Books & Building

I was just pondering the two large stacks of library books that have become an evolving work of coffee table art in my living room over the last six months.  Skewed a bit heavily right now toward knitting, herbal potions, chickens, and cooking, I am reminded how lucky I am to be filling my mind and time with such homey pleasures.

The book mountain is about to expand.  As in, ahem, it may double.  I discovered a new subject search phrase--sustainable living, duh--in the library's catalog that opened up a bewildering amount of new riches to request.  So, of course, I went clicking merrily away and now have a ridiculous avalanche of books headed to my local branch.  I am a little scared that the library is going to cut me off eventually--I mean, how many books is really reasonable?  If we say 50 or less, then I have some breathing room....

I do have a new home for at least one of the towering stack:  Mom got me Alice Water's The Art of Simple Foods for Christmas, and over the weekend, Jason & I hung the laundry room shelves that I've been dreaming of--including the shelf for cookbooks.  Yaaaay!  They are nothing fancy, just unfinished wood and simple metal tracks and brackets--and I still need to finish bracing the ends of the cookbook shelf.  But they get everything off of the floor (finally), allow me more pantry space, and make the trapdoor to the crawlspace (and future root cellar) available.

...Not to mention that they make the room more interesting.  Have I mentioned that Jason & I are like children at times?  We keep meeting each other in that doorway, pausing to gaze for a moment at the blissfully organized wall art that we've made.  Other people, grown up people, have stressful, important lives; we stare like goons at shelves on walls, giddy at the last of the summer's butternut squash lined up in a row.