Monday, August 3, 2009

Books

As I wade through dozens of boxes of books I shipped or hauled across country in my recent move, I wondered why I own so many. How man can I sell before I have to move again? I found myself asking myself more than once, while I packed and now, while I try to unpack between writing deadlines and home responsibilities. Half? Two thirds? All of them?

Then I think, But I can't get rid of this resource or that one, like A Regency Companion, which is out of print and goes for quite a bit on EBay. No, not for a lot of money will I give this one up.

And yet, they're such a pain.

Or are they? I love their feel. I love their smell. I love the sound of a room full of books. The house I moved into even has built-in shelves for books. It's as though it was waiting for me.

As I grow frustrated with the amount of work unpacking and organizing my personal library, I think of the good things above and the following quote:

It is a man’s duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life. ~~~Henry Ward Beecher

3 comments:

Elisabeth Rose said...

I love my books, too Laurie Alice. Every now and then we think we should do a purge but it only ever results in about ten we feel we can ditch. Usually they're new fiction or something like the book on fishing my m-i-l gave my husband once. Never fished in his life. She muddled him with her number 2 son LOL

Thinking about it, we've got books on shelves in every room in the house except the bathroom and laundry.

Edna said...

That is the way I feel about my books they are all in my bedroom on shelves and I love to look at them and say "Self you have read ALL of these" and hope to read a lot more while I am here in this old sinfull world. But my favorite is tattered and is like a diary it has been written in so much and has been all over the US with me, it is called (The Holy Bible) and is read over and over every night I read some in it, sometimes a lot and sometime a little but everytime I read just a verse I am learning more about my Jesus.

mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net

Christine Bush said...

I cherish my books too. I moved several times in the past few years, and used the same nice moving company. When I called to arrange for the last move, the mover said "Hey, it's the book lady!" At first, I thought he was just very aware of the number of boxes he'd have to lift, but he then said "I have more books than you. My books are my friends". I have a feeling there are a lot of us out there! I love my books.