When I got out of bed this morning, I discovered that the exterior door to my garage was open, exposing my secret shame to the neighborhood. I have no idea how long it was open: Maybe just a few minutes. Maybe all night.

But here’s the thing that really irritated me: Nothing in the garage had been stolen.

Box 5: Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023

CONTENTS: I knew this was coming sooner or later, and it turned out to be sooner: Today’s box was packed with books. This will not be the last box in the garage that’s filled with books. I love books. I used to buy a lot of them; then I discovered these things called “libraries.” Have you heard of them? They’re great.

I still buy books from time to time, of course, but the blunt truth is that I have way more books than I have room. So, stashed away in various boxes in the garage, we have textbooks, children’s books, mystery and detective novels, reference books that are hilariously out of date, three of the four volumes of Robert Caro’s “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” biography (it’s really good!) — not to mention probably 25 years’ worth of “Runner’s Day-by-Day Log” calendars. For whatever reason, those calendars rarely seem to be taken from the Little Free Library we have in the front yard.

DISPOSITION: Here’s the good news about this box: Most of the volumes here likely will be attractive to people wandering by the Little Free Library — there are books by Alice Hoffman, Christopher Moore, Dan Savage, Ha Jin and Barbara Kingsolver, among others. Those books are headed to the Little Free Library.

But here’s a little secret: There are a handful of books in this box that I have no intention of giving away. In fact, one of the hopes that’s driving the “365 Boxes” project is the idea that when’s it’s done, I’ll have space in the garage to put in a couple of bookshelves and to properly store these books. Maybe a little desk will fit in there as well, along with the somewhat used but still comfy couch that I know is underneath the boxes.

Somewhere.

Unless it was stolen last night.

If you’re coming late to the whole “365 Boxes” project, here’s the blog post that got it all rolling.