A spring cleaning ritual.

I’m doing spring cleaning. In the attic. Above the garage. Getting rid of non-fiction books. No reason to keep ‘em. Many are out of date. But I’m saving the novels. And trying to get them organized. On shelves. Rather than in stacks. Must be 1,000 novels that I’ve collected. Many unread. But I have good intentions. To read ‘em all. Although I know that will never happen. I’d have to live well into my hundreds. But that ain’t a bad idea. I have lots and lots of books. Because I’m a collector. But my collection isn’t as massive as the one accumulated by the late Norman Mailer. The writer. His home in Lower Manhatten is for sale. And I’ve seen pictures. Books galore. All over the place. Mostly on shelves. But stacks under tables, too. I assume Mailer never read all of those books. But he must have liked being surrounded by books. I wonder if he had someone come in. To dust the books. Indeed, an appropriate spring cleaning ritual. –Jim Broede