Over the course of about three weeks, I've moved about 30 or so of my own books from my work office to my home office. In the interests of not having to haul tons of stuff all at once, it was simply easier to do it in small batches. I actually have some other of my own personal material to move back, but the heavy lifting, if you want to literally call it that, is mostly done.
There are a couple of "why's" behind this work. The easiest one is also the simplest one: My responsibilities at work have changed pretty dramatically over the past 8 or so months, and now I just don't need any books at work. It's actually kind of sad to say that, as I've acquired a ton of books over the years, all in service of my own professional (and personal) growth as well as serving as a reference for my day job. Nowadays, I would simply stare at the books at work, knowing that they were just taking up (work) office space. I'm a firm believer that "book" should be a verb, as books are best when actively used, not sitting on a shelf as a reminder of past professional glory. These days, well, my work is far more process-related than anything else.
By the way, some of the books (note Emotional Intelligence by Dan Goleman) represent almost pivotal moments in my professional development. I look at that and immediately think of 2010. Other books are like a kind of "spoils of war" from my graduate degree (Handbook of Employee Benefits, for example). Granted that I don't necessarily reference these books all the time, but it's almost comforting having them near.
Anyway, there are other reasons for moving the books back as well, some of which just don't make for an interesting blog. Maybe that will come to light in the weeks to come. We'll see. In the interim, it's nice to be surrounded by my literary friends at home.
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