including titles by Leonard Orr and Leah Orr.
As 2018 draws to a close, I share the New Year's Eve dilemma described so aptly by my friend and colleague Len:
Classes begin next week. I must follow the urge I have every semester to make a massive move of my books from upstairs to downstairs, from downstairs to upstairs, from home to campus, and from campus to home. What had been alphabetically arranged before may be arranged now by chronology or sub-sub topics. Since I promised my doctor I would no longer attempt to carry armloads of books up and down the stairs or boxes of books, I bought extra sacks to carry the books safely. Perhaps these book-move patterns are similar to the return of salmon or the great migrations of birds. Perhaps thousands of English professors are subject to the same seasonal patterns.
Next, our mutual friend Kathie explained her system:
Indeed, this English professor seems to be subject to those very patterns. My challenge is that I seem to be hauling them from one continent to another repeatedly, though with regional variations, depending on the destination.
As for me:
The pattern I'm subject to is that every single book I have come in contact with throughout the year ends up on my kitchen counter, next to my laptop: recently read, purchased but not yet read, started but not yet finished, received as gifts, retrieved from shelf to track down remembered or forgotten references, needed for further analysis in near future. And so on so forth, until I end up with a collection 2 stacks deep and 6 or 8 stacks wide that need to be dealt with and re-shelved ideally on December 31st, but oftentimes not until well into the month of January.
Fuqua Helps With the Big Sort
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