Confessions Of A Book Hoarder!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         Do you see this photo, darlings??????????  That is how the floor of my living
room in my apartment looked yesterday afternoon.  And while things have improved, you can be
sure I have come to a realization I never had before.  I may be an omnivorous reader, but, sadly
to say, I am a book hoarder.

                           I have more books in my apartment than I will ever read again, and those I have which have not been read, I am not sure I can get to in my remaining time on this Earth.  But I have always been
pathologically afraid of being in a position of not having a book to read.  It has happened to me a couple of times on the subway, where, I am riding to and from work, reading, finish the book, and then discover I have forgotten to pack another.  Thus begins the longest subway ride in my travels; what is generally some down time becomes excruciating.

                           My fear, which, of course, is highly irrational, comes, I think from that Twilight Zone episode, starring Burgess Meredith.  He plays a mild mannered bank clerk, with a demanding job, and, it is implied, if I recall, a domineering wife.  On lunch hours and breaks, he goes into the vault below to read in peaceful contemplation--every reader's dream.  Apparently, something happens, the ground below shakes, and when he emerges, alive, he discovers a world decimated by some kind of nuclear holocaust.  But--there are all these books lying around, and, now, free of earthly obligations, he has all the time in the world to read. But, alas, this is Rod Serling, and in a cruel twist of fate, his glasses fall and smash.  Now he has all the reading time he wanted, but no way to see the print on the page.

                            This is the nightmare of every true reader, which is why I am sure Serling crated it. I have never forgotten it; having seen it once, I could never see it again.

                               Which brings me to my current situation.  Monsieur and I are moving; soon we will be ensconced in the wilds of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where I lived so innocently from 1983, till 1997.  I am going back older and wiser, to a nicer area and building, and I pray fervently to God that he blesses us there.

                                  But, in order to make due, I had to get rid of 15 years of books in my apartment, and what an arduous task.  Talk about one's body being pain wracked!  And the emotional pain!  But, so help me, once we settle in, I am making a vow here and now to limit my book intake; that is, I don't intend to let up on reading, but I intend to limit what books I actually keep. My God, darlings, I am actually contemplating getting a Kindle.  It hasn't happened yet, girls, and if it does, so help me, I will report it here.
But as a new chapter begins for Monsieur and yours truly, The Raving Queen, there will have to be some changes made, as the Forties song, once said.

                                       So begins my Battle To Keep Books At Bay!!!!!!!!!  But I still will not allow trash on my shelves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!