musing on books

[gategrrl]

Books. I've long been a collector of books, from way back, when I had money from birthdays and Christmas, my first stop was the bookstore. I'd spend hours choosing the books I wanted to buy because hey, money was finite, and I preferred value for my dough. I wanted books I could reread.

And now, I'm realizing that as valuable as I find books, and love them (hey, I used to MAKE books in school and for my own projects-real ones, sewn and glued and with covers and everything), they are my own personal clutter. I think it's probably a blessing that two basements, in different houses at different times, zorched a lot of my book collection. Many of those were hardcover specials from Borders or Barnes&Noble that my dad gave me that were actually set in type that was unreadable, or that I'd never really read.

Now I've been going through my paperback collection-there's more in the garage, I think, but I may have to toss those out. They may have mildewed or been nibbled on by silverfish after eight or nine years of being boxed up. A lot of those are my old Heinlein collection and Darkover collection--and think about wow, what a huge chasm between those two writers! Cripes.

I go to a site called Unclutterer, and sure enough, it's true; the less stuff you have weighing you down, the better you feel. 
 

Comments

[lovellama.livejournal.com]

It's hard to get rid of books! And I agree that the less stuff you have the better you feel. The house is a disaster right now, stuff everywhere, and everyone is irritable and grumpy. :(

[ndmzero.livejournal.com]

I empathize -- although it sounds like you may have more books than I do (not having a basement..) It's neat that you made books - I never did that (although I was pretty much presented with the reading badge by my Girl Scout troop without going through the required steps (I couldn't get excited about making a book cover) - I think it had something to do with the way I was always reading during meetings....) Oh, yeah - and what's wrong with Robert Heinlein and Marion Zimmer Bradley? Classics, both of them.

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I empathize -- although it sounds like you may have more books than I do (not having a basement..) It's neat that you made books - I never did that (although I was pretty much presented with the reading badge by my Girl Scout troop without going through the required steps (I couldn't get excited about making a book cover) - I think it had something to do with the way I was always reading during meetings....) Oh, yeah - and what's wrong with Robert Heinlein and Marion Zimmer Bradley? Classics, both of them. <grinning here, but really bad with emoticons.>

I told myself years ago that paperbacks were not an investment - the paper and glue wouldn't last. Which sort of works -- I'm actually down to about two layers of books on my bookshelves (hey, it was three.)

However, hardbacks take up more space -- and cost more. So, not a total win. Also, they're harder to get rid of.

I also have serendipitously found a way to make paperback swap actually help me declutter, rather than just disrupt the clutter -- I'm ordering large print hard backs to be sent to my mother. And she donates them to the library. So to keep earning credits, I have to list more books and be more harsh in my culling.

It gives her stuff to read and makes me get rid of books -- it's a start. Now I just have to hope that the supply of used large print mysteries holds out -- I haven't yet figured out where to actually buy large print books -- although I'm getting better at scoping out that section in used book stores.

Decluttering is not one of my talents. And books are the hardest -- it also doesn't help that for stuff I really really like, I get multiple copies so that I can lend them out without being anxious about getting them back (or their condition.)

I'll check out that website you mentioned, but I'm not sure it'll suit my philosophy -- I've experienced the Murphy's law of the declutterer too often -- a week after dropping box of books at Goodwill I find that I want to reread one of them.

Er, sorry for rambling on == good luck with the sorting of the boxes.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, those basements aren't mine-I live in LA, and we don't have one. I keep a couple of boxes in the garage that have some books in them. About 1000 books were destroyed in my mother's basement, and later in my in-law's basement, both through water flooding in.

Nothing wrong with Heinlein and Bradley. They're polar opposites in sensibilities, though-Heinlein was dismissive of women (for the most part) in his books, except if they served up sex; and Bradley employed gay characters and had the first inkling of feminism in any of the books I read in SF. That's what I meant.

Decluttering...ugh. Papers are my downfall. What do I do with all those papers? What is important, what might be important? What information in the papers should I write down before tossing? THAT is my downfall.

Of course I tend to collect scrapbooking clutter, too, but I actually use it up (a little at a time).

And I TOTALLY get what you mean about wanting something (book) after getting rid of it. But I *think* I've conquered that one by telling myself that if I really want to read it that badly, I'll order it through the library. I won't get rid of my Dune series, or my really nice edition of Lord of the Rings I got as a HS graduation present from my mom. And the Dark Tower series (though that might be on the chopping block soon I'm not sure).

I found Book Swap to be expensive, for me. I think I spent more mailing the books than getting books I actually wanted to read. I'd rather donate them.

[ndmzero.livejournal.com]

1000 books - ouch - congratulations on managing to look on the bright side.

Yeah - re papers - it's really sad when I take a file to work, use a company copier that scans to pdf (wonderful invention - and fast!) to reduce four years of monthly (and miniscule) stock statements to an electronic file - and then don't want to toss the paper until I review it in case there was an error... yeah, guess who hasn't yet gotten around to the comparison.

RE PBS -I know what you mean. And I think I actually told you this when you mentioned thinking about joining - I actually got one book that had been chewed on by a rodent. [I believe I recommended you join anyway -- sorry about that.] So I had stopped participating but still had a bunch of credits (and a wish list, just in case) and was mostly holding onto the credits to convert to DVD credits for Swapadvd in case I had a lot of requests come up at once there -- not strictly speaking economically efficient, but I tried to think of it as a sunk cost. But then, the last time I visited my folks, I went with my Mom to a used book store and actually paid attention to the authors she was looking for. And remembered that you can look for Large Print books specifically on PBS (and I figure hard backs aren't going to be as beat up). The only downside that now that she's got books she can actually see, Mom's speed is picking up and I'm worried about being able to keep her supplied. And I know I'm picking some clunkers, because she and I don't have much overlap in our preferences. But, my sister said she's reading more, and that was the goal, so mission accomplished. And used hard backs are not cheap - so PBS has really come through for me. And, as I said, I'm shipping books out without buying/trading/acquiring more (well, mostly)

I'm even winnowing out my paperback Terry Pratchetts - I kept them to lend out, since I put some effort into acquiring hardbacks - and they seem to trade well.

Who knows - my star trek books may be next (although I'm not sure they'll be in as much demand -- a true sign that I'm getting old.)

[aostara.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I had pretty good collections of both Heinlein and Darkover as well... you're so right about the huge chasm! And even more oddly - I ended up keeping the Heinlein, even though he regularly pisses me off with his treatment of female characters. I did keep the Free Amazon portions of Darkover, however... that's the part I loved the most, after all.

[aostara.livejournal.com]

Also - for those looking to get rid of books to a good home (i.e., to someone who will hopefully love them like you did)... if they are not wrecked by water, you might consider www.bookmooch.com. Or donate to a local library or hospital. I just hate to see non-trashed books end up in the trash!