LJ Idol // Literary Prize Fight - Week 3 : Tsundoku

[megatronix]

Moving really tests your dedication to your things. As you slide a mattress atop a wheeled dolly, and shakily wobble it across a parking lot, and remember you needed to get the dresser in first, sometimes you just sigh, lean the mattress against the truck, and go get the dresser, half hoping someone just steals the goddamn thing so you never have to move it again. Bags and boxes and more bags of stuff gets tossed and donated.

But not the books.

“You’ve never even read that one,” he says accusingly.

“Exactly! I’m PLANNING to, though,” you say. Psssh. OBVIOUSLY, you don’t say.

“What about those?”

“Same!” you say, irked and appalled he could even insinuate your abandonment of these stories, these ideas.

“I don’t know if we have the room in the new place...” he trails off.

You contemplate ditching the arm chair. And the coffee table? That’d make space for new bookshelves, right? Maybe taller bookshelves is the answer...

Once settled, the still as yet unread books line the shelves, the familiar titles on their spines whispering homecoming welcomes as you slide them into place next to one another. Those that don’t quite fit go on top of the shelf in a stack.

The next week, your friend tells you about a book they just finished and how awesome it is. You put it on hold at the library. When you walk in to pick it up, another catches your eye. “Well, while I’m already here,” you say, and tuck it gently into your elbow, cradling it, like a small stray kitten that needs to come home with you for just a little while. It’s like it knows you’ll treat it with the utmost care and love, and of course you will. You take home a whole litter, in fact.

Will you read them? Not before the first time you press “renew all” on the library app. Maybe not before the second time, either, and possibly not before accruing thirty to eighty cents in late fees per volume. Maybe you won’t read some of them at all.

But they kept you company, these collections of thoughts, these amalgamations of dreams and ideas that someone else put forth. Someone out there in the world conceived a vision, sat in a chair and whittled away an entire story, an entire universe. The trees shed their skin in unity, and joined with the ideas to grow and birth whole new people, who exist simultaneously as wobbly black inky lines on a page, as well as corporeally breathing, living, speaking beings in the landscape of imagination. Just being near them feels like greatness.

Back into the library shelves and others’ hands they eventually go, for they have places to be, people to see. And love and care to spread. You’ll see them again, you’re sure, when the time is right, and whether or not you read one page, ten, four-hundred, or none at all, you know you’ll be happy to see them in stacks at your bedside, your couchside, and lining your shelves.

For what is a home with stacks upon stacks of books, but pure magic...



This has been an entry for LJ Idol, prompt: Tsundoku

Comments

[adoptedwriter]

Books indeed are magic.

[megatronix]

I couldn't agree more! :D

[murielle]

Yes! This is it! This is it exactly.

"When you walk in to pick it up, another catches your eye. “Well, while I’m already here,” you say, and tuck it gently into your elbow, cradling it, like a small stray kitten that needs to come home with you for just a little while. It’s like it knows you’ll treat it with the utmost care and love, and of course you will. You take home a whole litter, in fact."

Litters and litters!

Beautifully done! Brava!

[megatronix]

Thank you so much my dear! <3 :D

[static_abyss]

This entry is the equivalent of a cozy blanket. Your descriptions of books and the stories in them resonated with the reader and writer in me. Beautiful.

[megatronix]

Aw what a lovely compliment, thank you so much!!

[bsgsix]

This is lovely, and your descriptions are absolutely wonderful. :)

[megatronix]

Wow, I really appreciate that, thank you so much!

[sonreir]

This was familiar, especially the part about library books...

Books are the promise of extra time, I think. Stories and the time to read them.

This is great. :)

[megatronix]

Yes! I think you are so right about that. Thanks for this!

[tjoel2]

"For what is a home with stacks upon stacks of books, but pure magic"

Love this line!

[megatronix]

Aw yay thank you, I'm really glad!

[rayaso]

I also love "For what is a home with stacks upon stacks of books, but pure magic." I enjoyed your entry, especially the description of moving and needing to find homes for all your books in your new place.

[megatronix]

Thank you!! I'm so happy you enjoyed it!

[bleodswean]

*nods vigorously* Yep. But books are also FREAKING heavy. The times we've had to move, my family have just flipped out. When I was young, it was record albums! 10,000!

I finally tore out a bedroom and contracted to have it made into a library. SIGH!

Great work with this. Everything just moved at the exact right pace!

[megatronix]

Oh yes, they are SUPER heavy, it's true! That's amazing you had a library!!

One time when we moved, we gave away about half our books, and it was so hard!! Since then, I've been more possessive of them. When I was a kid, we had walls of books in our den, and it was AWESOME, I loved being in there. It was our most used room in the house. And then I inherited my brother's room when he went off to college, and he just left all his books, so I had floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with books in there too. It was amazing. I've always wanted that again, but we rent, and it's so hard to move with books. Maybe one day if we ever get ourselves a house, I can have a big ol' library again! For now, my medium-ish library brings me joy. :D

[halfshellvenus]

“Well, while I’m already here,” you say, and tuck it gently into your elbow, cradling it, like a small stray kitten that needs to come home with you for just a little while.
Hahahaha! That's so perfect, because that pretty much sums up the unspoken sub-feeling of what goes on in your mind while doing that. Collecting little pets to take them home and love them, as if they need a special spot in your beloved collection of potential enjoyment and entertainment.

The "renew all" function... I have far too much experience with that. ;)

[megatronix]

Haha, I love the "renew all" function too! It does make it a bit easier!

I'm glad you liked that line!! :D

[the_eternal_overthinker]

This is Awwwwesome! :) Very well written almost like poetry it flows through your mind and gives you such pleasure. I loved each bit of it and I think the second last paragraph is really my favorite. Well done indeed! Kudos! Marvelous work.

[megatronix]

Wow, thank you, truly, for such a positive review!! I'm really happy you liked it.

[alycewilson]

I can identify! Bigger bookshelves see definitely called for.

[megatronix]

Bigger bookshelves is the answer to all of life's worries. ;) Thanks for reading and commenting!

[bewize]

Really lovely entry. Loved the language you used to describe unread books.

[megatronix]

Thank you very, very much!

[nayanawrites]

You have beautifully brought out the essence of Tsundoku. When books are being written - I believe they must be read - criminal otherwise.

A very straightforward and beautiful take on the prompt.

[megatronix]

Thank you so much!

[kehlen.livejournal.com]

You captured the reason Tsundoku happens beautifully.

[megatronix]

Thanks!! :D

[fausts_dream]

A very vivid description.

[megatronix]

I appreciate this; thank you!