Paksworld

Feeling like the luckiest writer EVER…my used, older, OED has been wrapped in bubble wrap and will be shipped on its way to me on Monday.   I can sense already the storm of words, the OCEAN of words that is about to flow into my mind.   I remember the feeling from the day–after I’d learned to use her old college dictionary–the she introduced me to the largest book in the house: the unabridged dictionary that came with the 1950 Britannica.  And I was allowed to use it on the floor (I couldn’t lift it yet)  and start discovering its abundance.  My mother believed in children learning lots of words, and their meanings, and expected me to be able to give the dictionary meaning of any “big” words I used.   Our dictionary was as big as the biggest on our high school, for ordinary words (there was a Dictionary of Science and Technology added in about 1961, I think.   There was an Encylopedia of Science and Technology, also new, but one volume disappeared into the Librarian’s “Not without me watching you” special hidey-hole.  By rumor (I never saw it) there was a drawing of (gasp!!!) a penis.    I thought the restriction was stupid; I’d been raised with art books showing unredacted gods, goddessed, athletes, etc.  and had (being a girl) learned how to change diapers.  Saying to the HS Librarian “It’s just a penis” would’ve gotten me banned from the library altogether so I didn’t.

Meanwhile, the office cleanup has restored unto me access to the Gilbert Murray translations of Greek dramas, and the rest of the treasures (to me) in that corner.   A lot of my ancient history sources are there, many of them picked up in used bookstores (esp. Kendrick’s, that used to be in the Village west of Rice;  as in HS I preferred books to food at times.  Multiple translations of some famous works, only one of others…I had my preferences, having read different ones in class and in the library.  One shelf (a raw board when I bought it) has curved up at the end, making the Roman sources unhappy on that end and crowding the books in the curved part.  It’s mostly paperback (not mass-market–the variably sized “trade paperbacks” sold in the college bookstores.)   I read through the Greek poetry book a few days ago, picking out favorites.  Have to watch it, though, because Paksworld was not given the same kind of cultural background that Europe got…it was intentionally stirred together from a different mix, just to see if I could, while avoiding (as much as possible) really *obvious* steals from specific cultures that might object.   I will be diving back into some of the older stuff–I used to have a rotation of foundation books that I re-read in a steady round, with the new things riding on top, but that fell apart as home-schooling Michael and writing a book a year took over every available minute.   I meant to get back to it, but like many well-laid plans, Stuff Happened.

Churning of the books is about to start getting serious,  as I found a home for my 11th edition Britannica (pre-WWI…!  Amazing old photographs, drawings, maps.  And words…names of places that now have new names.)  I used it a lot at one time, but haven’t lately.   It’s going to someone (two someones) who want it, will use it, appreciate it.  I want to find *future* (not immediate) homes for books I’m still reading fairly regularly but that should not just be dumped in a trashpile.   There are some discardable books that *could* go in a trashpile in every room, that can be set out in a library sale or (if damaged enough, like the one old pb I picked up that immediately shed its pages like a tree in late autumn), so the aggregate space available for (of course) new books may reach 20 linear feet.  Wouldn’t THAT be fun?  Yes, it would.   Will I discard all the lightweights, all the “trashy” ones?  No.  There are awful 3 am times when only a solid gulp of strong medicine will hold the mind together and allow sleep.