Farewell to the shelves of yore
For close to three decades, I took pride in my small but growing library. Went beyond the random piles on the floor and invested in some real shelving. At the end, I counted somewhere close to one hundred linear feet, attached to the walls and spaced according to my needs.
With the decision to move across the country, the library was reduced (painful, painful, painful) and the remainder carefully packed into shipping boxes. And here we are, five years in. There’s been a revolution in media, and most of my preferred titles are available in electronic format. Sure, an ebook doesn’t have the same tactile richness of a used paperback, but one makes do. The reality is that the books are still “out of sight, out of mind”. So, today, I did the next best thing.
I packed the large part of my shelves into the car, and off they went to a new home. I hope. The store we believed as wanting such things, didn’t. Neither did the next one on the list. I wasn’t along, but the shelves are gone. No looking back. I’ll be able to keep the reimagined library on a small hard drive, and as for the books in the cartons… a choice will have to be made.
Surely, used book stores still need used books. Even if I have to let them go for “pennies on the pound”, they too will find new homes. And I won’t look back. Along the way, I realized that a book is rarely read a second time. Why put energy into storage, unless there’s significant emotional value? (There isn’t). The next time you visit, we’ll forego the offer to sit and read for a while.
