What’s the largest number of books you’ve donated at one time? For years I have purged in drips and drabs. A full tote bag’s worth, two at the most. My local library welcomed donations for the Friends of the Library’s sales once a month, and I kept them well stocked. Hazard of the business. Always books coming in the door. Eventually some need to head back out or one day there’s no space left. And I don’t mean space on the shelves; I mean in the apartment.
Dear Nephele: Thank you. I read so much that I must read, and write so much and clean all of that up, your newsletter is strictly a joy. I hope you do not mind, I want to share it with my readers on my Facebook group Drink Tea and Read Books. I would like my readers to be your readers. Cheers, Jacqueline Gillam Fairchild
Oh, the choice of which books to keep! When I moved from Cape Cod to Boston last year, I felt doubly challenged because my husband also is an avid reader. What’s more, we had inherited my parents’ book collection, which meant downsizing for four people. Some of their books dated from the 30s and 40s. My mother knew both John Hersey and Dwight Macdonald and their autographed books went into a special Definitely Keep pile. My parents maintained two full shelves on Russia, mostly history books related to research they had done for Private World of the Last Tsar, but other stuff too. I discovered an interesting quasi-memoir written in 1969 by Arthur Miller about his trip to Russia. My husband is a historian, so his books were history. Mine were mostly novels. We made our selection and packed up the boxes. Around a dozen, for us, marked Arlington, and a dozen for the Robbins library. Unfortunately, the library only accepts one box per month and prefers recently published books. A number of those boxes remained in the basement all year. Then, I noticed a metal container at the local gas station, labeled Books. So, that’s where many of them ended up.
Thanks for the recommendation on the book by Konigsburg. I will track it down for my granddaughter. Just checked. Arlington has two copies and both are out! Alexandra
Dear Nephele: Thank you. I read so much that I must read, and write so much and clean all of that up, your newsletter is strictly a joy. I hope you do not mind, I want to share it with my readers on my Facebook group Drink Tea and Read Books. I would like my readers to be your readers. Cheers, Jacqueline Gillam Fairchild
Oh, the choice of which books to keep! When I moved from Cape Cod to Boston last year, I felt doubly challenged because my husband also is an avid reader. What’s more, we had inherited my parents’ book collection, which meant downsizing for four people. Some of their books dated from the 30s and 40s. My mother knew both John Hersey and Dwight Macdonald and their autographed books went into a special Definitely Keep pile. My parents maintained two full shelves on Russia, mostly history books related to research they had done for Private World of the Last Tsar, but other stuff too. I discovered an interesting quasi-memoir written in 1969 by Arthur Miller about his trip to Russia. My husband is a historian, so his books were history. Mine were mostly novels. We made our selection and packed up the boxes. Around a dozen, for us, marked Arlington, and a dozen for the Robbins library. Unfortunately, the library only accepts one box per month and prefers recently published books. A number of those boxes remained in the basement all year. Then, I noticed a metal container at the local gas station, labeled Books. So, that’s where many of them ended up.
Thanks for the recommendation on the book by Konigsburg. I will track it down for my granddaughter. Just checked. Arlington has two copies and both are out! Alexandra
Oh, how I adored The Mixed Files, etc. :)
I am a fairly consistent purger of almost everything.
My husband has every greeting card he has ever received (and almost everything else he ever bought, found, or received as a gift).
It's...interesting.