Organizing Books

Organized Books

It’s time for a summer project. Such as organizing books!

Or that is what I said to myself at the beginning of the summer. Here it is heading into mid-August and the season is flying by and I have barely begun.

My summer project was to organize all of my graduate school books, as well as to review all of my other books that I have been collecting over the years and give them some semblance of order alongside the school books. Books always seem to offer a juicy project to take on.

When I moved into my office last year, I literally dumped all of my academic books on to the shelves to deal with another day. They were quite an investment and so I wanted to make sure that at some point they were organized enough that I could find them and use them for future reference.

So, I have decided to break up my project into a few parts. First, organize the school books so that I can easily access them. Also, consolidate them into one area of bookshelves rather than taking up all of the space.

Second, go through my boxes of books looking for ones I can easily discard and keeping the others. Looks like they are also finding a home in my new office too. I want to know what I have and so it is essential to sort through the mess of it all.

Outside of my academic books, most books I read and give away or delete from my Kindle. Still, there are many books that I have been given and/or that I have bought that mean the world to me. These are the ones that are worth holding on to and spending significant time organizing over the course of a season.

Also, I know I will find some new books that I want to share with you. Even better!

Do you have a summer project like mine? Are you organizing something, getting rid of stuff, or accumulating more for a certain purpose? May your summer project be full of something good for you.

Often projects like these not only help organize our stuff, but also ourselves.

Best Books to Read During Quarantine

Books to Read
What’s on Your Reading List?

So, what are the best books to read during quarantine?

The answer is simple: whatever you are drawn to — and perhaps, with more time on your hands to read, this is the moment to break out and read in a new genre. Say you love reading literary fiction. This may be the moment to try a mystery or something funny to change up what you are reading. Or you could just pick out a bunch of books that you read in the genre you love and dive in.

I always appreciate reading the Book Review section of the New York Times to inspire my reading choices, especially these days. I am not only sending books off to others that I think they may enjoy, but also downloading Kindle books that catch my interest, both in my field and just for fun. I am trying to bring in the new to my days that keep on and on one after the other in quarantine. A book takes me away from my world and envelopes me in another

Also, I find reading is different to watching a show. My mind gets to imagine the world that the author paints for me in my own way. It is not completely prescribed and so my imagination comes into play more when I read. And when I find an author who writes so well that I can’t put the book down, that is just so satisfying in a way that watching something does not deliver for me.

There are many lists of books to read during this quarantine time. Here are some:

  1. People Magazine
  2. Time Magazine
  3. Refinery 29

And there are many, many more lists like these that encourage you to read and give your mind a break from the quarantine many of us are still living in across the world. This also may be the time to revisit all of those books you were supposed to read in high school and college. You know, the classics! You may want to revisit the authors of the past to hear their tales of wisdom, even the master Shakespeare may be calling your name.

Read! Take time to read for fun, pleasure, to escape, to relax. Then share with me — what are you reading?