Even over a text message, I could tell Nathan was excited. I could just hear his words behind his frantic thumbs: "Nicole, there is the mother of all book sales going on at Hilde Bede. How much am I allowed to spend?"
Basically, one of the colleges here is eliminating one of its libraries and moving the remaining contents to another library. People could just come in, browse the shelves like they would at any ol' library, and buy books. The librarian wasn't selling everything, though. If the book was really new or had been checked out often, it was to be moved to the other library. In a sense, the library was getting people to sort the books for them, and the people were getting books at ridiculous prices. The more we bought, the cheaper the books became.
It kind of became a joke over the weekend with Nathan wanting to tell all of his friends about it. "Have I told you about the book sale?!" he would ask with wide and intense eyes. Yes, it turned out, he had mentioned it a few times to everyone.
I went with Nathan for round two of the book sale yesterday (Friday was round one for him). I got a few education books and some English poetry. Nathan walked away with probably 50 books for 20 pounds. Amazing deal!
At the sale, Nathan and his buddies were in absolute heaven. The energy zipping around all of their brains was almost visible. They were freaking out about books that I have never heard of and would never read. NERD ALERT! :)
Here are a few titles I found amusing...
This title would never fly today.
I bought this one. :)
Clever!
This reminds me of Indiana Jones, when the girl closes her eyes and has written "love you" on her eyelids.
I showed this to Nathan. He's a lefty.
Funny title
The sale with piles of books everywhere
Every time he gets another book in the mail from Amazon, Nathan turns to me and says, "Nicole, I love you, but we need to talk about your book addiction." That sneaky blame shifter! We already have more than 70 boxes of books back in Atlanta, and his collection here in England is growing by the second. I think we'll need a personal librarian to help sort through them all.
I really hope Nathan finds a job in academia that can accommodate all of his books. Don't get me wrong. I love books. I love reading them. I love having them around in the house. But this is ridiculous.
Does anyone have any helpful book organization tips? We have such limited space. My personal motto is that of my closet: one in, one out, but Nathan is not a big fan of that motto. :)
8 comments:
Nate has substituted a lot of his books for the PDF version in order to read them on the ipad rather than bring them across the world. It saddens him as he has an obsession with the smell of books, but what can you do. I'm sure that the book hoarding will begin again, but hopefully the ipad will sustain him for a bit.
I just went through my books and got rid of more than half of them. I, too, have reluctantly resorted to the Kindle/iPad version. Hauling the Kindle around is much easier than hauling 2-3 books. I do miss the smell and yes, the sound of pages turning. But it's so easy to just turn on my iPhone and read until my name is called at the doctor's office or my kids are done with their out of home activity.
How about storing "not currently reading books" in your now defunct car? :-O
My husband is a recovering book addict. When we moved to IL, I was thrilled to discover his new office had wall to wall bookshelves, so they were no longer in my house! We have an amazing library here, and he has recently converted from buying lots of books to checking out lots of books. I don't have any advice for storage right now, but you are on the right track with thinking that one day his career in academia will give him a place to keep all his amazing finds. :)
One word ..... KINDLE
hahaha....I recognize someone in one of those pics!!! =)
Make sure you have Nathan sign an agreement that when you move back to the states he must pack ,carry and move every book that belongs to him.
I, too am praying for a hug office (at Taylor) : ) with wall to wall book shelves.
I tried a i-pad/ Kindle the other day and I kind of liked it : )
I love this post! SO excited that I'll see ya'll in a few months!!!!!
"Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!!"
I have a useful tip for book organization...it's called the Dewey Decimal System! :-) If you would like to hire me, I'll gladly fly over and organize your collection. There is a useful, free, website that you may want to "check out" (pun intended) - http://www.librarything.com/ You can catalog and organize your books online. Good luck! and Miss you! xxoo
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