Getting rid of books
7 February 2008As you know, Roseann and I took a big step to move out of our home and into our RV Trailler. We are going full time traveling. We’re very excited. Today, freecyclers came and took away furniture, appliances and electronic gear. I found good homes for lots of stuff. I experienced noseparation anxiety.
I’ve also packed and donated about ten boxes of books, mostly to the Masonic Home Library, some to specialized libraries (as for the railroad books) and some to the book sale at the public library.
Now I come to the fiction. Today I packed up the shelf containing the oldest and dearest of my paperback Sci-Fi. Heinlein, Asimov, Robinson, Bradley and a host of others went into boxes, and I’ve not even come to McCaffrey, Kurtz, Lackey and the like. Nor any hardbacks. We won’t even talk about Miller and Lee… those are coming with me.
I feel like I’m saying goodbye to old friends. I don’t know where to donate these books. Some are in poor condition from having been read, and re-read, which only enhances their emotional value to me.
I know it’s only fiction. I know it’s only entertainment. I know it’s only transitory. But it doesn’t matter. We science fiction readers are given the same magical ability that our favorite characters have…. To travel to new and different worlds. To leave our mundane lives behind for a short time, and indulge in something miraculous, even if only in our imagination. And who is to say that the world of our imagination is any less real or important to each of us, as the physical world in which we travel
I will send these SciFi books off to the Masonic Home, where generations of retired Masons and their wives can encounter them in the library and sitting rooms; and who knows, someday I may wind up there, and run into my own books, again.
I could use some conciliatory comments on this. It’s traumatic. Thanks for listening.
2 Responses to “Getting rid of books”
February 7th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
That sounds really tough. I don’t think I could sell all of my books. Maybe you need a storage locker to be your personal lending library. Cruise by once in awhile and swap the books that you have in the trailer with you.
– Art Z.
February 9th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Give away those books that came across the country with me…even though I don’t read them often? Just knowing they live in the same house with me, gives comfort. Wow, what a tough choice to make.
BTW: Books came yesterday. Gracias.