Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:10:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Tamar Lindsay <dicconf at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Books You Can Live Without
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
sjvn wrote:
> As I find myself doing painful surgery on my library in preparation of
> my move to a smaller house, I happened across this collection of essays
> on how to cull one's library.
>
> http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books-you-can-live-without/
>
> There are some good thoughts here, but the advice that calls most to my
> own heart is Joshua Ferris' concluding paragraph: "Books are notes from
> the field, bound and domesticated, life brought into narrow focus. Get
> rid of a book? No way. Every one is a brick keeping the building
> standing. Books are my life. I leave and come back, and the books I find
> there tell me I'm home."
>
> Ah well, be that as it may, the guide to OS/2 2.1 is still going out the
> door.

Same here - books are the furniture for between my ears; and a lot are tools.
The only things I'd get rid of are way outdated and useless, like a book of
lists that's 20 years old.
===

If only I had a perfect memory _and_ everyone would believe what I say I read
somewhere, I could get rid of many books.  For some reason people tend to
believe what's in print, if I can show them the book or at least report chapter
and page number; so I have probably a literal ton of books that I keep for
one page, or a significant picture.  Some are kept for a single sentence.
And some are kept because I have books that I bought for one reason that
I found out later had wonderful things in them that I hadn't valued when I first
got the book, and that are now the reason I keep the book.

=Tamar
The plan: 1. win the lottery.  2. buy an empty library building with shelves intact.
3. sort my books.