One of the nice things about moving is that it gives me an opportunity to reorganize my books and put them up on my shelves alphabetized and properly placed. I’m amazed at the number of people who look at me funny when I say that I alphabetize my books – it’s just the way that makes sense to me. This way I can find what I’m looking for. And this way there is a kind of order to all the chaos.

Having finished my second bookcase (moving slowly because all of the titles are currently out of order), I realized that I have a lot of Michael Moorcock books. I have not one shelf, not two shelves, but two and a half shelves devoted to his works. Of all my books, his occupy the most space, surpassing even Shakespeare.

This partly makes sense because Moorcock has written a lot of books in his time. But in addition to his recent releases and the nice White Wolf omnibuses that were released in the 90s, I have numerous paperbacks from the man, many of them stories that are duplicated elsewhere, that I’ve picked up in second-hand shops in England. There was a time when no matter what store I would go into, there would be a book of his there, and I would always buy them, hoping to snag up some long out of print gem to add to the canon. And that’s really what it was. Since most of his books are connected, it was like a jigsaw puzzle, filling in the pieces as it were.

This is mostly the fault of my friend Brian (ljuser=”asphalteden”). Thought I’d heard of Moorcock and Elric, it was Brian, himself a huge fan, who turned me on to the man and his works. We even went to see him at a rare appearance at a New York bookstore now long gone. I hadn’t read anything by him when I went to see him, but hearing him talk about the Eternal Champion and of the interconnectedness of his books, I felt a kind of kinship to what I wanted to accomplish one day. Thus began a systematic plan to acquire as much of his work as I could.

Looking at the titles now, I realize there are still many I haven’t read. There never seems to be enough time to read everything. But having them waiting there is like having a shelf (or rather two and a half) full of future possibilities.

Now, to shelve N-Z.