A Good Clean Up

| TravellinPenguin

Today I got fed up with the messy book shelf and seeing the books crammed into the shelves at various angles. So I pulled out the step ladder, gave Ollie something to chew other than books and got stuck into it. Now four hours later I have inspected each shelf, culled three boxes of books and taken them off the Library Thing inventory list.

Then I went outdoors and played with Ollie a bit as he was very good, only chewing a bit on the cardboard boxes I was putting the books into. One of main Op shops is now open and the tip shop opens next week so I will haul them down there so others can enjoy them.

I noticed I have a lot of books that are less than 150 – 200 pages. I thought if I read them first I could then let them go and therefore clear out even more. We’ll see.

I have been reading Unreliable Memories by Clive James. Richard at Cracked Spineless book shop in Hobart put me onto it. He told me when he read it he was in puddles on the floor, laughing and he couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it.

He’s right. Bits of it are very funny. I’ve not read Clive James and this memoir of his early child and teen years is very funny. He has a way of describing his relatives and school mates in a way we might like to do but don’t have the nerve to do so.

I have laughed out loud several times.

The other weird, er, interesting book I’m listening to for an hour each night once I’ve gone to bed is Pepys Diary. It’s 37 hours of his daily diary from 1660 to 1669 and is reputed to be one of the best documented publications of life during this time period. He stopped writing in 1669 as he had very bad eyes and writing in candlelight was not helping. He lived another 30 years.

I am not nor have I ever been a good sleeper. It takes a long while to fall asleep and I seldom sleep through the night without waking up a couple of times. I find listening to an hour of a book each night is very relaxing (if the book is properly chosen) and I often don’t get past 30 or 45 minutes with this one before drifting off to sleep. I am really enjoying the narrator. Michael Maloney’s voice and the structure of Pepys days. He almost finishes each daily entrance with the words, “went home, had supper and off to bed.” I also like the way he describes his “discourses” with people each day. “He and I had interesting discourse,” or “We discoursed this topic for some time”.

Well as I’m worn out a bit from moving and carrying many books around today I am going to sign off here and see how this new layout of Word Press works. Why do people always feel they have to change perfectly workable structures.

Until next time..

26 thoughts on “A Good Clean Up”

  2. I find organising my books very therapeutic, sometimes they are organised by genre, sometimes author, other days just colour of their spine. Clive James was a very clever, witty man and I cannot believe I have never read any of his work, this will be rectified.

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  3. I tried the newest block editor over the weekend and couldn’t get it to save my draft so ended up switching back to Classic Editor.

    Pepys diary is online. I like to check in with it now and then as the link pulls up the current day of the month. Too bad he had to give up writing it.

    I loooooove reorganizing my bookshelves!!!!!

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      2. The online version is cool because it’s full of hyperlinks with pop ups so, for instance, if he mentions St. James, up pops info on St James Palace.

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      1. I was getting along fine with the blocks but then nothing would save so I had no choice but to go back to Classic editor. Maybe block editor doesn’t work on a Chromebook.

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  4. sympathize re WordPress… i had to switch to Blogger because after a million attempts to get my posts to publish, it just wouldn’t work… Blogger seems to be okay so far… Clive James sounds great; i’ll try to get something by him… at one year old now, Henry seems to have more or less stopped chewing up everything in sight, thank goodness… so maybe there’s hope. we’ve got boxes of books to go to the library sale but it won’t be open for quite a while… so the crated up books sit there, doing whatever books do at night when no-one is watching, haha…

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    1. I think you might enjoy Clive James. Very funny but doesn’t overdo it in his biography. Ollie continues to find new ways to get in trouble but we scold him through tears of laughter. I’m glad Henry is maturing. They are such fun.

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  5. Nothing like a bookish tidy up to make you feel better. And I’m with you on shorter books – I find they work well when I’m not quite sure what to read. I really should pick up more of the James on my shelves! As for block editor, I always create my posts from WP Admin like Lisa describes, so I’m hoping the classic option will stay for me…

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  6. I had the same thought regarding thin books. Quick to read and then out of the house. But I haven’t read any of them yet.
    Once I had the unabridged diaries of Pepys in a seven or eight volume set. Yes, I was going to read them. But before our last move, I got real and knew it wasn’t going to happen. The Book Trader in Philadelphia got them. I do dip into the diaries, which are posted on an Internet web site and they are fascinating.

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  7. I have discovered audio books are great for helping with getting to sleep but it generally has to be something have read before with me, other wise I try to concentrate to much but listening to classics or Terry Pratchett books seems to work well.

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  8. You’ve sold me on the Pepys diary – was that via Audible? I read a fantastic bio of Pepys several years ago called The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin. Ever since then I’ve had a hankering to read the diaries but keep postponing because they are so long! This abridged version could be the answer.

    re the editor issue you experienced – were you trying to move boxes using the arrows or doing drag and drop? Sent me a message and I’ll see if theres a way to help

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  9. Was this post written with the new editor?
    Thanks for the audiobook tip, I might see if I can chase it down myself, for the same reason…

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    1. Yes Lisa, the new editor. I really don’t like it. The boxes skip around. I guess I’ll have to get used to it as I don’t see a way to use the original one. I really am enjoying the Pepys more than I thought I would.

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      1. I am not sure but I think there is a work around. From this website, scroll down past half way to where it discusses options: https://wordpress.com/support/replacing-the-older-wordpress-com-editor-with-the-wordpress-block-editor/
        What you have to do is go to WP admin, and then you can, it says, use the classic editor. There doesn’t appear to be anything to click, so I think what you do is go to Posts/Add New and then it will open up in the classic editor. We won’t know if it works until after June 1.

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