Ads are not an endorsement by the blog author.

Dusty Pages

Public Journal
 Back to Journal Archives | Subscribe to Alerts Alerts Subscribe to Alerts | Feeds
< Brrr!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Welcoming Back Th >
Sunday, October 28, 2007
October 2007
10/30/07
A Picture
10/30/07
Awake and Feeling Blue
10/28/07
Welcoming Back The Sun
10/27/07
Dusting Off Those Pages
10/24/07
Brrr!
10/23/07
A Bit Serious Today
10/22/07
Heading HOME!
10/22/07
Noon Mom Prepping For Evacuation
10/22/07
A Rainy Monday
10/19/07
Itty Bitty Chickens, Crochet Lessons, and Galivanting Grandmas
10/10/07
Briefly
10/10/07
Dog Bite
10/1/07
More Monday Ramblings
10/1/07
Monday Rambling
10/1/07
First Of The Month!
« October 2007 Archive
Saturday, October 27, 2007
11:00:00 PM EDT

Dusting Off Those Pages

Last weekend I was in a cleaning mood, and I indulged that mood.  This wasn't just normal cleaning, but the mood to deep clean, sort, toss out, scrub -- a "Fall Cleaning", if you will.  One of the things I really wanted to do was clean all of my books.  That has carried over to this weekend.

My books and book shelves get a quick dusting at least once a week, but the books themselves don't actually get  moved and dusted individually on a very regular basis.  It is something that I enjoy doing when I can do it, but not something that can be done every week.  I have HUNDREDS of books!  And the problems with cleaning each one individually are many.

  To clean my books I take all of them off the shelf I'm cleaning, keeping them in the correct order, because, of course, they DO have an order.  After the shelf is cleaned, then I pick up the first book on that shelf, wipe it down, front, back, spine, top, side, and bottom of the pages (while the book is closed), then I open the front, dust inside the front flyleaf, open the back, dust inside the back flyleaf, then flip the pages in an attempt (probably a futile attempt) to "air out" the book.  Then one by one each book gets re-shelved.

While doing this chore I re-acquaint myself with books I haven't thought of in a long time; long-forgotten treasures from my childhood; vintage copies bought for the pleasure of ownership, if not for reading; well-thumbed copies that are read on a regular basis; new purchases that have been assigned their own places on a shelf, but that, for whatever reason, haven't been read yet; various cookbooks; an attractive copy of Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide, which I cannot remember why I bought; all of my school yearbooks, whose pages require a quick perusal, a smile at the pictures of me and my friends, a quick nostalgic reading of the autograph pages.  All of this is time-consuming, but so enjoyable.

I hope everyone else is having an enjoyable weekend, too!



Written by helmswondermom Blog about this entry
This entry has 11 comments: (Add your own) Show all comments (6 more)