So, okay, I’m totally freaking out. For years now, my husband and I have been waffling between buying a new house or remodeling our current house. Both prospects have equal charms; the problem with buying new is, well, housing slump or not, the price of real estate in Los Angeles is exorbitant. Somehow we were clueless enough the first time around that we bought at the bottom of the market.
I doubt we’ll get lucky twice.
Anyway, we decided to remodel (Contractor: “So, basically, you’re rebuilding your entire house.” Us: Glug!). We have established an aggressive schedule for this project, timing determined by various conferences, contractor availability, and our tolerance for living in a rental (or, if you think L.A. real estate is expensive, you’ve got to try the rentals!). Everyone agrees that the major hold-up will be homeowner indecision.
Apparently that’s code for me changing my mind at the last second….
As I make a list and check it twice (and wonder how the bottom line keeps getting bigger), I realize I have a problem: all of my books are about to go into storage. All of them. While I might be able to sneak a few into the new place, I’m not going to get away with boxes and boxes of books. Maybe one box. A little box. I’ll pretend it’s dishes or something.
I am a huge rereader (my mother is not, which proves that while reading is genetic, there is apparently a recessive gene for rereading), and the thought of having, oh, my copy of The Adventurers locked away in a box (and with my typical luck, the box in the way back underneath a hundred heavier boxes) makes my heart race.
It strikes me that I will likely never reread 95% of the books I consider “keepers”. And while I haven’t looked in some of the boxes for years, I have a good sense of what’s in my collection. Like, for instance, the entire Anthea Malcolm Regency series. Wow, was I sucker for serious single-title historicals with political themes. I keep those particular books because they will never be found again, of this I am sure.
[Note: I am too freaked out to even begin a rant about the fact that publishers aren’t using new technology effectively and/or being, in my mind, unreasonable about reversion of rights despite lack of effective or even efficient exploitation of product, thus leading to the unavailability of books thus leading to me having to keep those books thus leading to me being forced to pack those books in boxes and thus leading to those books being put in storage at a time when I will clearly need each and every sliver of comfort available to me because I have gone on a shoe-buying austerity program.]
The question facing me, keeping me up nights, is what to take and what to pack. Some things are obvious, but the books are not. I mean, I don’t know what tomorrow’s reading mood will be – how am I supposed to anticipate my needs for the next six months?
In case anyone has any doubts, my current crisis is a boon for authors whose books I depend upon to get me through life. Not because said books will necessarily make the cut, but because I know me and I’ll guess wrong and I’ll be buying duplicate copies of those books because, well, you read the part about the likelihood of the book I need being locked away in the hardest-to-locate box.
It’s the literary equivalent of Murphy’s Law.
I bought the boxes yesterday. I haven’t started packing yet because, I am informed, we “need a plan.” As with the homeowner indecision thing, I know who “we” are. I do need a plan. Unfortunately for the long-suffering husband, it’s not about how to pack so weight is distributed event between boxes.
Oh no. My planning (call it scheming) is all about making sure I have the right books for this project…
So what book would you sneak into your luggage?
None–I work at a library, so I’d be practical about it and raid their shelves rather than weigh myself down with my own stuff.
by Elizabeth K January 7th, 2008 at 8:40 amKaren Moning’s Highlander series. All of them. I’m always ready to re-read those, especially when I have the opportunity to read them one right after the other.
Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, because it sounds like your situation is a good time to read an epic.
The Movie Set, by June Flaum Singer. I read that when I was about 18, and it’s one of my all time favorite books.
Robin Carr’s Virgin River trilogy, for when I need something warm that leaves me feeling good about the world.
Passion, by Lisa Valdez.
Caine’s Reckoning and the Promises series by Sarah McCarty.
by Lone Chatelaine January 7th, 2008 at 8:43 amI’ve lived through remodeling several times–though I actually lived in the construction zone. It’s interesting.
Re the rental, I’d say–hey, don’t you want to feel at home during the process? What’s a home without books? Books will help you feel comfortable, be more patient, be happier.
Anyway, I’d use all that and more to get at least a couple of boxes moved with me.
Good luck.
by Nora Roberts January 7th, 2008 at 8:48 amI’d go with raiding the library during the remodel. We did a kitchen, and three bathrooms, and I found that you end up so busy managing contractors anyway, there isn’t much time to read. That is what the library is good for.
by Chessie January 7th, 2008 at 9:17 amThank goodness I have a library card.
by Kimber An January 7th, 2008 at 9:26 amI’m not much of a rereader, so I would pack ‘em all and use it as an excuse to go buy new ones.
That said, I would keep out Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and anything by my latest author obsession, C. E. Murphy, especially Heart of Stone.
by Jess January 7th, 2008 at 10:08 amOh, man. :/ First, don’t do anything about remodelling without watching at least one season of Holmes on Homes. I’m sort of joking but mostly not. Mike Holmes comes in and cleans up after builders and other contractors after they’ve completely messed up a house, often to the point of leaving it dangerously unfit to live in and after walking off with all the homeowner’s savings, plus whatever they borrowed to invest in their home or its remodel. It’s scary what people call him for, to say nothing of all the stuff he finds that no one knew was wrong (like, electrical problems that could burn your house down) until he started tearing off drywall. Just knowing what to look for and what to ask about is a huge boon. And don’t let them touch anything without permits, no matter what they tell you!
Anyway. [cough]
I’d probably try to be good and mostly take books I need, rather than everything I might want That’s mainly nonfiction — figure out how long we’re likely to be out of the house, triple that, and come up with some idea of what I’m likely to be writing during that time. What nonfiction books am I going to need for research during that period? What might I need, if I actually decide I feel like working on that project that’s been percolating in the back of my head for a year or two?
For fiction, the books I actually reread tend to be books I’ve already reread before. So some Jo Beverley, some Joan Wolf, some Laura Kinsale, some Mary Balogh, plus some SF and fantasy I’ve reread a lot. Luckily I’ve been buying most of my fiction in e-book format lately, so if I have my computer (and I will have my computer) then I’ve got all that. [hugs computer]
Angie
by Angie January 7th, 2008 at 10:19 amDistinguish between books you really think you might reread this year, and comfort books that you just need to touch every so often and see so you know they’re there — at least that’s what I had to do in a similar situation. Top of my reread list would be: Laurie Marks’s Elemental Logic series, everything by Jennifer Crusie, the Chalion and Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujoldm and maybe a few Nora Roberts. My comfort books are Freedom and Necessity by Stephen Brust and Emma Bull, Little, Big by John Crowley, The Lions of Al-rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, and the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey. There’s a mix of romance and fantasy (and romantic fantasy) in this list, but they’re all my faves.
by Shannan January 7th, 2008 at 10:36 amI live in LA and have done the whole house remodel (only to buy a new house six months later, but that’s ANOTHER story).
Hire packers. Pack everything but the essentials. If your diverted from making decisions about tiles, there are a million, or gasp toilets, you’d be surprised how hard a decision THAT was, by reading, or rereading, you’ll never get back into the house.
Have the packers you hire pack all but essentials, clothes, kitchen stuff, and cross your fingers that it won’t take longer than nine months.
by Jessica January 7th, 2008 at 12:45 pmHaving just finished with this exact same thing, I can tell you to go buy tissues. What was SUPPOSED to take three weeks took 7. What was supposed to cost ____ cost double. And everything I love and adore has been in storage for year (because now the house is on the market) including boxes and boxes of books. Just keep your favorites, your TBR and move your library card right up front. Apply tissues every day when needed.
(it’s the building/renovating frustration, not the lack of books).
(((hugs)))
by Eva Gale January 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pmThank you for the support and suggestions (keep ‘em coming). I do like the idea that books make a home (actually, in the current house, the books are making the walls — we really, really, really need more space). I’m lucky in that I’ve been through the construction process many times. I don’t know what it says about me that I have a demolition fetish…okay, I do, but this is a public space.
I know me. I know my life, and while making decisions about tile and toilets (really, does the world need that much variety) will be all-consuming, the new place has the most perfect bathtub. I can’t imagine anything more…relaxing…than a book and a bath (though, being one of those new urban mixed use places, the nearby bars and restaurants are also quite comforting).
by Kassia Krozser January 7th, 2008 at 2:30 pmI so hear you on this. Although I’m not a huge rereader, I like to have my keepers handy to loan out to others. And I have a ton of books on my TBR shelves (note the use of plural), and, like you, I never know which one I’ll be in the mood to read next, so I need them all!
by Caryn January 7th, 2008 at 3:21 pmSome years ago, I had to move to a different country. I wanted to bring along all my books and not many of my clothes. Being a minor at the time and not in charge of my life, that obviously didn’t happen. Cruel thing is, my mother ritually cleansed my cupboard almost every 3 months, which means I ended up with none of the original stuff! I know the books would’ve lasted me through everything.
They’re still in some boxes so many thousands of miles away. I’m determined to ship them over as soon as I earn enough. How many times I’ve wanted to read one of them…
I did sneak in three comfort books with me: Persuasion by Jane Austen, The first Artemis Fowl book and one of Meg Cabot’s light historicals (either Nicola or Victoria…).
by B January 7th, 2008 at 3:25 pmMy survival kit would probably be a Heyer, a Sayers, a Bujold, a Wodehouse and a Pratchett - but then they’d be the wrong ones. I’d bring ‘Frederica’, and my inner reader would demand ‘April Lady’. Or worse, I’d read the Sayers I had brought, and then need to reread the rest of the series…
by Marianne McA January 7th, 2008 at 7:18 pmMy suggestion would be a combination of the two. Go to the library that is closest to your rental and check out their fiction collection, see what they have and more importantly, what they don’t. Then pack up what they have and sneak some of the ones they don’t into the box of bathroom supplies (that way when the contractor is driving you nuts you can go back to your rental, run a hot bath and read in the tub). Good luck with the remodeling, and make sure to have it inspected before you give them the final payment.
by Ann January 7th, 2008 at 9:54 pmAnother vote for library. Throughout a three-year transition, I reacquainted myself with the library and it became my refuge. At one point, because the library remodeled too, patrons could take out up to 100 books concurrently and keep them for four months!
Even now, I use the library to try new-to-me authors or to borrow books I want to read but I know probably won’t be keepers for me. Keeps their circulation up and my pockets from becoming empty.
by PatriciaW January 7th, 2008 at 10:57 pmI think I would pack all the Harlequin Historicals I bought at the end of 2007 and haven’t read yet. Maybe having those as the only books available to me would help me get through my TBR list.
by Georgie Lee January 7th, 2008 at 11:03 pmI think you’ve gotten some great advice already, and I think that distinguishing between true re-reads and the “gotta know they’re there”s is important. My actual rereads include SEP’s Ain’t She Sweet and It Had to Be You and a few Crusies, but most of those can be had fairly easily at the library, so I’d probably pack them and leave out the newer books I haven’t gotten to yet
Best wishes with the packing and the remodel! Woohoo!
by Fedora January 8th, 2008 at 12:37 am