Now that they are dusted and polished, I'm wondering ... should I return the books that have always been there, the battered paperback classics in the upper reaches, reference books and anthologies in the middle, rows of magazines on the lower shelf?
I can certainly pull together a better-looking group of printed matter, if this is all about aesthetics — but of course it is not. It's about order and reverence and to a certain embarrassing extent, laziness. I'm used to books being where they are: do I really want to rearrange them?
On the other hand, the empty shelves stand open for change and rearrangement. Can I really let them down?