Vegas trip and now sick

 

I had a fun time in Vegas.  We saw some shows and did a little gambling.  Mostly my husband gambled and I fed a slot machine.  I met a lady from a book group I'm in and that was fun.  It's great to finally be able to meet someone.  It is harder to meet book friends since I live in Alaska and most people I talk to are from the lower 48.  We mostly just walked around and chatted.  

Now I am sick and just taking it easy for a while.  I hope this crud goes away quickly.  It's not real bad but my husband is sicker than I am.  I feel bad for him since he sounds miserable.  

I got a new laptop

One of my sons gave me a nice laptop.  It has barely been used so they reset it and gave it to me.  It's bigger and nicer than the one I had before.  He helped me get it set up too.  My other son helped me get the printer connected to it so I could print.  I'm lucky to have 2 son's that help me when I need it.  

In a few days I'll be heading to Vegas for a vacation.  It should be fun.  It will be nice to go somewhere warmer than here.  It's -7 F here right now.  It will be really nice there compared to here and we will be able to walk on the ground instead of slipping around on snow and ice.  

My computer is dying

My screen has been glitching a little across the top for a few weeks now.  Today it was the whole screen and it was hard to use it to do anything.  My dog did knock it off on the floor a few times when he started running around like crazy.  I know at least twice it hit the floor and one of those times it broke some plastic at one corner.  I wouldn't be surprised it something inside got jarred loose.  My son is going to open it up and see if he can fix it.  I sure hope so.  

Quote

No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or emotional appeal.

Marilyn Ferguson

Quote from Tuesdays with Morrie

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Mitch Albom

Organizing books

I've been going through my books and I have a small stack of books I know I will probably never read.  I'll just donate those.  That will give me more room on my shelves for books I definitely want to read.  I recently started reading more fantasy so I need room for those.  

I used google sheets to make a few charts to help me keep track of things.  The last 3 years, I think, I was following this blog called theunreadshelf.  She just closed it down but I learned some helpful things from her.  She always said to count your books and that it helps to go through them every year.  I didn't think it really mattered but when I actually did it I realized she was right.  It helped me to look at each one again and remember why I bought it.  Sometimes I just forgot all about a book I was dying to read when I bought it.  Going through them again and rereading the summaries helped to wake up that desire to read those books again.  It also helps you to find books that you really aren't into anymore.  Sometimes there are books that were gifts or books from people that didn't know what to do with them and so they gave them to me because I read books.  Like it doesn't matter what type of books.  They are not usually books in a genre I like.  I usually put them in with my books thinking I'll take a look at them later and then forget all about them.  The problem is, I have limited shelf space and I currently have more books than space.  

When I was looking at my books I decided the best way to organize them was by book type.  I have a shelf for mass market paperbacks (MMPB) with a section just for those new ones (MMPBN) that are taller and don't stack well with others.  I have separate shelves for hardcovers and trade paperbacks.  I have all of my books (and my husband's and my oldest son's) entered into my goodreads account.  I have tags set up to show who's library a book is in (which tells me which room the book is in) and then what type of book it is.  If it is my book, I see what type of book it is and know exactly where to look on the shelves.  They are, of course, in alphabetical order.  

I made a google sheets file to keep track of how many books I have for each type and then I will be able to compare those numbers in the following years.  During the last 3 years I have been counting my books, I have read and moved out a bunch of them but every year I kept finding books that didn't get counted.  Now I think I have them all and I'm determined to read as many as I can each year.  I'm not sure how this works exactly but I guess I can share the link to the file I made so it can be used as a template for anyone interested in doing the same.  This is a copy.  I also made a file to keep track of the books in and out for the year.  At the end of the year I want to have less books than I started with so I enter books out as a negative number and then books in as positive numbers.  Here is a copy of that google sheets file.  Those files are set up to do the totals for you.  

I'm almost finished going through my books for this year and I'm already happy with the way my shelves are looking with the space I freed up last year.  Last year I focused on reading hardcover books because they take up the most room and after taking out the books I decided I'll never read my shelves look much better.  

I hope everyone has a fantastic reading year.  

Donna