This week I've been moving as much as I can down to the house. We still have a month to go before settlement, but because moving is a hard task, it's nice to do it in little loads, finding a place for things as we go and not having boxes everywhere.
The last few days it's been books. We already had a cull, as you probably know, @honeydue, but there's still others I'm not keen on keeping. One only needs so many books on mirror dinghy cruising or pranyama. It's hard to sell books these days.
I only have one Marquez these days. I don't know what happened to my 100 Years of Solitude. I went through a huge phase reading him in my early 20's, along with a lot of other foreign authors - Saramego, Allende, Kundera. I travelled through literature. This was one my parents bought for me in hardback, so I'll never get rid of it.
I can't part with our Zola collection. We just have so many. He wrote a whole 20 book cycle. I loved Germinal, Nana and Therese Raquin. Still haven't read them all. We used to pick them up for a song in bookshops in the UK. These days it all seems to be true crime. No one seems to care about literature. Too much thinking.
I love the title of this one. It's Jamie's. We have a few embossed books like this we picked up, or old hardbacks - they are so pretty.
Jamie won't get rid of these two bloody books on gypsy food. He keeps promising to make me rabbit cooked in lard. Funny funny hahah. I've tucked them behind some nicer hardbacks.
There's a heap of reference books I'll probably never open again, but they have sentimental value. Big hard backs and big books are expensive. When we were waged, we used to buy one every now and then. Now everything you need is on the internet.
There's a collection of small paperbacks I can't part with either and are worth nothing, but they're my favourites. Steinback's To a God Unknown is my absolute favourite of his. The ending is sublime. Ursula Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest - @holoz0r is still working up the guts to read her.
I have quite a few on mushrooms, and herbs, and trees.
There's other books too - Buddhist Cosmology is a sentimental favourite. I wish I had a bigger house to have a bigger library but truth be told, books are more disposable these days - people don't value them as much. Even op shops aren't taking them. Knowledge is on the internet and literature is on Kindle. Why fuss with paper? And people don't read as much, which is sad.
Still, I had a lot of fun this week arranging my bookshelf, visible from the main part of the house but down the hallway so it doesn't clutter up the small main space. It's probably about the 200th time I've arranged a bookshelf in a new home - a rental, a truck, a Land Rover, a home.
I am thinking of finding another small bookshelf though...
What books would you find hard to get rid of? What are some of your all time favourites?
With Love,
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I love books. In school, I read 3-4 books a week, mostly science fiction. Now I read much less.
This year, after moving, I left over 1,000 books in my old apartment with the new owners. I only took 15 with me.
Wow, what did you take? Must have been a hard choice!
Several books on philosophy, several on mystics, and a couple of scientific books with a collection of discoveries from the 89-90s (I didn’t finish reading them in school).
Oh man, I loved this ❤️ and while I don't know exactly how many books there were before, knowing you, it looks like a big-ass cull. It's cool to have books you're sentimental about. It's loving them for the story in your life, on top of the story they contain. It's great. As for gypsy food, you never know when that may come in handy. I've yet to read Zola. Maybe by chance I'll find something by him second hand in London next week. Promise to buy it if I do. @holoz0r, why? The bookshelf looks magical (and I freaking love the carpet).
Regarding LeGuin? Its an old, long story, but I'll tell it here in case it slipped my mind and the avoidance of any doubt, but expect perhaps to see it as a full fledged post one day... actually.. I think I've written that already..
https://peakd.com/hive-170744/@holoz0r/miserable-eternal-september-a-memoir
Its a LOOONG read, but I think you'll enjoy it.
Sorry to keep teasing you x
That rug we got from Morocco last year! We must have known we would get a place with a hallway haha. Read Zolas Germinal - it's incredible. Probably three to four times that amount of books?.
My, I enjoyed reading this. It feels like I walked through your hallway and stood in front of that bookshelf too.
I haven’t read most of the titles you mentioned, but I have read one of Zola’s works. The title is escaping me right now, which is funny because a lecturer in my department was practically obsessed with his works. She talks about Zola with so much passion that I feel like I’ve read half the Rougon-Macquart cycle by osmosis.
And honestly, I completely get what you mean about books feeling undervalued these days. It breaks my heart a bit too but finding books online makes it a lil easier. Regardless, there’s something irreplaceable about the weight of a book in your hand, or the look of an old hardback that’s been through a couple of lives already. Kindle can’t compete with that.
As for the books I’d never part with, definitely the ones tied to memories more than anything else.
They've actually done a study on it and tactile, real books 📚 help you retain what you read better as well!
Sharn is going to go see Merline Sheldrake speak at a thing in the coming weeks / months / whenever it is in the calendar for. I skimmed through the book about mushrooms they wrote, and it was pretty interesting, I wish I had read the whole thing instead of skimming, but such is life.
It's an awesome book. I actually listened to it on audio as I drove round Tassie on my own a few years ago and it was amazing. Yay Sharn... Jealous! Mind you he covers a lot in his book.
I have a hard time throwing away all my books. I have never thrown any away yet, but I have never needed to. Especially since my reading process is quite surprising. When I buy a book, I never read it entirely. So, all around the house, I have several books started. When I walk into a room, sometimes I read a page or two of a book.
For the most part, they are not novels. Rather reflection books. I think therefore that my system has been built around that, I take a concept and I let my brain meditate on it.
Yes! We used to do that too. Concept books are lovely.
My very favorite is The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy. I was gifted it from the Regional Library when I ordered it to read, back decades ago when they were preparing to move.
I went through my books when I had to move them during the building and got rid of hundreds of children's books and books for homeschooling.
I've kept the mystery/detective series for Robert Parker, Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, and Sara Paretski. I have all the Agatha Christie's too. I still have all my horse stories from childhood, probably 50+ of those.
I still have probably 2000 books down from nearly 5000....
You're lucky you are settled and your house can hold them. They are such important features in a home..
When I cull books, I donate them to the local "Literacy Association," a non-profit that teaches people to read and provides books for those who cannot afford them. Some of the donated books go to the clients they are helping, but most are sold at a big book sale that is held twice each year. It's a good thing!
I like your moving technique, doing a bit here and there as time allows. How far is it between your old house and the new house?
That's a great idea!!! Nothing like that here.
Settlement is on the 19th December, so I have a while. If we had to do it all at once I'd die. Looking forward to just relaxing.
That bit about books being less valued nowadays made me a bit sad too . Even local thrift stores near me stopped accepting them . I remember when book sales were such a big thing and people would line up with baskets.
Wow! You have a lots of books 😍 I want to read also before but I can't afford the books haha. I wonder if you read all of that already?