Happier at Home: little altars everywhere
Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 04:20PM 
Super-nerd here, reporting in for duty.
I've just finished shelving 2013 books, and in the process, creating or expanding some sections.
Biology and Animals got a fine re-do, and Kid Lit's getting its own shelves. Historical Fiction continues to grow, especially the Marie Antoinette gallery, as I devour these titles as fast as I can.
I love arranging books just-so, adding topical trinkets, making little dioramas, pleasing my own eye.
I do regularly spend time staring at the shelves, day-dreaming and remembering, something my Kindle just does not understand. Sure, Kindle's great for travel and for rapid gratification when I can't wait hours or days before reading something in particular. But it loses completely on the other side, when it comes to the on-going tactile pleasure of the book as object, repository of memory.
And the altar-making comes naturally.
I basically do this all over the house, whether it's vases full of feathers I've found, or the row of annual notebooks on a shelf, or a bowl of random shells and seeds and rocks placed next to a fat Ganesh.
It's funny timing that this month From Left To Write bookclub is reading Gretchen Rubin's Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life, which in some ways chronicles her efforts to have a life more like mine basically, one with altars in every corner and kisses and delight in hearth and home.
Reading this book is, for me, a little like observing an alien discovering my own world, learning how to aggregate and find joy in pretty shiny things laid out in a deliberate pattern.
I've always been this bower bird.
But since I am a devout student of happiness and curator of my space, I love any and all ideas, especially Gretchen's, grouped as they are thematically over a span of nine months. Oh, how that makes my nerdy heart sing!
And now it's off to add some toys and mementos to the Kid Lit collection, always always on my little mission to be surrounded by pretty stuff and feeling happier at home.
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This post was inspired by Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin where she runs a nine month experiment to create happier surroundings. Join From Left to Write on January 6 we discuss Happier at Home. You can also chat live with Gretchen Rubin on January 7 on Facebook! As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.
Reader Comments (5)
I have an Expedit unit in my dining room, and the individual cubes have lent themselves to creation of thematic book arrangements. I have one cube of my coffee table books, another that houses all my Beat and writing books, another that is related to outdoors-y stuff. I like the idea of creating little altars or shrines around the house, and I strive to do more of that this year!
I had a mini shrine on my desk but the cat keeps trying to eat the paper and pipe cleaner flower my daughter made when she was 3.
I love your little altars! I do the same thing throughout my house. I love when things are whimsical but purposeful at the same time.
I agree with your take on the book as well - I felt like a lot of Gretchen's tasks to become happier were natural occurrences in my world. Still, it is fascinating being on the outside looking in.
Can I come over? You're inspiring me to be more thoughtful in my decorating choices!
I think I need you to come over to my house and make me some altars. I'm far more spartan and ummm sparse. I love the idea of the altars of meaningful objects though.