I rearranged my books this weekend.
Before: These are Serious Books!
It started when I looked at our bookshelf and realized that something--no, somebody--was bugging me. Actually, it was four somebodies: Winston Churchill, Bruce Catton, Shelby Foote, and J.R.R. Tolkien. My husband and I own series by each of these authors, and while we consider them very much worth keeping (and yes, re-reading), I realized that I didn't really like the "These Books Are The Weightiest and Most Serious Tomes We Own and They Must Always Live Together on the Top Shelf, Right Side" thing we had going on.
So I moved them away from eye level, and all to different places.
The six volumes of Churchill's The Second World War now reside on the third shelf, accompanied by a selection of pre- and post-WWII history books. The Civil War trilogies by Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote also live on the third shelf but on the opposite end, next to our other Civil War titles. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings books now live on the second shelf, near some other favorite fantasy and science fiction tales.
After: A little less serious
What's on the top shelf, right side now: books about Chicago, the American West, our National Parks, paddling, hiking, and nature guides.
Somehow our personal library feels a lot lighter. I feel more inclined to walk up to the bookshelf and pick something out. And yet we have the same books.
It's kind of like I broke up the group of kids in the classroom that talked the loudest, and moved them all to different desks in different corners of the room. Not to silence them--they do have important things to say--but to give the other kids a chance to be heard.
Sometimes it's not just what you own. It's where you put it.