Dusty bookshelves

Half a month without any postings... I told you I'm not a regular writer. Or actually, my writings lately have been too personal to be published here... I'm not THAT exhibitionistic yet. So, what's new? I'm back in Finland, for one. And I'm trying to get my life here started again, which is a task that has proven more difficult than I thought.

What is on my mind the most right now are my books. Ok, maybe not surprising if you know me, but I'm looking forward to a complete makeover in my bookshelf very soon. I've heard that when people go through big changes in their lives they feel the need to redecorate, rearrange and re-anything, and apparently how this works out with me is an urgent need to go through my bookshelf, and preferably sooner than later.

First of all, it's dusty. Try to leave a place unattended for almost a year, and yes, it gathers dust. And I hate to see my dear books gathering dust... So, I need to take everything out, wipe the dust from the books and the shelves themselves, and put things back.

Another thing is that I want to get rid of all the books that don't fit. This is more like the personal re-something-thingy. There's books hanging there that have just been there since the beginning of time, things not belonging to a bookshelf like my nail polish collection and various creams / lotions etc that we females do have the knack of accumulating without noticing (you'd never guess how much space that can take... And even though I'm not a girlie-girlie pinku-chan per se, yes, I do have an extnsive collection of the stuff previously mentioned, perfumes being my specialty) - and I already got rid of my "candle & tea accessories" -collection that was taking up one whole shelf. And those who know how much I'm addicted to both of the previous types of items, well, relocating them took some time, I can tell you that. But now the shelf is clean and awaiting my darling books from Japan... And need to get some of the books from my bookshelf to the one that's in the livingroom - to get them to circulation so to say.

And of course why I really need to do this is that there's 60+kgs of books sailing somewhere between Japan and Finland at the moment, waiting for a new home in my bookshelf. I counted somewhere around 150+ books bought mostly after March, and I don't think I even counted the thinner booklets bought from different temples describing the temple grounds etc. Only the "real" books. So, space in the shelves will be sorely needed, and I'm not sure if even a full remake and selection will be enough. Only, there's not really any space for a new bookshelf, so...

But even aside the NEED to make space, I wan't to rearrange the whole thing. There has of course been a loose grouping of books before too (I'm too pedantic for not having one), but this time my previous Japan, Study, Japan+study groups won't be enough anymore. I wan't a whole Religion studies, Japanese language, Sôtô and Zen (with countless subcategories.. *g*), Religious history in Japan, Literature (with subcategories for Heian/Kamakura), Budô stuff, Shintô, Research, Shingon, nice picture books, "took this because it jumped into my arms in the bookshop"... I don't even remeber all that I've bought. The day my boxes come will be like Christmas, except better since I know there'll be only stuff that I want, and more of it than anyone would ever buy me.

And waiting for them is... Painful. Me needs my books! And it'll take some 2 MONTHS for them to come. *sob* Maybe it's a good thing I'll be busy as hell until the end of September...