Searching for a Book

I have a fairly large pile of books I haven’t yet read.  Most are gathered together on a shelf, hanging out, laughing, ribbing each other, hoping to be the next pulled out.

Some have been there a long time.  Veterans, you might say.

Some have been waiting to be read for so long, they never made it to that shelf.  They’re in boxes, which were catolgued some 4+ years ago before my overseas travels.  Since returning to the US, some of those boxes (which containt about 1,000 books, many of which I’ve read and a lot of which are reference of some sort) managed to be unpacked, and some rearranged.  Some of the books are gone now (making room).

Some, however, are still in boxes.

Last night, I decided to start reading a particular book, which I know is in my library, but I also know is not out on the shelves.  It’s been waiting a long, long time.  I’ve read other, more recent books by the same author, and it was time to go back to this one.  I have over a dozen boxes still unpacked, so I checked my spreadsheet and determined I needed Box 38.

I found Box 35.  And 14.  And even 39.  No sign of 38.

I checked some of the other titles in 38, and saw that a few of the reference books were on my reference shelves, and a few others I had seen during the most recent move.  Translation: Box 38 had been broken up and, quite randomly, redistributed.  To find a particular book from that book, I had to open any (and possibly every) box remaining, regardless of the number.

Which I did.

In the fifth box, I found the book I sought.  I hope (and have reason to believe) it may reach that list of Recent Good Reads on the side of this page.