You know the old adage about art imitating life imitating art? Sometimes I recognize the mechanisms of plot, character development and conflict playing out in my own life. For instance, this month has delivered my family a twist ending. In the span of a weekend, our life got unexpectedly pointed in a new direction.
We’d planned to start looking for a new place to rent after the holidays, after feeling increasingly cramped in our little townhome. Luck was with us this past Friday, when I took a different route home than usual and stumbled on a house for rent that exceeded our expectations. We’ve gotten the ball rolling on the application process and have started preparing to move, albeit ahead of our original timeline.
I’m a hard-copy lover through and through, but if e-readers have one advantage, it’s that they don’t weigh a thousand pounds. Every bookworm groans at the thought of having to pack and move their personal library. Nevertheless, that’s where I started, sorting them into same-size piles for easy arrangement in boxes and creating a donation pile for those I was willing to leave behind on this move.
As I handled the books and read their titles, I reacted to each of them – remembering when I bought or received them, when I first read them, when the pages started falling out from use.
It’s perhaps trite, but books have been an important part of my life since I learned to read. Reading at a young age made me want to be a writer. I think of my favorite books and stories as tenderly as though we were old friends. Some books I kept knowing that I would read them again; others that I likely won’t re-read but love too much to part with; others I bought or got as gifts and am still holding out hope that I’ll find time to read.
These books don’t have far to go — the new house is less than two miles from our apartment. But I already look forward to unpacking them and setting them up on the built-in bookshelves that flank the fireplace in our new living room.
A touch that will make it feel that much more like home.
My Writing Coach 