Something cheerful for the weekend
This isn't always easy, to think of something cheerful, especially when things might not be entirely cheerful. But commenter Paula on the Rooney post set me the challenge, and so I'm going to go through with it.
So, reasons to be cheerful, ahead of the weekend. Well, first, I've decided to set up a 'one in, one out' system for my bookshelves at home, given that they've recently been creaking a bit under the strain. I love books and I have too many. The other weekend, I decided to chuck out a few ones that I didn't like any more, and didn't like in the first place, to make room for some new ones, or just rearrange the old ones into more pleasing shapes.
Books ought, after all, to be stacked on the side, with the spine pointing towards you. Oh I've seen them laid flat. I've seen it done. I've done it myself, I hesitate to confess to you, but you know and I know it isn't right. No. Books need to be neatly arranged, not necessarily alphabetically or in height order - I'm not weird or anything - but cleanly, so they have room to breathe. Yes. I think that makes perfect sense.
Now I love books and I can't bear the thought of chucking them in the bin, but I knew that there were some that were just cluttering up the librarynth and were therefore destined never to be looked at again. Some of them I'd bought, and were rubbish - always a disappointment to be reminded of your poor choices or things that didn't quite work out; it's like putting photos of your exes above your bed. No, time to get rid of those bad memories, the books you couldn't enjoy, the ones that everyone else liked and you didn't - and so I did. I didn't bin them, obviously, I gave them away to charity, where hopefully someone might like them more than me. And that felt quite pleasant, having a bookcase that wasn't about to fall apart under the strain, and wasn't about to explode into a mass of chipboard and screws.
That makes me cheerful. It might not make you cheerful but I hope it does; I hope you can get some kind of vicarious pleasure out of knowing I have a little less angst towards my reading matter than I did before. Imagine me with a big smile on my face. Not that big. Better. Yes, like that. See, not so bad, is it?
There's something else. I do love autumn, and there's been a bit of an autumny feel to the past few days. I'm not talking about the early arrival of chocolate covered nuts and dried fruit in the Co-op in Christmassy boxes, or the sudden appearance of those massive tins of Roses and Quality Street around a four-pronged snow-covered winter fir in the unfriendly generic convenience store across the road. No, there's something more enjoyable about it - the slight chill in the air, and the darkening evenings. You might find that kind of thing ominous or faintly depressing, but not me. Bonfires! Crumpets! Walking around, in a scarf and a coat! Frosts. Fungus. All that.
There's something reassuring about it all returning, just as there is in spring. In fact, I'd say I was more of a spring/autumn person than summer/winter. Sod the heat of summer, the flies round the bin, the crammed beer gardens. Bring along instead the warmth of an open fire, socks on a radiator when you get out of the bath, it being nippy but not too freezing outside, the crunch of leaves underfoot, fireworks in the night sky, all that kind of thing. I love all that. If I could, I think I'd live in this country for spring and autumn, and go elsewhere for summer and winter.
And there are other things that keep me optimistic, all the things that seem trivial and pointless, but are really the tiny threads that hold you up, too invisible to be seen, but there all the same. The chatter you have with the people around you, which seems like nothing, but is something all the same; the prospect of a weekend, with time to do anything you could possibly want to do; the house where you live, and the sharing of that space - in my case, with someone who is kind, and gentle, and full of love, and a small idiotic furry mammal who is generally evil, but sometimes sweet.
In a lot of ways, there's plenty to be cheerful about, to feel optimistic about, not just for the weekend, but for everything. I have a bookshelf that's tidy, and it's nearly autumn. And then there's everything else. I'm lucky really.
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Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
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September 10th, 2010 - 15:17
I agree with you about about spring and autumn being the best seasons, (summer and winter temperatures are too extreme and uncomfotable) but I could do without the April showers though.
September 10th, 2010 - 15:20
I am now cheerful for your use of the word ‘librarynth’ alone, and I haven’t even actually started reading the full article yet.
September 10th, 2010 - 15:42
Stephen Fry coined the expression, I believe, in his first novel “The Liar” . . . not that I *heart* Anton any less for using it
September 10th, 2010 - 15:52
Ah, I thought it was Terry Pratchett. Fry makes sense.
September 10th, 2010 - 15:27
A well-organised bookcase is indeed very satisfying. I did something similar a few weeks ago and felt much better afterwards.
Have a good weekend!
September 10th, 2010 - 15:33
Lovely post, Anton.
I love books too and yet I’m also considering giving some to charity. And not books I don’t like either? The reason for this craziness is that I’m preparing to cohabit with my chap, so the dupe books and DVDs will go – and for a lovely reason too.
I also love Autumn – always makes me want to quote Keats: Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness (http://www.artofeurope.com/keats/kea1.htm). I think of walking through parks on days with a nip in the air, drinking in the different colours and smells. Lovely
September 10th, 2010 - 15:44
Reasons to be cheerful?
The football season starts on Sunday. That’s the not-really-watched-much-in-the-UK kind of football – you know, the one where the foot hardly touches the ball.
September 10th, 2010 - 15:49
Thank you, that did cheer me up, because I love autumn too. And books. I once displayed the spines of my books in order of their colour. Like they do with clothes in charity shops. I’ve done the laid flat thing too, but only because the leg of an occasional table was broken.
I’ve been feeling a shade gloomy recently but your post reminded me there’s always something to feel cheerful about. I wish you a cozy, cheerful autumn weekend with your lovely organised bookshelves. That smile suits you btw.
September 10th, 2010 - 15:53
That was a great post.
Autumn is a lovely season. There’s a special smell in the air, almost inperceptible to the nostrils and yet unmistakably there. I always associate this time of year with renewal. I think it’s something to do with working in the academic sector for so long and starting every subsequent job I’ve had in September. Bizarrely, every important relationship I have ever had has also started at this time of year as well. I don’t know what this tells anyone but I think it means I must be an Autumn person.
September 10th, 2010 - 16:28
I always feel autumn is time when anything is possible.
September 10th, 2010 - 15:57
With you all the way on Autumn – Best season there is. Nothing better than a walk in the park through the fallen leaves, wrapped up in a huge woolly scarf, a chill in the air, condensation on the breath, the smell of a bonfire somewhere in the distance. I always have the urge to listen to nothing but this song when I’m walking too; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uQJ2uFhurM
September 10th, 2010 - 19:44
What a great song, never heard it before! The lolling rhythm and mid-tone dirty trumpetness of it all feels great. I can imagine walking along a forest path in the evening twilight watching all that summery nature getting ready to shut up shop for a few months. Getting stuff organised similarly feels wonderful, getting clutter out before the new year kicks in. Autumn feels like it’s nature having a tidy up after a good party and opening the windows to let some fresh air in, and it similarly refreshes the mind I think. A real catalyst for fresh ideas and new directions in life.
September 13th, 2010 - 13:33
Wonderful, isn’t it? Quite Scott Walker-ish. You know that feeling you get when you’re in a certain place and you suddenly hear the perfect song for that place? This song came on the Walkman* as I was walking around the Père Lachaise Cemetery one autumn afternoon in Paris. Quite a moment…
*Actually it might’ve been a Discman. Yes, I’m the one who bought it.
September 11th, 2010 - 07:26
I gave a bunch of pulp novels to Cancer Research. Go on, you know you want to.
September 13th, 2010 - 08:17
As someone who works in a CR-UK charity shop, and who ends up buying a lot of books from there, thank you !
September 12th, 2010 - 11:26
Ahhh… the book clearout! We did much the same thing after relocating to sunny Portsmouth and discovering that we had not one but TWO attics full of books (thank you inlaws for keeping everything).
Donated three boxes to an enthusiastic English student in Oxfam yesterday who’s just got her textbooks for the next three years off us, and one box to Marie Curie, who said they’d take it as I’d brought the box with me, but didn’t have room for anything else.
Just leaves us with six more boxes to go. Anyone want a selection of trashy airport novels, English and Music degree texts (annotated), Manga and pretentious literature?
September 12th, 2010 - 14:49
Noo! Never throw books out! Buy new bookshelves!
September 12th, 2010 - 19:52
I like this post, but at first I thought the bit about your bookshelf ‘one in, one out’ system was going to unfold into a metaphor for tabloid perspectives on immigration. I got quite excited and self-congratulatory thinking I’d understood where you were going so quickly. *sighs, continues to spring clean brain for a long year of postgrad study*
September 12th, 2010 - 20:26
Management has banned me from buying any more books until I get some more bookshelves. The trouble is that the “specification” of the bookshelves (European Oak to match the other display cabinets) will mean that they will cost more that the books, which generally come second hand from charity shops!
September 12th, 2010 - 20:33
You can do cheerful! What a lovely post.
September 13th, 2010 - 08:52
I’ve just done the book clear out myself due to impending baby arrival and consequent loss of study. It was a wrench but I agree entirely with you, gave them to charity & felt much better having reduced fear of book avalanche death. You’ve gone some way to cheering me up on a dreary September Monday morning. Right, let’s get back to the Mail…
September 13th, 2010 - 18:03
This weekend just gone was the annual ‘We Do Like To Be Beside The Sea’ festival in morecambe, and that, for me, is a pretty good marker for the end of summer/beginning of autumn. I love trees, so spring and autumn are also much cherished seasons.
Morecambe, however, is also home to one of the most chaotically run bookshops in the country. I say chaotic, but in actual fact, inside it’s a haven of peace and wonderment. The sixty-odd-thousand books have only been ‘loosely’ categorised and placed in unsignposted sections, on shelves in no particular order. In spite of this, the owner, Tony, is usually able to locate any book you’re after, so long as it’s in the shop – and he does know if he’s got a copy in stock or not! Just take a look at this PHOTO and you’ll get some sense of the place.