Lately I've been thinking about a few things, including the purposes (plural) of blogging. I use my blog as a scrapbook, and a place to write essays, and a place to talk about my garden, and to post nature photos, and to document my kids' learning, and also as a little piece of community. I use it to post cute pictures that Grandma will like, and I also use it to provide information that I think homeschooling mothers like me will be interested in. I use it for fun -- the occasional meme and quiz -- and I use it to help me sort out my thoughts. I think this jumble of purposes and subjects might lose me some readers, but... am I really blogging to gain readers? Or is my blog more like a home, a sort of collage representing all the people who live here?
In spite of the fact that my writerly nature likes to gain readers, I lean toward collage. And that means that sometimes I'm going to use the blog for its usefullness (in documenting the kids' projects, say) and sometimes I'm going to use it for its fun value. Hopefully the fun value will sometimes also be interesting or useful to someone else, but I suppose that it really doesn't have to be. But I think there's a sort of fundamental tension there, when you happen to write a blog both for yourself AND for others, especially when there is also laundry and meals and the needs of children to think of. Sometimes it sets up a kind of tug-of-war in my brain.
See, this weekend I started thinking about books. And I started thinking that although we are constantly reading around here, I never seem to get around to talking (much) about the books themselves. And I thought, gee, it might be fun to give you all a tour of our bookshelves, the way Lissa and Kathryn and Meredith are doing. But then I walked down the hallway to look at the bookcases which are stuffed to the gills with the "grown-up" books, and... wow, what a mess. I've just been stuffing new books into the shelves in any available nook or cranny (or, really, even the unavailable ones) and it is past time to get a new bookcase... or purge the books. So... with a deep, fortifying breath... I set about purging books. And as I did so, I thought, what is the use of writing about all these books, really? There are a lot of books! Can I justify taking the time to write about them? I don't have time to write in the first place!
Well, that was what I thought in between thinking things like, Oh, that's where that went! and I forgot I had this book!
Anyway, I eventually came to the conclusion that blogging books is, at its root, just taking part in a good conversation. It's like sitting around a table talking about books, which are my favorite sorts of conversations. I can't pretend that I'm going to show you a bunch of books that you don't own, because, frankly, I get a lot of my ideas for what to read, adult and child, from your blogs. We have a really pathetic public library, so we end up buying most of our books... but Borders is far away, and we can't all fit in the used bookstore in town at the same time. So, for better or for worse, most of the books we read come from Amazon, which I hardly ever browse the way I would in a library or brick and mortar store; I go there looking for a specific thing, and maybe I click hither and yon and end up with something weird, but -- still different.
Now, giving you a tour of my books is a big job. We have more books than many, not as many as some. But a lot of books, in any case. There are books, literally, in every room (and outbuilding and vehicle). Like the other homeschooling mom bloggers who started this conversation, I'm going to have to go slowly -- one shelf at a time, given to you here and there. But if you're still with me in this long and rambly post, let me give you a view of the terrain upon which we are about to embark.
Real, undoctored photo of bookcase with upside down atlas and floor in need of sweeping.
Entryway: 1 small three shelf bookcase holding reference books.
"Pantry": seasonal cookbooks
Living room: 3 6ft. bookcases holding children's books in bins; 2 built-in units holding science reference books, home education books, and coloring books; 1 small three shelf unit holding children's faith and geography books, also in bins.
Family room: (attached to the living room) book display unit, 2 baskets of themed children's books
Kitchen: cookbooks on top of cabinets, island... am just about to order an 84 x 30 inch unit (!I found one!) so I can actually use my cookbooks, and for gardening/farming books
Dining room: 2 small shelves of art books
Closet in hallway: 4 plastic drawer units + assorted bins and stacks of rotated picture books
Master Bedroom: 2 file crates for home schooling books; books piled on nightstands; cardboard box of Andy's books that has no real home
Little boys' room: 3 shelf unit which routinely drives me insane; Rubbermaid tub of rotated board books on shelf in closet.
Long hallway (which serves as a playroom): 3 big bookcases, not quite floor to ceiling, lining hallway. (The previous owners took a closet out of a bedroom and turned the space into an alcove in the hallway to try and make the loong hallway less claustrophobic. It's a perfect place for bookcases, but now Gareth's room has no closet.)
Gareth's room: 2 bookcases, one floor to ceiling, but not entirely full of books
Katydid's room: many bins, 1 small built-in shelf, one small unit in closet, and a few hundred books scattered all over the floor.
Basement: curriculum not in use, cookbooks I have no space for up here, woodworking, gardening, and homestead books on shelves in "workshop" area.
Now, to decide where to start... any requests?
That's a lot of books! I see on your sidebar The Nature Corner. I just checked that out and plan on doing some projects in it soon.
Posted by: Candice Hopper-Owrey | January 08, 2009 at 10:32 PM
Just wanted to let you know...your reader's like the collage of blog entries. This is my first every comment (I promised myself I would stay in the wings...otherwise end up in the computer time-warp), but I've been following yours for about a year (linked to it through Dawn's Son&Candlelight and the whole file crate fiasco - which I am also still trying to get right). I find I read some blogs for inspiration (like Dawn's)and some for information and some for a good dose of "Thank God someone else is goind through that too!" (I have 4 under 7 with one on the way). But yours I read for all of the above. I always find great information and inspiration with a healthy dose of this is how messy life gets despite wanting it all. Your ideals and lifetstyle are closely matched to mine and that, and your realism, is what continually draws me back to check on you week in and week out. Thank you for being a collage that fits many of your reader's collective needs!
Posted by: Amy Payson | January 08, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Im with you on the collage style of blogging. Thats exactly what I do.
I love this peek into your bookshelves. Goodness you do have a lot of books! I purge things to often to accumulate much. I could about kick myself because in my purging a year ago I got rid of Understood Betsy that I had from a child. Whatever got into me? My cleaning addiction is not always a good thing!
Posted by: mrs darling | January 09, 2009 at 12:30 AM