The Green Book

The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen

2007

Weight: 11.2 oz

Method of Disposal: Giving Away

Things I liked about this book:

• Please God, we need to do something about climate change. This message is clear in the book.
• The authors try to meet you where you are at and often.  They do not say "do not fly in an airplane."  They say limit your flight or, if you do fly, do these things while you travel to limit your damage to the environment.
• The use of famous people to make it more trendy.
• I found there are some things that I know better than to do them, but I had grown lazy about it.  This book helped remind me that even the little things can matter.

Things That Work Less For Me

• It was published in 2007 so there is a lot that is irrelevant now or the conversation has changed.  PDAs, camera film, and beepers are rarely used so are no longer worth mentioning.  Often, while reading, this would give me hope that we had already done things that would help us so much just because certain items had become antiquated.  Then, we would get to the next page, and I would realize e-waste and increased electric usage had likely wiped out many of the improvements we had made in other areas.  It is time for a revised addition! 
• The use of famous people may work for some folks but also felt a little superficial to me.  These people are not living paycheck to paycheck.  They can buy any car they want, multiple cars, and they can buy anything and everything energy efficient.  Sacrificing seems less painful if you have so much.
• On the one hand, I want people to do the easy things and make a difference.  On the other hand, I want to be sure that people know that, just because they brush their teeth in the shower and don't buy farmed fish, there is still so much more that needs to be done and so much of that is systemic.

Too Damaged

The Elements of Style Strunk and White
Great American Short Stories
The Little Black Book of Cocktails
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
The Other Side of Truth Beverley Naidoo
Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy
Waiting to Exhale Terry McMillan
Waiting to Fly Ron Naveen
Weight: 8 lbs
Method of Disposal: Recycling

All of these books have been destroyed in some way since we moved here.  I did not throw them out right away, hoping I could salvage them, but I have not been able to.  Elements of Style smells terrible.  I cannot tell you why.  I console myself with the fact that I know I own other copies.  This was the one I got for my high school AP English Class.  It was the first Strunk and White I ever laid hands on.  I was hypnotized by "inflammable" being the actual word for what we commonly think of as "flammable."

I obviously have other copies of 1984, but this one was the coolest by far.  It was purchased from the bargain section of Borders in the 1990s.  The words were spliced with art work in an overly large edition of the classic novel.

I've not read Waiting to Exhale and feel like I should since I saw the movie with Whitney Houston all those years ago.  I was really looking forward to reading about penguins in Waiting to Fly...I could care less about the Scriptures...

Babylon Revisited and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Babylon Revisited and Other Stories F Scott Fitzgerald
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe C.S. Lewis
The publication years are unknown because the books are in shreds.
Weight: 12oz-ish?
Method of Disposal : Recycling

Another two books are gone to the strays.  I guess I should count myself as lucky that they are both classics and easy to find at the library.  Strelka/Charlotte is such a fun and playful girl, but it is time that she goes back to her mama.  She is staying with me indefinitely--both of us just hoping that mom actually comes back.  We are in some sort of strange in between place and the outcome does not look promising, but we have limited options and so we hope anyway.

My first introduction to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was when I was in elementary school.  My brother was reading it.  We were going to sleep on a mattress on the floor of his bedroom, and I wanted to read it too.

I was introduced to Fitzgerald in high school with The Great Gatsby and then I started reading his other work from there.

I will be recycling the remnants of both of these books and trying to hoover up the slivers that are too small to pick up.  Poor Charlotte.  She needs attention, love, and stability.  I have never been able to give it to her, and I have not been able to find anyone else who could either.  She showed up as a stray, went home with a girl that returned her due to allergies, and then went home with two women who broke up, and then came back to me yet again.  I'm trying, Baby Girl, I really am.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 1 and 2
1960
Weight: 4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Leaving at Joe's in East Atlanta on the "Friends of EA Library Book Cart"

My grandparents picked these books up for me at an estate sale fairly recently.  They have a great old book smell and yellowing pages.  I find them charming for those reasons alone.  They have very small print that is set up much like a Bible might be but without the super fine pages that I remember kids in high school smoking pot with.  These pages would never work for that!

I feel guilty about letting them go after such a short stay in my home, but I need to keep my eye on the prize, as they say, and I am not in need of more Shakespeare right now.  I have plenty of it to get rid of without adding more of the complete works.

I really did appreciate the gift and made sure to enjoy them for a short time before leaving them in a coffee shop.  Either way, they will be passed on, yet again, and they will make some new person happy.  I love books.
 

Computer Books

Enterprise Content Services: Connecting Information and Profitability by Greg Laugero and Alden Globe 2002
Fodor’s U.S. Travel Road Atlas (donating? Using for art? Crafts?) 2008
Murach’s Visual Basic 2005 by Anne Boehm
Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services by Paul Turley, Todd Bryant, James Counihan, Dave DuVarney
Weight: 8.5 lbs
Method of Disposal: Recycling

I was going through a box of books I had for sale and found some very outdated titles that are not worth anything, probably to anyone, at this point. I have sold many computer books without writing about them, but I am writing about these because they must have been here forever. They weigh A LOT. How long have I carried them?

The map is probably still useful but also dated. I have not decided its future yet, but it will be gone by the end of the week. Maybe turned into letters/postcards?