Comparative Studies in Religion and Society: Terror in the Mind of God : The Global Rise of Religious Violence 13 by Mark Juergensmeyer 2003

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down : A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman 1997

Voice of Witness : Underground America : Narratives of Undocumented Lives

Weight: 3 lbs

Method of Disposal: Selling

This is that incredibly sad moment when I need to sell books I have not even read yet. I have avoided this moment as much as possible, but the moment has come to let go and hope for the best. I am just thankful someone bought them. I hope one day to be able to check these three out of a library or borrow them from a friend one day. The other good news is that somewhere, out there, people are still buying books.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Among the Rubble of Fallen Bookshelves...

I have collected books for as long as I can remember. I worked in bookstores for years before I ended up at the animal shelter. I have gathered words, sentences, punctuation, and cover art to my own detriment. I purchased books before clothes, sometimes instead of food. I can see my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood sprawled across many shelves and shoved into boxes that sit collecting dust, just waiting for the next big move. I think I am a woman who is afraid of commitment, settling, and stagnation. Yet the things I love most seem to coincide best with a stable, secure, immovable life. I love dogs, books, and often one woman’s company above that of others. The dogs are here for the long haul. They are too wonderful for this world and yet they are essential to it. The woman is complicated. The books are sturdy, durable, constant, perfect, and full of intrigue. They are also very heavy. They are boxes of ounces, pounds, kilograms, weight. We have moved together too many times. Maybe we met at the wrong time in the wrong place, and I have just refused to let go all of this time. I have decided to dismantle this library of thousands of books. What am I holding onto really? I have books I loved, books I hated, books that made me uneasy for weeks, and books that made someone else uneasy for weeks. I have begun to treat these books like objects and not like the magical capsules they are. I am going to give away, sell, donate all of this weight so that others can enjoy it, collect it, share it, and so that I can move more freely through my life. Libraries are where it’s at. The problem: I am terrified to let the books go. We have been together so long and put each other through so much. The only way I can imagine sending them off is if I memorialize each and every one I have left at this moment. This blog is to honor my friends, my enemies, my lovers, my life, and my words as I have collected them through the books I have read and, finally, to move away from them and onto other things. I will never stop loving books. I will never stop reading. I plan only to stop collecting so much material, so much weight.

The Dismantled Library

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Selling Books

Comparative Studies in Religion and Society: Terror in the Mind of God : The Global Rise of Religious Violence 13 by Mark Juergensmeyer 2003

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down : A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman 1997

Voice of Witness : Underground America : Narratives of Undocumented Lives

No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

My Blog List