Organization = Procrastination

What is it about having many big legitimate projects to work on that makes me create my very own big not-especially-legitimate projects to work on? Recently I had the experience of freaking out that I did not own a book that I totally could have sworn I owned. I had never read this book, but circumstances surrounding my legit projects conspired such that now was the time -- it had to be read.

I stressed out about my surprise non-ownership of it for a while, then stressed out more when I requested a ton of books from the library and still managed to forget to request this book. Then, the other day, while I was on the phone and staring blankly at my shelves, I spotted it. Oops. I do own it.

So it turns that organizing all your stuff by color, while aesthetically pleasing, does not exactly lend itself to locating things in the way that say, alpha by author does. After all, I had recently moved tons of stuff around in order to accommodate the 80-something YA books I acquired back home, and even in spite of having just physically handled every single book I own I still didn't know I had this book!

Click to see a sampling of my mostly non-YA books

Click to see a sampling of my semi-astonishing collection of older YA books. Sadly the covers aren't available for most of the truly great finds.

Anyway, you can guess where all this is going. I proceeded to spend ... let's just say a little too long ... organizing all my books. Mercifully I had uploaded tons of them into the Amazon "Your Media Library" thing two years ago, but realizing that that doesn't let you export (lord knows why) I decided to go with Goodreads, which while cranky and cumbersome in a lot of ways will still let you export all your stuff to a comma-separated-values spreadsheet. (See top picture -- there's part of my regular library.) Fine by me. I like having it in something, 'cause I'm totally paranoid -- god forbid I have to use it, but renter's insurance is only really worth the extent to which you can actually document what the heck you have.

In order to keep from contaminating my main library any further than it already is (I let Gossip Girl, The A-List, and everything else I'd already been shelving in with my grown-up books stay there), I created a second account just for my older YA books. (See the lower picture -- yes, it's a collection that is by necessity heavy on the Baby-Sitters' Club).

One major plus of going through all of my books? Occasionally, you find cool stuff in your books. Sometimes I find old notes to myself, or in almost-new-looking academic books I've bought used, the one page where the previous owner clearly made a valiant attempt at reading the book before giving up. Lots of my old bookmarks -- I try to leave a bookmark in my favorite part of a book, and ideally a bookmark that has to do with the time I read the book -- so a piece of a matchbook from a local restaurant if I was on vacation when I read it, that kind of thing. And occasionally, I find gems like this one at left. Wow. I mean really. Wow. Clearly, this gal was excited both about the lads of NKOTB as well as about her multi-colored pen. This is the only page that espouses a desire for Jordan, though several other pages as well as the inside cover attest to her love of Joe.

[I avoided this series for a long time, and upon actually reading it, I don't know why. I read the fifth book, loved it, and immediately went to the library to check out all the others. I would definitely recommend reading them in order -- the plot is continuous through the first four and then (I'm assuming as I haven't read yet) through the second four, and there's not a lot of rehash of "the story so far" so it will all make more sense to read in order.]

[While this is indeed yet another mean-girls-in-boarding-school series, it's done better than many others. For one, the main character is reasonably relatable, and for two, the usual endless litany of brand names and status signifiers is reduced to a trickle; just enough to set the stage. Add to this a thriller/mystery angle that makes them total page-turners, and success! I read this book in one sitting, just the thing to get through an otherwise boring flight.]

[And thank you again, Amazon! I just learned that not only do I have the eighth book and a prequel to look forward to this fall, but that the prequel doesn't signal that the series is over! They are already showing a cover for the ninth book. In my state of knowing-anything-constitutes-a-spoiler I'm not looking into it further, but this is good news. In other news: The A-List is following in Gossip Girl's footsteps and starting over with new characters in January. Will it make it better? Doubtful. But you know how I'm a completist about everything, and this means that assuming I don't delve into the series' "second era" that there is a finite number of these books still for me to read. Also, remember a while ago when I was speculating about the possibility of an A-List tv show? There still isn't one, but the new series called I think Privileged (which is also nearly the title of the Private spin-off series, Privilege) is a tv version of a "Zoey Dean" single-title book called How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls. How do I keep all this information straight? Even I don't know.]

Currently Reading: Private (Basically the entire series) ("Kate Brian")