Monday 4 May 2009

I shifted books

and then I shifted more books - and more books. Do I really need three German dictionaries? There is the big one, the little one I can take with me, and the technical one....yes, I need three. Do I need the old Swahili one? It has notes scribbled throughout it. Then there is Irish dictionary - but I used that to provide an Irish speaking grandfather with his communication board and he told me that unrepeatable joke. I may need it again one day. I have never used the Scots Gaelic dictionaries (2 volumes) for writing a communication board but it is the tongue of my ancestors and I should know something about it.
I have Danish, Dutch, Russian, French, Chinese, Turkish, Xhosa and a few others. I shifted them.
Grammar, linguistics, atlases, history, more reference and then Leonardo's notebooks - still trying to find the time to read more of that - gardening reference (Dad), cookbooks - mmm might be able to give away the cake books my mother collected and never used....
Then there are other books. There are the joke books (Dad) and the riddle books we both keep for irritating the other children in our lives.
There are technical books - mostly woodwork and knitting - and the books on names I need as a reference because it is nice to know if you are talking to a male or a female although, even with the books, it is not always clear.
I gave up on books when the shelves were clear and moved everything else I could move out of the way. Then I gave up altogether. We had pumpkin soup and toast and watched the last episode of Michael Wood's "The Story of India". It was a different sort of history. The British do not cover themselves in glory (Australians don't either) but then Nehru and Gandhi don't either for all their 'non-violence' stance they were really keen on power for themselves.

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