Cleaning the bookshelf

When the moon lines up in front of Jupiter and the temperature drops to -2 degrees at exactly 2:02am on the seventeenth day of the sixth month, it is time to dust my bookshelf. So the following the day I knew this moment had arrived so picked up the dusting cloth and proceeded to wipe, dab and rub.


After a couple of minutes I concluded to myself that the bookshelf contains the things that represent who I am, both in trait and possession. The mobile phone bills and SpecSaver contact lens’ boxes demonstrate just how disorganised I am with all things postal. Electronically, everything is filled in folders with logical pathways, but everything I get in the post either gets chucked away or finds itself shoved on the bookshelf. This may be acceptable for a few letters but not a year’s worth. So I sighed and proceeded to pull out all these letters regarding banking statements, insurances of all sorts and put them all in a large ring binder where they will stay until the day I realise that no one will actually ever ask to see my May bank statement of 2003.

Amongst all this envelope shrubbery is of course all my books. I looked at each one as I dusted their spines thinking about the last time I read that particular book. There were some I hadn’t even read yet so pulled these out and decided to make a ‘haven’t read yet’ section at the bottom of my shelf. Amongst all my fiction I also noticed tomes of yester year like, ‘How to use Macromedia Dreamweaver’ and, ‘An introduction to Marcomedia Flash’. Was I really into this stuff? I thought to myself. You bet I was, I loved it, that was until I realised I didn’t like to be in front of a computer all day (something I still haven’t managed to sort out) and because, quite frankly I never had the heart to fully embrace code.

Littered along the shelves are my random bits that I own but just don’t know where they should live, so they all have banded together and live anywhere there is space. These random bits include hundreds of friendship bands/bracelets that I just can’t throw away. In fact I collected them all up and put them all on and they almost come up to my elbow! There’s also a small globe broken but I’m still unable to chuck it away, keys that I am not sure what they open or lock, and about three sets of headphones which rest on top of my books with the wires draping all over the place. There’s also a lot of rubbish that I collect, particularly receipts.

But what I enjoy most about my bookshelf, especially when I actually pay attention on what is there, are the surprises. In between my Collins Thesaurus and Of Mice and Men was a little black note book which I took notes in when I was on holiday a few years ago. Below is what I wrote, well some of it as there’s too much to upload onto one entry.