Another fun easy anal retentive tool I found recently is the Family Facts On the Go Organizer.  I have already used the Family Facts Wall Calendar for a year and this is even better because I can carry it around.  It’s helpful for the many appointments I’ve needed at the end of my pregnancy and that sort of thing.  Here is a pic and a link:

I feel more organized than I have in ages (and with a 3rd kid on the way, that is a really good thing).  I also have the Family Facts Family Life Organizer and Planner, but I find that one too overwhelming to put it to much use (that’s the lazy side of me again).

Here’s how it works: when I signed up and posted 9 books that I’m willing to send out to other people, I got 3 credits for books to order. So I could search for whatever books I’m interested in and see if they’re available. Once I choose a book, it’s sent from someone else somewhere in the country. Then other people will periodically request books from me. For every book I send out, I get another credit to use for a book. So I’m paying the shipping for the books I send out (which is not much), but getting books sent to me for free. The website even tells you how much postage you’ll need and provides a method of printing out a couple pages to wrap the book in, with the addresses already on them (which would be handy if I had a working printer).

Of course, when I started to receive books I had to give them a little sniff. They are slightly reminiscent of used bookstore books, except some of them seem to have had only one previous owner and haven’t sat around languishing in a dusty bookshop. Each one that arrives is a fun surprise–will it be in perfect shape or slightly tattered? (PaperBackSwap.com doesn’t allow them very tattered or water-damaged, though.) Will it smell new or used or have some other indefinable scent? I love checking my mail and seeing another book wrapped in paper so I can rip into it, inhale its aroma and flip through its pages with glee. Long live PaperBackSwap.com! Join now while it’s still free.

Favorite novel: The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Favorite novelist: Jane Austen
Favorite poet: Pablo Neruda
Favorite playwright: William Shakespeare (who else?)

I never can understand people who say, “I never read” or “I don’t like to read”. I don’t get that at all. I feel sorry for them and I confess I sometimes look down upon them. Who can go through life without reading? How do they spend their time—just watching television or doing cross-stitch or something? Yuck. I know I watch plenty of television, but I usually have a book in hand even while watching.

Let me think: how many places do I take a book? There’s one in the bathroom (not for toilet use but to read while my son is bathing). There’s several by my bed for reference or for bedtime reading—and a few library books I’ve finished and need to return soon. There’s one on the table to peruse while eating. There’s an audio book in my Walkman to listen to while jogging or cleaning or doing other menial tasks. There’s a pile of travel books under the bed that I’m not ready to put away because I’m still deciding where I want to go. There’s a couple in the living room to read while the television is on—TV programs are usually not captivating enough alone. I used to keep a paperback in my purse or coat pocket just in case I got stuck waiting somewhere, but now that I’m a mother I’m usually busy entertaining my children, so I have a kid’s book to read to them instead. And of course there are bookcases of books in the closet and many more in storage in Texas.

Sometimes I read an old children’s book to Isaac and realize that I read it when I was a child, or perhaps someone read it to me. It’s an amazing feeling to read something and think, “I remember reading this just as I was learning to read.” It’s a weird kind of nostalgia that gives me a little thrill and puts a lump in my throat. It reminds me of how much I’ve always loved books. I’m so glad I came from a family that treasures books. Growing up the primary clutter in our house were piles and piles of books. And it’s my own housekeeping downfall—I hate to put books away until I’ve finished them, but I’m always reading several (4-7) at a time, so they all have to be accessible so I remember to finish. I have tried to focus on just one book at a time, but I just can’t do it. Something else always catches my eye, or I want to read up on child rearing or writing or whatever my latest interest is.

Fiction is my primary addiction. Yes, addiction is the word. I am addicted to books. I can think of worse addictions (food addiction, for one, which is also a problem for me sometimes). I love the escape, the pure joy of fantasy, but I also love to learn about life and other people—it’s not all escape. I have a great love of learning and history, but I would rather read a page-turning fictionalized account than a mind-numbingly dull textbook. Mystery, science fiction, thrillers, and classics—the only ones that bore me are the more pretentious contemporary books where nothing seems to really happen and you only end up feeling depressed by the end.

Poetry—I love poetry. Though I must admit that I don’t spend a lot of time delving into the deeper meaning behind it. It seems so prosaic to question poetry too closely. I like to just soak up the rhythm and beauty and feel a poem on a gut level, not analyze it to death.

Books, books, books. Where would my life be today without books? I can’t even imagine living without them. I read and re-read shampoo bottles in the shower just to have something to read. I think my heart would break, or at least I would die of boredom, if I couldn’t have my books.

Here in London I get my books from five places: new books from Waterstone’s, new books from Tesco (supermarket), new Christian books from the church bookshop, used books from Oxfam (charity shop), borrowed books from the library, and my own old books from our bookshelves in the bottom of Brian’s wardrobe.

New books from Waterstone’s have a lovely new bookish smell. It’s the most pure papery book smell of all. If it were socially acceptable I might just go in there to sniff the books (though I never actually thought that before writing it). The Waterstone’s smell reminds me of Brentano’s in the Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Virginia where I worked just after graduating from university. (I just googled it and it now appears to be a Border Express.) I enjoyed that job, though I was only there a couple months before moving back to Missouri. The best bit was that not only did I get a discount (1/3 off or something like that) but I could also borrow books to read as long as I kept them in good condition. They liked the staff to be well-read. I still spent way too much of my meager paycheck on books–it was just too tempting when I was surrounded by them every day. I loved setting up displays and sorting through the books. What I didn’t love was selling porn mags, though I didn’t have to do to much of that (had to do a lot more of that at the Super Crown I also worked at briefly). Anyway, the smell of new bookstore books reminds me of that time in my life, in addition to the normal great feelings I get from new book smell.

Now new books from Tesco have a different smell. Well, they smell sort of like they’ve been in the supermarket. Not very exciting, but true.The one I got the other day also smells slightly of cigarettes. Not sure what that is about. I guess that’s why I seldom buy books at the supermarket (plus there’s not much selection).

And would you believe that books from a church bookshop actually smell a bit Christian? I can’t describe it, but they smell a bit like church–maybe from being in close proximity to Bibles all the time. Don’t even get me started on the genre of Bible smells–that’s a whole other subject.

Books from Oxfam have a nice used book smell, but sometimes overlaid with a sort of weird body odor as well–I think it depends on how long they’ve been sitting on the shelf waiting to be sold for £1.99 or even as cheaply as 99p. It’s this less pleasant smell that keeps me from buying more Oxfam books (that and the randomness of good book availability). I do my part by donating some of my books there when I’m done with them.

Library books are not far from Oxfam smell-wise, though they tend to have a little more age smell and a little less body odor. I am commenting on this from memory, though, as the only library books I have out right now are travel books on Poland and Italy. Travel books have their own unique smell–they often smell like magazines because they use that sort of paper). Also, just a thought–books from secondhand bookshops (which I don’t frequent here, but did in the U.S.) have a smell that’s sort of a cross between library books and my own books.

Now to the very best book smell–the smell of my own books from our bookshelves. I have here my favorite novel, The Once and Future King by T.H. White and it smells wonderful. This smell is nostalgic of the way books smelled in our house growing up. My mom has always had loads of books here, there, and everywhere. I don’t even know how to describe the smell–old and dusty, but beautiful. Sniffing this book almost brings a tear to my eye. Now I sound like a freak, but it’s just such a great feeling–this book has been like a friend to me. I think maybe it’s time for a re-read. It smells like some of my other well-loved books–The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Chronicles of Narnia, Edward Rutherford’s London novel, The Unlikely Ones by Mary Brown, and of course Pride and Prejudice (could go and on but won’t).

I wonder if I am just being silly or if I could actually identify a book’s origin blindfolded in a smell test. I think I could at least definitely pick the old ones from our own bookshelves, though some of the other smells are less distinct. Maybe some day I’ll try that, but perhaps for now that’s a little too geeky even for me.