Not too long ago, I wrote about Books. Not the desert-island books (see 5-16-2021 post), but books in general, and my love of books qua books (see 11-27-2020 post). Recently I experienced a change of heart on that subject. The result was divesting 170 significant books from the hard-copy library. Most hardcover, many signed, some rare - all collectible.
I documented the process pretty thoroughly, taking pictures of a few covers and of the illustrations in the 50th anniversary edition of The Hobbit. Then I compiled a list and sent a couple of queries. I was not looking to sell these; I wanted to give them away. Ideally to a person or business who would get some actual use or benefit from them.
The result was a visit from ReBookIt, a service of The Last Bookstore here in L.A. With any luck they can put the majority of these books on their shelves and make some money. Some are not in pristine condition - like the inscribed first edition of ‘Cyborg’ by Martin Caidin (basis of the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man). It was beat-up when I found it, but I put a Brodart cover on the dust jacket and cherished it for a long time.
Ultimately, the WHY was because I didn’t really want my collectibles pried from my cold dead hands. None of my family or friends collect books. Whoever deals with my effects will have to make a lot of burdensome decisions in not a lot of time; why lumber them with more hundreds of books? The ones I have left are either emotionally priceless to the point of ‘burn them with me’ (only a few) or will be easy to part with later.
All those decisions are, I trust, a long way off; I’m in good health, and only 55. But to be honest, I feel like I’ve lost a lot of weight. I read almost entirely on my Kindle now; those books were neglected here. Now they’ve been released into the wild. I will never know if they all find the perfect new home, but I can imagine they do.
Keep reading, y’all.