... Part 1.

It started last weekend when I resolved to finally catch up with a few overdue tasks, which -- go figure -- suddenly also restored at least a semblance of order to my office.  (A colleague with whom I'm working very closely, and who is just about the only person permitted to get away with this sort of comment, had recently -- before "social distancing", of course -- wondered aloud, "What happened here?  This used to be an office once ...")

Part of the decluttering of my office involved finally inventing shelf space for all of last (and this) year's, as-yet unshelved books, a large number of which had taken residence stacked up on my office floor -- which in turn, eventually, also went a fair way towards decluttering my living room, where yet-to-be-shelved books had started taking up more and more space in the same manner.  In furtherance of their shelving, a while back I had decided to finally tumble to creating a TBR cart: something I'd so far resisted, because there's no place in my home where it can have a permanent space, so whenever it's not actively being consulted, it will have to live wherever it is least in the way at any given time.  But as a temporary expedient, and to whittle things down to a selection of those books I really do want to get to sooner rather than later, it may end up serving very well ... and at least, we're off to an excellent start in that very direction.

As per usual, "decluttering" actually started with yet more clutter, when I piled up all my stacks of unshelved books on my living room floor to then sort them by "audiobook / print edition", "read / TBR", genre, etc., in preparation of actually shelving them.

(For the record, this is obviously NOT the way these books had been stored up to then.  In fact, this is a sight so horrible to my eyes that it's the fastest and best motivator to get me to find proper shelving for my as-yet unshelved books as quickly as possible.)

I decided that in an effort to further prioritize my selection, I would stack my new TBR cart with:

* A few "comfort watching" DVDs;

* Audiobooks yet to be listened to (regardless whether I've already read the books in question or not); and

* Print editions of TBR books that I do not also have as audobooks.  Mostly these are books newly acquired in 2019 / early 2020, but I ended up going back to my shelves and pulling a few books from there as well.

And hooray, this way I actually managed to find / create shelf space for all those books not going into the TBR cart, and to stack my cart with a selection of books I'm truly looking forward to reading soon!

Now onwards and upwards to the rest of my apartment ... (ah, the things that social distancing makes us do at last!)

One of the results of this week's Big Decluttering Project was that rearranging my Golden Age mystery shelves finally allowed me to put up my Margaret Millar omnibus volumes in the upright position and right next to each other.  And look what I found!  I love it when that happens ...

Hi everyone,

Hope that you are doing well! I'm about to enter the second week of serious social distancing, and suddenly it is rather lonely living alone abroad. I'm just so glad this is the time where we can stay in contact with other people via virtual means, or else I think I would have gone mad at this point (and I went two work for two mornings).

I just came across this extra Read-a-thon and while I think there will be more in the coming weeks, it was too good not to join. Although I think I will just keep posting updates after the weekend for the duration of the social distancing (here in Belgium it's currently until April 5th, but they are already saying it will probably be longer).

So yes, let's read.

What I already finished this weekend: (watch out for the reviews)

Ooronoko - Aphra Beth **

The Little Book of Shakespeare ***

Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.

Deuce Winters is a stay-at-home dad who inadvertently solved a mystery with the help of a private investigator (see book 1 Stay At Home Dead). Now, it seems he needs the annoying PI again for a case of the missing King of Soccer and $73K of youth soccer association fees. The more Deuce digs the more complicated things get, but he feels he needs to find Moises Huber and the money for the kids’ sakes.

Humorous and twisty this mystery kept me guessing until the end. Lots of colorful characters and amusing situations, but Deuce’s daughter, Carly, takes the spotlight. Adorable! If you like small town stories with humor and a decent mystery then don’t pass up this book or book 1. You won't be sorry!

Hi Booklikes friends

When my daughter got married she had a destination wedding and I had four cats at home, one of which had to be sedated just to go to the vet so there was no way she could be boarded for a week … I’m sure she would have had seizures had she known we were even thinking about it.  Of course, anyone who I might have trusted to look after my kitties was coming away with us for the wedding.  What to do?  I hired a lovely lady, “The Cat Lady” (since retired), who came in once a day to look after my kitties and bring in the mail, etc.  I came home to happy, healthy and well-fed cats.  At that time I was a bit envious of her job … seemed like a great way to make a living.  So I’m going to give it a try while I have the safety net of unemployment insurance.

My youngest daughter, who works in PR has helped me a lot and advised me to set up an on line presence.  I have made a Facebook page called, of course, Stay At Home Kitty.  This weekend I am participating in a local trade show and offering three gift baskets for a draw – and wouldn’t you know it (wink, wink) some items I purchased did not make it into the baskets – so, I’m offering them as a giveaway on my FB page.

This weekend, all you have to do is "like" the page and leave a comment on my Saturday post for the chance to win one of five prizes … all of them cat related and some of them books.  It would be great to have a few more “followers” for this “on line presence” my daughter recommended.  Sooooo????  If you are on FB and want to meander over to Stay at Home Kitty this weekend to paw the like button and leave a comment it would be greatly appreciated and you might just win a prize.