For all sorts of weak and shallow reasons, there is no book purge this week
It’s Sunday, so this should be a book purge post. Well, the best laid plans and all that.
My game, my rules, so this week there will be no book purge at all. I usually take the previous week’s books down to the charity shop on a Saturday morning. This week, I had to be in Southampton collecting my father from his cruise. So no delivery of books.
And last week, something else happened that meant I couldn’t take the books. I don’t even remember what it was but the upshot is that I have a backlog of books waiting to go. I can hardly get through my office door because there are piles of books in the hallway outside. Not a good look.
The purge, therefore, is taking a break until I clear those books away.
To be honest, I’m relieved. I see my shelves are still too full and weighed down with books I am unlikely to read again — or ever, in the case of those I bought on a whim. But I’ve done a couple of passes across what’s left and I struggled to find more than a dozen that are candidates for the next purge.
It could be that after 20 weeks or so I’m purged out at the moment. A rest from the stress of a slash and burn through my past hopes and dreams might be just what I need. I’ll take that analysis, however ropey it may turn out to be.
In other news, our boiler stopped working Friday morning and we’ve had no heating or hot water since Thursday night in effect. British Gas have cancelled visits twice and are now due to arrive Monday afternoon. Not good service. A perfect example of profits before people. If they spent less on making and delivering adverts that present a fantasy picture of their service them might be able to hire the engineers needed to deliver the service they promise.
The cold also doesn’t encourage me to overcome the laziness that may also lie at the back of making little or no effort to tackle the shelves and this week’s purge.
My wife’s been in Stockholm for a few days and arrived back this evening. It was very cold and snowing in Sweden so she’s not feeling the cold as much as I am in the house. Small mercies.
Back to purging next week. Purging in the warmth I hope. Which sounds vaguely disgusting; I apologise.
