Clearing bookshelves

is going to be a long, slow process.

There are a great many books in this house. Some people tell us there are far too many books  in this house. 

When that happens the Senior Cat and I look at each other. Each of us knows what the other is thinking. These people are not readers. They do not understand that books are friends and acquaintances. You do not discard them lightly.

I have occasionally bought  out of print books through an organisation called "Better World Books". They send out a confirmation message written as if it comes from the book itself. It is a bit of nonsense I suppose but the idea of a book being excited because it is going to be rehoused is something worth thinking about.

Years ago, in another country, a friend of mine came in one Saturday morning and asked for help. Three of us piled into his car. He had borrowed a heavy duty trailer from another friend and the four of us went and rescued thousands of books. They had belonged to an elderly man. He was a solitary man, a very solitary man. He had no family and, as far as they could tell, no friends apart from his books. The people responsible for clearing the house had simply been going to throw the books out onto the local rubbish tip. 

Fortunately someone alerted my friend and gave him until Monday morning to clear the house of the books. We packed more books than I care to think about that weekend. More than one trailer load ended up at some borrowed space in a warehouse. 

My job that weekend was to rapidly assess each book. First editions signed by the author, first editions, books likely to fetch more than a few pence, ex-library copies and so on. I would look, make a decision and pass them on to be packed.  My friend, who knew something about books was doing much the same thing. He would sometimes bring a few to me for consideration. The other two simply packed and carted them in boxes out to the trailer. Twice they went to get more boxes.  There were hundreds of boxes stacked in the warehouse by the time we were finished. It would take months more sorting before the job was done but we were reasonably satisfied we had put the most valuable books aside.

Those books eventually raised a very large sum of money for charity but they might simply have been thrown out. I remember looking at one book. A copy of that same book was recently advertised at well over a thousand dollars. There were more like that.

All of those books could have gone on a rubbish tip and simply been set alight. I don't want that to happen to these books. The Senior Cat  has already passed some on. He wants more to go to people he knows will actually use them. I know I will eventually have to move somewhere smaller. It means some of my books will need to go too. I don't want them to end up on a rubbish tip either. 

I am tempted to write a note to be put inside each book, a sort of Paddington Bear note which says, "Please look after me" because giving them away is like giving away friends and acquaintances.