Nebby's Bookshelves

Nebby looked around her room. It was immaculate, as usual, but she was feeling fussy and couldn’t shake the feeling that she should be DOING something. Cleaning was her usual go-to, but after searching futilely for even a speck of dust, she resolved herself to decluttering and reorganizing. Specifically, she targeted her bookshelves. She hadn’t weeded through them in quite some time, and while they were presently arranged alphabetically by author, she wondered if she would prefer them sorted by genre. As she tied her long hair back out of her face, she briefly toyed with the idea of organizing the books by color, but realized quickly that that would put some of her favorite series out of order. Dropping that idea, she began pulling books from the shelves.

Slowly, Nebby removed books, setting them in careful stacks on her desk based on genre. Any type of fantasy novel was her favorite, but she particularly preferred anything with fantastic beasts and a complex magic system. A book that came with a map and a fictional language was automatically top tier; she loved feeling completely immersed in their worlds. A bit of political intrigue could be engaging in the right setting, but most of the time she couldn’t be bothered to keep track of the archduke’s niece and her varying suitors and the way their arranged marriages could benefit a family that hoped to someday rule the country. With this in mind, she set half a dozen books on her bed, mentally marking it as a pile of “might donate”.

Frowning, she leafed through a few science fiction novels that she hadn’t gotten around to reading yet. Something about the concept of the genre intrigued her, but hadn’t successfully captured her attention enough to finish a whole book. The deep dive hard sci-fi took into technology fascinated her, but was also out of her depth, and most other stories she’d found more or less boiled down to “aliens are bad and we should kill them all”, which she found pretty unimaginative. She’d had a hard time finding anything in-between. Nebby sighed. Maybe Housemaster Carina or one of the other members of Winter’s Cold would have recommendations. Feeling more than a little bit guilty, Nebby stacked at least another dozen books onto her bed. Maybe I can organize a book swap, she thought. I’m sure someone here would love these stories.

Next up was Nebby’s self-help books. She had plenty of these… quite possibly too many. But how could she decide which ones she no longer needed? How could she determine which was the superior of two self-help books on the same subject? After significant deliberation, she decided that an entire shelf dedicated to self-help was too much for a Normal Finley and vowed to cut the quantity in half – much easier said than done. In the end, she kept any that she had highlighted or made notes in; they’d clearly had more of an impact on her than the others. I’m sorry, she whispered to the new stack as she added it to her bed. They weren’t bad books, and she didn’t want them to feel like they were, but she felt so guilty that she went back and gave each individual book a hug, or at least a grateful pat.

With guilt in mind and a heavy heart, Nebby looked to all of her reference books, encyclopedias, textbooks, and other educational materials. She hated the idea of parting with any of them at all. Slowly she sorted them into categories based on subject and complexity, half hoping that there’d be duplicates so she could have an easy decision but knowing already that that wasn’t the case. Maybe I don’t need three books on rocket science, Nebby sighed. It was interesting, but not something she planned on pursuing a career in or getting into the nitty gritty of. She approached other subjects similarly, allowing herself to keep one or at most two books of each. If I need more information, I can go to the library, Nebby promised herself. It pained her to set such good material aside, but she’d already read each reference book, and it would be nice to have room for some new subjects. A few more books joined the stacks on her bed.

The last section of books were full of nostalgia; stories she’d read over and over since she was a child. Nebby had outgrown these books long ago, but the memories still remained, and she didn’t think she was ready to let go of the first book she ever read by herself, or her first chapter book, or the first series she really fell in love with. She looked mournfully at the children’s books, then glanced over to her bed. There was quite a pile on it; she’d definitely made some good progress decluttering so far. Surely it couldn’t hurt if she just… kept these children’s books a little longer, right? She’d already done such a good job for today.

Nebby was more than ready to be done making these difficult decisions, so she really didn’t put up any fight with herself. Quickly dusting the empty shelves – just a gesture, really, as they were already clean – she began reshelving everything she was keeping. It was odd, seeing any spare room on the shelves; almost lonely. She smiled sadly to herself. At least there’s room for new book friends.

With that thought in mind, Nebby began moving the books from her bed to neat stacks on the floor next to her door. After she was done with this, she would go see Housemaster Carina about that book swap idea.