Another Late-Night Conversation with Dan...
alice: okay
alice: so I just wasted fifteen minutes
alice: browsing my account on LibraryThing to figure out what books I don't want anymore.
d_robes: I find it hard to bring myself to that
d_robes: my bibliomania is too strong
alice: but some of these books I've had since, oh, fourth grade.
d_robes: yeah, in that span of time enough regrettable phases occur in anyone's life to necessitate disposing of some books
alice: like, oh, the Richard Dawkins phase...
d_robes: that's a litttle easier to justify keeping around than some things
alice: what about the "I'm going to teach myself heiroglyphics and read lots of alternative historical interpretations of tutankhamen's death" phase?
d_robes: you never know when you'll need to reference something about Egyptian archaeology
alice: Dan, you are a bad influence both on my ability to lug books to toronto/put them in storage and my pocketbook which might just be fattened by selling some used books.
alice: albeit not by much.
d_robes: I told you, my case of bibliomania is a very strong one
alice: I think I have a book about that...
...
alice: what can one not justify keeping around?
d_robes: duplicates.
alice: so I just wasted fifteen minutes
alice: browsing my account on LibraryThing to figure out what books I don't want anymore.
d_robes: I find it hard to bring myself to that
d_robes: my bibliomania is too strong
alice: but some of these books I've had since, oh, fourth grade.
d_robes: yeah, in that span of time enough regrettable phases occur in anyone's life to necessitate disposing of some books
alice: like, oh, the Richard Dawkins phase...
d_robes: that's a litttle easier to justify keeping around than some things
alice: what about the "I'm going to teach myself heiroglyphics and read lots of alternative historical interpretations of tutankhamen's death" phase?
d_robes: you never know when you'll need to reference something about Egyptian archaeology
alice: Dan, you are a bad influence both on my ability to lug books to toronto/put them in storage and my pocketbook which might just be fattened by selling some used books.
alice: albeit not by much.
d_robes: I told you, my case of bibliomania is a very strong one
alice: I think I have a book about that...
...
alice: what can one not justify keeping around?
d_robes: duplicates.
Labels: annals of procrastination, quote wall
5 Comments:
suggestion: get rid of any book which you outright hated reading and never want to pick up again. If perchance, you need the reference, use the library and avoid owning books you don't like!
NB: I find this easiest to do with fiction or books from the core, since I'm less likely to need the reference.
By
Vanessa, at 7:01 AM
Also, dump the cheap paperbacks of books you'd like to have in hardcover. That's been helpful to me in my packing.
By
Nemo, at 9:54 AM
But... my annotations!
(Prof. Jan Goldstein: "I think of annotations as if they are your capital.")
By
Alice Teresa, at 1:42 PM
no, some people can't even be rid of dulicates. i asked my step-father if i could borrow a book last summer, and he said ok, but only because he had 3 copies (he needed at least 2, one for office, one for home).
By
anna, at 9:29 PM
This is true: I have an SF and a Chicago copy of EB White's "One Man's Meat".
By
Alice Teresa, at 4:30 PM
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