Letting go.... of books
I have too many books.
Yes, yes, I know. I've always had too many books, except for an extremely brief period in childhood, soon after which I was allowed access to my Dad's books, and I was back to too many books.
That said, it's like I'm entering a 12-step program with far fewer steps. I've admitted I have too many books. And now I will reduce their number. And I've found a really satisfying way of doing it.
To begin with, there really are only a small circle of authors I re-read. Niven/Pournelle, Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, Tolkein, Asimov, Wodehouse, Dickens, Austen, Jasper Fforde, and probably single books from specific people. Most of the others really are one-and-done. Pretty much everything I have in heavy re-read mode I read til the book falls apart anyway, so that's a way of getting rid of a book.
So I have been dipping into my old paperback pile and systematically destroying the books while I read them...
...just a moment, I see my prior two posts titled letting go were: Letting go of 2015 and More letting go - being in the moment. I think Letting Go will be my theme til I hit my peak age (which I've decided is 50, so I've got more than 7 years to let this shit go).
Anyway, I'm re-reading Vamps and Tramps by Camille Paglia. I used to be a lot more into Paglia (as can be seen at my defunct Paglia shrine (having seen the Paglia press clippings, etc, at the end of Vamps and Tramps, I don't feel the need to update the shrine. Paglia seems to already have people she pays for this service. I already do too much free stuff.)
I did a few Hillary Clinton-related excerpts from the book -- remember it was published in 1994. So.
Anyway, it's very satisfying pulling out pages as I read them. Makes it easier to find my place, and then the book is definitely gone by the time I finish reading.
I pulled out about 50 pages that are nothing but Paglia's media mentions from the late 80s/early 90s. Jeez. That was fun to recycle.
There's some good stuff in the book, but as mentioned in the blog post, the copy wasn't that good to begin with (I picked it up from some remnant bin at the library or thrift shop for a quarter or less). It is amusing to me to re-read such pieces as "The Nursery-School Campus: The Corrupting of the Humanities in the U.S." from 1992. Lots of the pieces are still relevant today, but it sounds like she has a new book coming out next year, so I can read what she has to say now, as opposed to 25+ years ago.
Yes, yes, I know. I've always had too many books, except for an extremely brief period in childhood, soon after which I was allowed access to my Dad's books, and I was back to too many books.
That said, it's like I'm entering a 12-step program with far fewer steps. I've admitted I have too many books. And now I will reduce their number. And I've found a really satisfying way of doing it.
To begin with, there really are only a small circle of authors I re-read. Niven/Pournelle, Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, Tolkein, Asimov, Wodehouse, Dickens, Austen, Jasper Fforde, and probably single books from specific people. Most of the others really are one-and-done. Pretty much everything I have in heavy re-read mode I read til the book falls apart anyway, so that's a way of getting rid of a book.
So I have been dipping into my old paperback pile and systematically destroying the books while I read them...
...just a moment, I see my prior two posts titled letting go were: Letting go of 2015 and More letting go - being in the moment. I think Letting Go will be my theme til I hit my peak age (which I've decided is 50, so I've got more than 7 years to let this shit go).
Anyway, I'm re-reading Vamps and Tramps by Camille Paglia. I used to be a lot more into Paglia (as can be seen at my defunct Paglia shrine (having seen the Paglia press clippings, etc, at the end of Vamps and Tramps, I don't feel the need to update the shrine. Paglia seems to already have people she pays for this service. I already do too much free stuff.)
I did a few Hillary Clinton-related excerpts from the book -- remember it was published in 1994. So.
Anyway, it's very satisfying pulling out pages as I read them. Makes it easier to find my place, and then the book is definitely gone by the time I finish reading.
I pulled out about 50 pages that are nothing but Paglia's media mentions from the late 80s/early 90s. Jeez. That was fun to recycle.
There's some good stuff in the book, but as mentioned in the blog post, the copy wasn't that good to begin with (I picked it up from some remnant bin at the library or thrift shop for a quarter or less). It is amusing to me to re-read such pieces as "The Nursery-School Campus: The Corrupting of the Humanities in the U.S." from 1992. Lots of the pieces are still relevant today, but it sounds like she has a new book coming out next year, so I can read what she has to say now, as opposed to 25+ years ago.