ve lost it. I am beginning to think we’ve lost it on more than 1 level. Screw it. We are done for the evening, time to tap that box of wine.
Day 3
The books are taking over our psyches. Early this morning – 1am early – Kelly starts giggling to herself, and blurts out “I think we have the novel virus!” I am so tired, it takes a moment for me to get the pun.
A double espresso and an aspirin helps kick-start the last day of madness. I locate the I, J and K books nestled away on a couple of shelves. I don’t remember putting them there, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but coffee and books. Sort, click, sort, click.
Lending a hand
We are working independently. I am taking photos of the books, Kelly is further sorting and shelving them. I finish long before her, because she always had to wait for me to complete a letter before she started.
Time to lend a hand and start handing off piles of sorted books to be put on shelves. We aren’t sure all the books will fit on the book shelves, even though that’s where they came from. Like undoing the top button of your jeans after a big dinner, I worry that somehow the books expanded in size once released from their original confines.
I had been assured by my niece that the sorting would be exhausting but satisfying. When the last book slides into place, I realize she was half right. Exhausting, yes. But when I eye the pile of duplicates, non-Lesbian and to-be-donated books, I am not satisfied. At least they fit on the shelf.
With the COVID-19 shutdown, we will be hanging onto these books for a while, unable to donate them any time soon.
I am okay with duplicates, with books we picked up specifically to donate, with unsorted non-lesbian books. I am okay with it taking 3 days, I am okay with the cats “helping”, I am okay with all of the work to organize our Lesbian library. It’s like we’ve found new books (OMG I just “found” a copy of Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair by Sarah Schulman, perfect timing!) and got reacquainted with old books. I realized how few physical books I have kept over the years, preferring now to have electronic.
Thank Sappho they are already sorted! Time now to rest, read and relax.
