Slush

When I was between the Academy and Virginia Tech, I worked at the Barnes & Noble in South Burlington. Eventually I became the Lead Bookseller in charge of the Used Book Section (the store was one of 7 in the company that had such a section). Before that, though, I was just one of the general booksellers who worked the floor. One of the dullest jobs was after closing, from 2300 to about Midnight, slushing. Books that had been taken off the shelves by customers and left on coffee tables, dropped on the floor, or tucked away anywhere other than their proper place in the stacks is called slush. Slushing is picking them up and properly re-shelving them.

It is very boring work, but satisfying in the same way that cleaning your house can be. Mostly, it just made me mad at customers for mistreating the books so much.

I bring this up because I finally finished my own, personal slushing. I put it off for a long time, and then only worked on it intermittently. But my library is reorganized and reshelved, on the Library of Congress system no less. The updated catalog spreadsheet is in the Documents section of the Homepage (follow the link to the right, or just click here). Six hundred thirty-eight volumes - a good start.