Stories & Shout Outs #70

~ This Reading Life
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What’s On My Mind:

Boxes, cupboards and storage.

I know I’ve been talking about moving house on here for quite some time as a possibility, one day in the future. But that day is now here. At the end of April we are moving to our home in the Blue Mountains. The ad hoc, haphazzard decluttering/downsizing process has escalated to the point where it now dominates our every waking hour and even makes its way into some of my dreams (nightmares)!

Even after a very concerted cull of my TBR piles, there is a ridiculous amount of book boxes stacked and labelled ready to relocate. We do plan on having a built-in bookshelf made for the room that will become our home office/library, but still, I will need to retire today and read steadily every single day for what is rest of my life to get through the stacks.

Things we thought we couldn’t do without a few months ago, suddenly have become obsolete at the thought of packing them up and moving them. Every week since returning from our Taste of Tassie tour, we have been heading up to the house with another carload of stuff. I also find that as I unpack some items I realise they do not belong in our new home. Hopefully these combined processes will enable us to fit in comfortably, surrounded by the stuff that makes us happy (do I dare say, sparks joy?) without feeling cluttered.

Realistically though, I suspect we will be hiring a storage unit for a period of time to deal with the overflow.

What I’m Reading:

  • A Love Story | Émile Zola
  • Deep Water | James Bradley (non-fiction)
  • Real Estate | Deborah Levy (my backpack book)
  • Tipping the Velvet | Sarah Waters (my lunchtime read at work)
  • Homage to Catalonia | George Orwell
  • Eileen:The Making of George Orwell | Sylvia Topp
  • The American Fiancée | Éric Dupont (determined to finish it this month!)
  • Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity | Peter Attia (the bathroom book)
  • Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath | Heather Clark (this book is going to take forever!)

What I’m Listening To:

  • The Dylan Thomas BBC Radio Collection | introduced by Matthew Rhys

Read But Not Reviewed (Yet):

  • All of Orwell | Clive James (essay)
  • Quite Early One Morning (1945) | Dylan Thomas (read by Thomas himself)

New to the Pile:

Book Group Reads Coming Up:

  • April – Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens | Shankari Chandran
  • May – Horse | Geraldine Brooks

This Blogging Life:

I’m still tidying up old posts as I have time – consolidating tags, fixing odd formatting and link all the book reviews to the index. You may get the occasional weird pingback from a five year old post as I update them!

Shout Outs:

  • Zoladdiction 2024 (April) with Fanda is on once again. I am reading book eight in the Rougon-Macquart series, Une Page d’amour (1878)  A Love Story.
  • For the 1937 Club (15 – 21 April 2024) with Simon and Kaggsy I plan to read an Orwell essay, Spilling the Spanish Beans. Two essays have also been pulled from The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) which feature in a number of Orwell collections. If I have time, I may also read and review Down the Mine and North and South as well.

Until next time, stay safe and happy reading!

This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life recognises the continuous connection to Country, community and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They are the traditional custodians of the lands, seas, and skies on which we live and they are this nations first storytellers.

Published by This Reading Life

21 thoughts on “Stories & Shout Outs #70”

  1. You are experiencing all the things we did including getting a storage unit and finding thinks not fitting our new home. Including two gorgeous very heavy jarrah bookcases we’d had in three previous homes (one just 6 months interim between a sale and purchase) I had a place for them but when we got them there they were just too heavy and imposing. Costly to move twice but them’s the breaks!

    Another thing you are finding is when it comes to packing time you suddenly feel you don’t need some things after all! I have had odd moments of regret but they’ve been theoretical as so far I feel all the decisions have been right. There’s still that storage unit! As time passes we might find it easier to part with more of that!

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    1. We have now realised that we will run our of time to get rid of all the stuff we want to get rid of properly/ethically, so a storage unit is essential to hold this stuff for a time. We have a council clean up booked, but only want to use it for the broken/really shabby stuff.

      Thank you for your encouragement it was timely; this weekend was one of those slightly discouraging ones and I’m very happy to be heading off to work this morning to not think about it all for 8 hrs!

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  2. My storage unit is down to some stuff of the kids’, which I really should send to them to deal with. (Plus 15 boxes of dad’s books under the spare bed). I did put some furniture in my younger daughter’s huge farm shed but she’s decided to use it, so that doesn’t count.

    Good luck with moving car load by car load. I’ve always moved that way myself, though I suppose you’ll get a furniture van at the end. I know I will if I move again.

    WG, that’s the trouble with jarrah, it’s so imposing.

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    1. Hearing about your dad’s 15 book boxes made me feel a little better about my 30 book boxes!

      We have a removalist booked for the big stuff, but every time we go up (once or twice a week) we take another car load to hopefully make moving day less stressful. We still have a few boxes of stuff that belongs to one of the boys, but he’s living in a small one bedroom apartment, so we will hold it for as long as he needs us to.

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    1. We love the Blue Mountains, not only for the open spaces and trees and fresh air, but it’s our romantic home as well. When Mr Books and I got back together nearly 20 yrs ago, I was living in Mudgee and he was in Sydney. We spent the first three years often meeting in the middle in the mountains. It then became the logical place for us to have our wedding 15 yrs ago ❤

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