FISHERS - Attempting to alphabetize her book collection, obsessive-compulsive Indiana woman Cassie Vermalen cannot quite decide where exactly Arthur C. Clarke's classic sci-fi novel 2001: A Space Odyssey should go.
Initially placing the novel, which she has read on at least seven separate occasions, immediately after the W-Z titles, Vermalen is now wondering if, in fact, it should go at the beginning.
"Gosh, I really don't know. I even thought about putting it under "T" - as in "Two-Thousand-and-One" - but something about that just didn't sit well with me. On the other hand, Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four is sitting proudly as an "N" title, only because the number is clearly spelled out. I hate this."
"I mean, should I just put it under "S" for "Space"?
Struggling to arrive at a definitive answer, the 31-year-old ponders the idea of storing all books with numbers in the title inside a closet, where guests won't ever be able to pass comment on their awkward alphabetical placement.
"But 2001 is a classic. It needs to be out on the shelf so people can see that I own it."
Also attempting to find a home for 100 Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings and Nick Hornby's 31 Songs, Vermalen concedes that "it might be for the best just to lay them out on the coffee table."