by Kelly Pickerill
Moving is painful whether you’re moving across town or across the world. I recently moved across the neighborhood, which can be the worst sort, I think, because you’re fooled into thinking you don’t have to do much preparation, just run your car back and forth a few times right? Well if you’re not organized those “few times” turn into what feels like a few hundred.
One great thing about moving for a reader, though, is that you have the opportunity to get to know your books again. Those that have been gathering dust at the back of an overflowing bookshelf are brought again to your attention, and you are reminded of what you loved so much about them. These are a few I’m (re)reading:
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I read a few chapters of this classic of anthropological mythology when I first bought it several years ago, and looking at it again, I’m coming across the margin notes and underlines I mulled over then, fresh(er) out of college with an interest in comparative literature and religion.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I first read this beat up paperback for a class in literary theory in college. That semester ended up being too much for me, so I withdrew from the class to take it again a year later. I may have dropped it, though, just so I’d have to read the book again. One of my favorite books of all time, it too has lots of dog ears and underlines and notes from twice poring over it already. When I came to Mississippi from Florida two years ago, I didn’t bring all my books, leaving some in boxes with my family — ones I’d read or that were for school — but though I’d read it twice, One Hundred Years came with me to Mississippi because I knew I’d likely want to read it again.
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey. Recently longlisted for the Booker prize, I’ve had a copy for months now, and now that I’ve “found” it I’m going to get started on it right away. That, along with Eric Metaxas’s biography Bonhoeffer, are what I’m reading now. Bonhoeffer’s biography is flying off the shelves at Lemuria, and so far it’s thoroughly readable 
and fascinating. I’m not too familiar with Bonhoeffer’s life, other than knowing that he was executed towards the end of WW2 for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. I’m glad to find out more, and will have to keep an eye out for the theologian’s books as I unpack; I know I have a copy of the Cost of Discipleship in one of my boxes.
During the move, I read One Day, the charming British sensation by David Nicholls, which Quinn blogged about weeks ago. After long days of work followed by the physical labor of moving and cleaning, it was nice to fall asleep with Em and Dex. As I continue to unpack and organize and likely acquire several more bookcases, I know I’ll come across more books I’m thrilled to be reminded I own.
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