Two weeks ago, I went and had my glasses redone – with old age, my eyesight is shifting, and I needed a new pair (or a well-trained dog); the old glasses were also damaged, the lenses scratched and whatnot.
Now, for some demented reason, glasses in Italy are considered cosmetics for tax purposes – which means they are usually pretty expensive, and you can get only the 29% of what you paid covered by the national health service. So I budgeted about 200 euro for my new glasses. And as much again for my brother – because he was getting his glasses redone too.
Harsh, but eyesight – and health in general – is not something on which you want to be a cheapskate.
But, cheapskates we were after all, and thanks to a friend’s suggestion, we ended up in a friendly shop, ran by a franchise, where my brother got his glasses for 60 euro, and I landed mine for free as part of a special 1+1 offer.
The world is not as bleak (or as expensive) as we sometimes believe. Cause for celebration.
And having tackled one problem, I decided to invest part of the money saved to solve another problem – to wit, the fact that I am besieged by chairs loaded in books.
We learned a friend of ours was doing a quick run to the nearest IKEA, and we asked him to get us one of those heavy-duty, one-size-fits-all book-cases called Billy.
Admittedly, the most basic of all basic pieces of furniture, but what the heck, it does its job.

So we spent the hottest hours of the hottest day in the hottest year (so far) to assemble the thing, we paid the traditional thimble of blood the gods of DIY exact in these circumstances, and then I dug into the piles of books scattered around my work station, and started dividing the books into different groups – the strays that need to go back on their original shelf, the new books that need to be parked in the new book-case, and the miscellanea.

Finally, after seven years paying my bills by writing, I will have a full bookshelf to hold all the books and magazines carrying my stories or articles, plus my novels. And I must admit it’s a nice view – a pity almost all of my Italian books are missing, as most of my publishers did not think it proper to mail me a complimentary copy of the anthologies I contributed to, and the two novels I published here.
Oh, bummer.

Dismantling the stacks of books accumulated through the years also led to the creation of three boxes

a . a box with the extra copies of my own works (because authors often get multiple copies of their books)

b . a box with the out-of-the-blue volumes that authors sometimes receive from colleagues, or publishers, the “I would love to know what you think of this book” sort of thing.

c . a box of notebooks, mostly untouched, bought in bulk in local stores and supermarket, and then set aside because they were too good to be spoiled with writing or sketches, or because, really, I have lost the stamina to write more than half a page with my pen.

My current plans are to find something to do with the contents of boxes a and b (giveaways? swaps? something else? I am open to suggestions), and maybe start using the contents of box c.
I am also finally setting up a full shelf for my collection of Arabian Nights editions and associated texts.
It’s going to be a nice way to spend the hottest hours in the next few days.