{"id":8983,"date":"2014-02-23T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=8983"},"modified":"2014-02-22T08:32:23","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T13:32:23","slug":"too-many-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2014\/02\/23\/too-many-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Too many books?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Some<\/a>

Some of the remaining books on the giveaway table. Photo: Ellen Rocco<\/p><\/div>\n

About a month ago I tackled my home library, filling about 20 boxes with books that ranged from college textbooks to almost-complete collections of detective series to duplicate (and even triplicate) copies of classics to piles and piles of random titles that I know I will never look at again.<\/p>\n

I still read books, the three-dimensional rather than electronic kind. Nonetheless, I have come to a point in my life where I only keep classics or books that I actually may want to re-read (though this is mostly wishful thinking).<\/p>\n

I gave books to two libraries, and then emptied the remaining boxes onto our station “giveaway” table. Remarkably, almost all of the hundreds of volumes have moved out of our hallway into other peoples’ collections. When I acquire a new book and finish reading it, if I liked it, I pass it along to my son or a friend. If I didn’t much like it (which probably means I only made it 50 pages in), I put it on the giveaway table.<\/p>\n

People seem to have one of two reactions to my book purging. Either they say, “Oh, that’s exactly what I have to do. I wish I could find the time to pare down my library.”<\/p>\n

Or, I get what I call the “deer in the headlights” reaction. Take yesterday. I was on the air with two good friends–both serious readers and book lovers, Chris Robinson and John Ernst. They had noticed the giveaway table piled with books. I explained that I had cleared out about 3\/4 of my home library.<\/p>\n

Panic.<\/p>\n

I compare this reaction to the look guys get when you tell them you’re taking the male dog to the vet to get “fixed.” It’s not that it’s their books being given away, but even the thought of anyone’s<\/em> books leaving a library elicits deep feelings of fear and empathetic loss.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>

My office bookshelves. Hmm…time to get the boxes? Photo: Ellen Rocco<\/p><\/div>\n

Both admitted they still have all of their college textbooks. C’mon, guys, the map of Eastern Europe and the governments of South American countries aren’t even remotely close to what’s in those political science books. String theory hadn’t even been imagined way back when you bought your math and physics texts. And, I’m going to bet that the four-inch thick paperback Norton Anthology of American (and\/or British) Literature is falling apart and the print is so small even your strongest reading glasses can’t help you decipher the text.<\/p>\n

Dale Hobson, our web manager and resident poet, is like me. He prefers to read paper books, but uses an electronic reader occasionally. More importantly, as he pointed out, with the advent of digital books one can always access a volume that might have been given away or passed along to a friend. It’s not like you have to go out and spend a lot of money to get a copy of Bruce Catton’s\u00a0A Stillness at Appomattox <\/em> to re-read on the 60th anniversary of its winning a Pulitzer. It’s there online even in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

I am not so hardened that I throw away books (unless one is badly damaged or missing pages). And, I never ever burn a book. Images of book burnings in Nazi Germany evoke such personal horror and repugnance–reinforced by my reading of Fahrenheit 450 <\/em>decades ago (I gave away my copy)–that I simply cannot set match to book pages.<\/p>\n

I admit I had to accumulate a pile of boxes and screw up my courage before I waded into my library and started pulling volumes off the shelf. But once started, it got easier and easier and I made myself feel better as I thought about other people actually opening and reading books that had simply been collecting dust for decades. Plus, there’s lots of room now for, well, more books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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