I was evicted from my study/den earlier
this year to allow my youngest daughter her own room. A reasonable course of
action designed to promote love and harmony within the household which contains
myself, my better half and three teenagers.
My books which were double-stacked and
triple-stacked in places, pretty much floor to ceiling around three walls were
unceremoniously dumped in the loft.
I'm guessing I have between 2000-2500
books in total, not including all the online articles, e-zines and magazines I
downloaded, and mostly printed off....PLOTS WITH GUNS, HARDLUCK STORIES,
THUG-LIT etc, etc.
My mission is several-fold.
1. I'm getting on a bit - 49 in a
couple of months. If I live as long as my dad did, I've got 14 more years to
enjoy, if I live as long as his dad did I've got 30-odd. If a bus hits me
tomorrow, well someone else can sort them out.
I'm aiming for the 30 years. I read at
a rate of about 2 a week. 100 a year = 20-25 years stock.
I'm less anal than I used to be, I now
read them and try and get rid, I don't feel the same emotional attachment to
the books once I've read them that I used to. I can move them on without
feeling bereft.
I don't want my kids or wife to try and
sort my crap out once I've gone. So sort the books out into some semblance of
order.
2. Read and get shot of all the loose
files, papers, magazines.
3. STOP BUYING MORE BOOKS - it's not
rational, sensible, justifiable!
Example - I started picking up and
boxing by author's surnames beginning with F. In a fairly short time I had over
50............16 different authors, Flynn, Freeman, Freemantle, Fleming, Furst,
Fante - father and son, Fesperman, Fitzhugh, blah, blah blah.
Out of the 16, I've only read 5 of the
authors previously, I'm a kid in a sweet shop - I buy up an author's output
because it looks good, and not because, I like book A, I should now read book
B.
What was the name of the girl in
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? The greedy one......that's me!
Anyway sort the books, catalogue them -
because I like lists, plus when I decide I do want to read the Vince Flynn -
Mitch wotshisname series of which I have 11 - I can find them. Or the Fleming
Bond books (12 of - none read)
If I can still read 2 a week and sort out 50 a
week, I should have some semblance of order in about a year's time,
It is so hard to condense books and move them and all, isn't it, Col? I wish you well on your mission!
ReplyDeleteMargot, thanks for commenting. I was having a look through some of my early posts and 5 years old or not the situation remains the same. I got a kindle 4 years ago on my "50th" - I dread to think what the "problem" would be like without that device. We probably couldn't get in the front door!
Delete