With all my book reading and reviewing, all my cozy coffee and tea posts, and the hominess of my published work – one would presume that I was a homebody. I don’t get nearly enough credit for my nomadic nature, and now I’m feeling it kick in as I leave my house of six and a half years for the unknown.
So how exactly does a “pack rat” and a “homebody” go from 2,000 square feet to 2 already furnished bedrooms and 5×15 storage unit?
You throw everything away.
Just kidding.
But no, really, you donate half of everything you own. At least half. Possibly more. I’m not done yet, but I have taken several TRUCK LOADS of random things to Goodwill this week. They know me now.
It’s invigorating. A little bit scary. A lotta-bit awesome.
This also brings me to my next point: I’ve done it. I’ve gotten myself a kindle.
While purging my stacks of “I might read this if I get cancer” books, and donating everything I had already read and had no intentions of reading twice… after picking carefully through my paperbacks and gifting most of them because we prefer hardbacks and trade size paperbacks anyway… after all this cleansing, I thought, how can I continue to take hardcopies for reviews when 1. it’s more expensive for the author/ publisher 2. I’m not sure of my current address, or what it will be in the future. 3. I have no place to put the books once I’ve received them.
So I am now an ebook girl. (Post on this coming soon, because I’m proving to be an ebook moron.)
Don’t panic. My extensive library still exists. I managed to take about 1/4 of the books we’re keeping to our current digs and the rest are in my not-quite-big-enough-but-perfect-because-it-has-made-me-get-rid-of-crap storage unit. My reading life just looks and feels a lot different than it used to. I’m not lounging with my three dogs in a massive home library… I’m curled up on a small couch or possibly outside with my kindle. Dogs are in limbo, unfortunately, but we love them and they will join us soon… just not inside… instead there’s an acre lot soon to be at their disposal.
All of this comes on the cusp of a new publisher, a new writing contract, and a return (temporarily) to working full time in a bookstore sometime next month.
All that, and I just started going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We completely Lesson 2 this morning. Homeschooling is going to get really interesting this winter. Husband, Kiddo, and Me have an interesting adventure ahead…
So, readers, what’s happening in YOUR lives?