11.07.2009

#699

Holy Christ, I hurt. My joints, the places I'm supposed to have muscles, my brain. All of me.

For the last few weeks, or even months... who knows how long, I've been lamenting the size of my comic book collection. It's never really bothered me before, but with the prospect of selling the house and moving (not to mention things like having to move the collection when we have the floors redone), I've been overwhelmed with how many books I actually have. And the thought that I will never read a vast majority of the books I'm storing all over my house again really got me thinking. I need to downsize my collection in a big way. I've been asking friends for advice on what to do, how to do it, what they do. I've gotten a lot of really good feedback and some great ideas. My plan was going to be to take the week of Thanksgiving off from work and focus on the comics. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to take that week off as planned. My personal days at work expire on the last day of November and I usually have enough to cash in that week. And this year is no different, except I'm using most of them the week before when I have the wisdom teeth removed. So there goes that plan.

Today, I thought I'd get a jump start by going through the boxes I have stored in the bedroom. I was still motivated, so next I attacked the books in the guest room. And still with some motivation, I tackled the rest of my collection. I have 33 long boxes full of books. I think each box holds between 200 and 250 books, just to give you an idea of how many books I've amassed over the years. I've gotten rid of books here and there over the years, but never on the scale that I'm trying to now. My goal was to weed out enough books to get me down to 20 long boxes. It's just a first step, but an ambitious one. And I almost did it. I've condensed my books down to 21 long boxes. Not too bad. I know I'm keeping a lot of stuff I really should get rid of, but there's always time to do that later.


Right now I'm in the process of cataloging the books I want to get rid of. I've got three boxes done and nine more to go. But I'm so over it right now. So over it. It wouldn't be so bad if Ollie didn't decide to be so far up my ass that he could see out of my mouth. All day. Either in a box of comics I'm sorting, or on my lap while I'm trying to move things, or laying on top of a stack of boxes, or in the closet when I'm trying to put boxes away. You name it, he's been there, in the way. I feel really bad because I've been yelling at him all night now.


I don't know if I'll do any more cataloging tomorrow. I'm really getting sick of looking at all this stuff. Wednesday might be a good day to pick up the project. Work is closed and I can devote the whole day to it.

All I know is I hurt now and I'm going to hurt even more tomorrow.

6 comments:

Joe in Philly said...

I thought I had a lot of comics. You have many, many, many, many more comics than the amount in my meager collection. ;-) How do you plan to get rid of those you're sorting out?

Breenlantern said...

OK, this post is better than porn...I'm calling dibs on first shot at buying the books you're getting rid of...and you know I offered like a thousand times to help you sort and catalog, you big whiny baby so suck it up and deal if you're going to insist on doing it yourself. Also, long boxes hold about 500 comics...it's the small boxes that hold 250, so you need to double your estimate buddy. Good start, though. Now get those lists complete and get them to me pronto...I've got a lot of shopping to do. FYI: I am SO jealous...I just now hit only 5,252 total comics in my collection ... although at 500 a box, that would put me at about 10.5 long boxes, (or 20 short boxes, as you know I use the short box drawer system.)

(F)redddy said...

Perhaps you and Sean could come here and help Jed organize his (and downsize) when you're done with yours???

Mutty said...

Damn the Atlantic Ocean.

Melanie said...

Good Lord, pumpkin -- have Ken rub you and pour you something alcoholic, already!

Walt said...

Joe - I'm giving Sean first dibs on the books and then I think I'm going to try Craig's List.

Sean - You get first dibs. I hope there's some stuff in there you're going to want.

Dyl - Atlantic Ocean be damned! But if you want to pop over, they're yours.

Freddy - I'd be lying if I said I haven't had dreams about organizing Jed's collection. I've actually had two dreams where I've come back to your house and went to organizing. It drove me a little nuts when I was there that his books (at least the trades) aren't in any specific order.

Mel - come rub my feet.