Boredom Cure

That’s a 12-inch ruler standing next to the stacks!

If you’re bored in your own home, something’s wrong—something about your space needs fixing. Maybe (could it be?) you need more books that you haven’t read (but are itching to read) in the rooms of your home. I just solved any boredom problem that might come our way for the next few years. I went on eBay, found someone selling a lot of 53 hardback volumes of American Heritage (from the late 1950’s to 1970—golden years for that magazine), and the cost per volume (including shipping to Hawaii) was only 85 cents. My husband and I are both history buffs and when I first told him about the deal, he had a hard time believing it. Well, they arrived recently, and goodness, that box was super heavy. They’re now unpacked and looking inviting under a side table in the Relationship Corner of the living room.

Because these book stacks are being stored in the Relationship Corner, I made sure the top book of each stack shows a relationship image.

Here’s the plan: first I’ll browse them and mark with sticky notes the articles I want to read, then my husband will do the same. The only reason I’ll be putting my markers in first is because I’m more eager—this is the phase I call wallowing in books. Physical wallowing (like a cat does) would hurt books, so I mentally wallow in them when they’re all around me. Steve’s sticky notes will go on the side edges of the pages, and mine will go on the bottom edges. That way, no sticky notes will protrude from the top edges and the books will have a less cluttered look—and we may be looking at them for a good while, so how they look matters.

Phase two of the plan is that when we’re through reading them, I’ll mail the books (in batches of ten) to my brother back in Huntsville, Alabama. When he and his wife are through with them, he’ll mail them on to our oldest brother in Mississippi. When he and his wife are through with them, they can figure what to do with them—at least the books will end up in Mississippi. Mississippi can use all the books it can get.