dual personalities

Since I bought the new/old bookcase last weekend at the estate sale, I have been busily moving books around upstairs after work. This is a good thing to do once in awhile as you rediscover all sorts of books that you have forgotten you have.

I am also trying to improve the grouping of my books by subject, so at least theoretically they will be easier to find.

Also, I am freeing up room in the bookcases in my “office” so I can rearrange/organize things in there.

Clearly I have a ways to go. But this is fun, though tiring, work. In the evening I fall asleep watching one old movie or another and then go upstairs to read. Last night I was reading The Armada by Garrett Mattingly, and it was so exciting that when I turned out the light at 10:45 I couldn’t go to asleep!

…The prince of Condé was unhorsed and his successful opponent, after a look, no doubt, at the field, dismounted and presented his gauntlet to the discomfited prince in token of surrender. The king of Navarre, having pistoled one adversary and taken a sharp rap on the head with a lance butt from another, recognized the seigneur de Chasteau Renard, the standard bearer of the enemy troop he had smashed and, seizing his old companion round the waist, crowed joyfully, “Yield thyself, Philistine.”

In another part of the field, the duke of Joyeuse was cut off by a clump of horsemen as he tried to escape. He flung down his sword and called out, “My ransom is a hundred thousand crowns.” One of his captors put a bullet through his head. For the commander who had ordered Huguenot wounded killed on the field, who had hanged prisoners by the hundreds and butchered garrisons who had surrendered relying on the laws of honest war, there was not much chance of quarter…

I love it when the good guys win.

Well, I am a big history nerd. But escaping to the sixteenth century when things were hard indeed  is not a bad thing.

My DP, who you know is also on an organization kick, sent me a box with some old stuff of mine she found in her attic clean up (and some baby clothes for the wee laddie that belonged to his pater.) She included a college exam of mine (how drole!) so you can see my interests haven’t changed all that much…

Zut alors!  Anyway, onward and upward. Happy Thursday!

*Emily Dickinson