Yesterday was a hard day as My wife and I prepared to down size and pack to move to be closer to our family. We went through about half of my library and we culled over two hundred books that we are donating to our local library instead of packing and moving them 600 miles to have them set in a storage unit since we won’t have room in our new apartment for the book cases needed to hold all of my books. As I held each book, I recalled why I had the book and what it meant to me when I first read it. Some of them almost brought tears to my eyes. I know some of you would be surprised to know what books I kept and what books I decided to donate. I kept several books about the Dodgers who have always been my favorite baseball team. Of course they were “da bums” of Brooklyn when I started rooting for them. However, I donated the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Ibsen. The stories of Duke Snider and the other boys of summer were important to me growing up in ways that other people wouldn’t understand. However, Poe and Ibsen can be of more help to others right now if they would take the time and make the effort to read them.
I know this feeling all too well. I had to go through a similiar thing not long ago, and it broke my heart having to give so many book aways. Just don’t have as much space as I used to.
Hi By,
I know this feeling from multiple dimensions being a librarian. I love books – not the e-book alternative. Also Diane and I are currently involved in cleaning out the Fry’s apartment at a local retirement community since they moved to skill care. My father-in-law was a pastor and professor and loved his books. What to do with them? He can’t easily deal with that.
TKC ‘1977