or should I say nobody wants but me.
Yes, I know I have to "downsize", to move to another location, to give away most of the books I have so carefully collected over the years.
People have walked into this house and then just stopped and stared at the bookshelves. I once had a couple of "street kids" come and visit me. They came from homes where there were no books at all.
I remember S... looking at D... and D...looking at S... and then S... asking in a rather alarmed way, "Is this a library?" It was not the sort of place either of them were likely to visit. That the Senior Cat and I should own so many books was an idea which was completely foreign to them. It made them nervous.
I have noticed the same thing with other non-readers. They seem to be nervous around books.
At the other extreme someone else I know, the daughter of people who ran a highly successful second hand book business, came to visit with her partner. Within a few minutes of being here both of them had books off the shelves. They felt quite at home among books.
It is true that I feel more at ease in a house which has a visible collection of books, preferably a lot of books. The books need to look as if they have been read, as if they are used. I do not want the "collections" made by some people as interior decoration. I certainly do not want to be faced with an old set of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica or the World Book one either. My maternal grandmother had a set of "Arthur Mee" which we were allowed to read if we were "very, very good" but in reality they were so out of date that we found them more amusing than instructive.
But now I have been packing books. I estimate there will be about sixty boxes of books. There are books I would much prefer to keep but realistically I know there will be no room wherever I move. There are few places with room for as many books as this. Perhaps that is why nobody wants them...or maybe many people simply don't read?
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2 comments:
Unfortunately libraries are now meant to mimic bookshops, with nice new books to attract readers.
I think libraries should also have old books, which contain information and ideas from the past as well as the present. The problem is, of course, how to choose and store the “valuable” old books when space is restricted.
Someone wanting to do a PhD on murder mysteries over the years, for example, will have difficulties getting hold of books by - at the time - well-known writers and others (eg, Michael Innes, Pamela Branch). A microfiche is not the same as a book. Nor is an ebook. Both harder to read in the bath, neither likely to have notes in the margin.
LMcC
My late godmother, a nursing sister, liked to read in the bath. Her husband built her a special book holder so she could do it and "wind down" after a day on the wards.
Someone has surely done a PhD on murder mysteries - probably more than one - but I agree finding the material in a public library would be difficult.
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