The process of finishing the guest room included moving my bookshelf, and all of my books, back in there. You’d think that the hardest part in that adventure would be the heavy lifting and carrying and making sure we didn’t scuff the floors or the walls, but you’d be wrong. The hardest part came as I stared at all the books piled on the bed and realized I’d have to reorganize and arrange them on the shelves again. This is a very intricate process for me. I don’t alphabetize or group them by color, no no. I have a strict organization method that makes complete sense to me but probably looks like something out of “A Beautiful Mind” to everyone else. Plays and my massive Shakespeare collection go on the top shelf, favorites and classics go on the second (this is prime real estate), larger hardbacks on the third (Harry Potter and the Millennium Trilogy), lesser favorites and books I haven’t read yet on the fourth, childhood/teenage favorites like “The Phantom Tollbooth” and “Sloppy Firsts” respectively on the fifth, and then boxes of tchotckes and photo albums on the bottom. It’s a delicate science, arranging them this way, but still make sure the spine heights are taken into account. I know where every title in my little library is, thank you very much, and the thought of breaking this system gives me the sweats.
That little neurotic anecdote was all to say that I rediscovered a book my dad had given me (one of the many, but not the old hardback copy of “Le Petit Prince” that my he bought the day I came home from the hospital and signed it, “John,” thanks weirdo). It was a copy of Alice Flaherty’s “The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain.” Totally up my alley, right? She’s a neurologist and a writer, and the book delves into hypergraphia, “the overwhelming desire to write” (DING DING DING, that’s me!), and how activity in the brain’s temporal lobes plays a role. It was a little too advanced for me at 16, but I’m dusting it off and going to give it another shot starting this weekend. I literally can’t tell you how many nights in my life I’ve bolted out of bed and reached for the closest scrap of paper and scribbled a first line of a story dying to be written.
And then there’s J.K. Rowling’s newest novel (for adults! but I resent that; I’m an adult and I know I’ll reread the Harry Potter series at least 5 more times in my life) “The Casual Vacancy.” I think I’m most intrigued how the woman writes her first post-Potter book and names the main character….Barry. I shit you not. But I’m still going to buy it and devour it quickly; Rowling was a major part of my formative years.
What are you guys reading these days? Anything fun lined up in your book queue? This weekend we’re going up to the Meadowlands to see a Jets game on Sunday. Yes, the girl who hates football bought her boyfriend football tickets for his birthday. I’m a really good girlfriend! Have a great weekend, kiddos.