Gaegrand

I have often told the story of George Rodney's definition of "knowing" something. Once I went by his office and asked him if he knew what the integral of something was. He said, yes. Then he reached around, got a book off the shelf, opened it, and turned a couple of pages and told me the answer. He made no distinction between having something in his head and knowing exactly where to find it.

Unfortunately, I no longer know where to find anything. As the years have gone by I have gotten more and more books and lost more and more of my memory. I can no longer go to the exact shelf for a certain book.

So a couple of days ago I started rearranging my books. I determined I would group them by subjects.

My first group is travel books. They go in the first bookcase, all five shelves are filled with travel books.

The next bookcase has three shelves of books on hiking and backpacking (and I don't move unless I have to) and mountain climbing (and I have a little bit of fear of heights) and polar regions (and I hate to get cold.) In all these subjects, I am an expert with no experience.

At first I had Civil War books on the middle shelf but they got pushed out and are now in the bookcase acrooss the room.

Sharing that bookcase are two shelves of quilting books. Now that is something I actually do. I thought I had written about the quilt I am working on now, but I can't find it. I guess I had just thought about it.

I am quilting on a Hawaiian quilt. I've been working on it for more than 10 years. But don't feel sorry for the quilt, it has had a good life. It has BEEN to Hawaii twice. The first time was in 1994. I was appliqueing the top then. Last year I went with Beth and me and I quilted on it.

The next bookcase has three shelves of science and mathematics books. The science books have titles like Warped Passages, Hyperspace, and Black Holes and Time Warps. I have read all those books and what I know and understand would not make a chapter. I am interested and enjoy the subject but I just need a few more IQ points.

The mathematics books I once understood.

Other subjects with their own areas are house and decorating, gardening, religion, baseball, and biographies. The rest are just all thrown together.

I am having to buy new bookcases. I am going to put them in Anne's room and keep the biographies and autobiographies there.

I have read most of my books and dabbled in them all. However I don't remember as much of them as I used to so that rereading one is a great pleasure.

I am so grateful for my library. Growing up I never dreamed I would have so many books.