The budgeting entry has started a whole string of thoughts.

For instance, one of my pet projects is (are?) art books. I have hundreds of art books, probably close to 1000's. They were lovingly assembled over the years, because I usually only have a short time to get them before they go out of print.

This goes back to the days of my Tolkien Hildibrant calendars (as atrocious as I now think them) and the Frazetta Conan covers.

I started with strictly fantasy and science fiction art. Then weird pop, such as Basil Wolverton and Big Daddy JRoth. Then I added pinups, then Art Nouveau and Art Deco, then Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish and their illustrator brethren, to pre-Raphelite and 19th century art, to impressionism, post-impressionism.

Pulp artists like James Bama and Robert McGinnis and Jack Vettriano.

Anything that has the slightest 'fantasy' flavor -- which turns out to be anything.

Tell me Van Gogh and Cezanne don't fit the bill; or Edward Hopper or Alex Gross. Artists like Gustave Dore and Diego Rivera and Escher and Dali definitely fit the criteria.

My perimeters has broadened to the point where, well, just about any art book is fair game.

Makes sense. My Mom was an art major, and our house was full of art books. I used to spend hours browsing, looking at the art books. Dad had the big history books with illustrations, and as I said, the classic illustrators like Wyeth. I plastered the walls of my bachelor pads with cheap art prints.

When I was young man, I visited a friend in N.Y. who took me to Moma and Met. He had to explain Art Deco to me, and other art movements, and I was sort of embarrassed. I came back and spent a summer reading art history volumes, watching the Shock of the New on PBS.

I found that there was little art I didn't like. I love modern art. And I love classic art.

I'd like to pretend that I immediately recognized the value of comic art. But it took time to realize that I dismissed most comics not because I was sophisticated. But because I was ignorant and biased. I simply didn't know enough to judge.

Eventually, I came to recognize that there was a level of quality that would astound most people, and then it took me even longer to recognize it in the older comic art. I came to see even simple line drawings like Peanuts, and Calvin and Hobbes, and Bone has having a world of expression and artistry.

So when I bought my own store, I was a real sucker for art books. It wasn't a problem at first. There was very little offered to me from the distributors.

Then I found Bud Plant, and that was my downfall. I only had a year or two to order from him before he became a online only, retail only presence. But I was completely taken in by his esthetics's. I'd love to have a brick and mortar version of the Bud Plant catalog. But of course, even Bud Plant doesn't have a B & M version, probably for good reasons.

I believe a store in Portland, for instance, could have a heavy presence of art books and do well. But I'm probably wasting my money in Bend. Maybe in Portland. But it would be cool.

I've done it so slowly, it hasn't really hurt.

But here's where it gets slightly ludicrous. I have 95% of those art books (which aren't cheap, by the way) spine out! How ridiculous is that? Hiding my light under a bushel, for sure.

So, when I triple my bookshelves later this month, I'm going to resist the impulse to immediately fill them with new books, but try a little harder the display the wonderful books I already have.