A miracle happened...

[halfshellvenus]

I've mentioned HalfshellHusband's book collection before, and how the sheer quantity of books daunts me (in terms of storage or future moving). Well, last week he got to thinking about what might happen if we had to someday move to be closer to the kids, or what I would have to deal with if he passed away. My father, for example, had hundreds of leather-bound classics that my sister is now struggling to find homes for. So, HSH suddenly decided to go through all his books and purge the paperbacks that are easily available on Kindle and any books he honestly will never read again. That means about 50-70 books are on their way to Goodwill or the library!

We had already cleared everything out of the two 6 1/2 foot bookcases we just sold (picked up today), and almost everything we have left fits in the built-in double-bookcase in the sunroom, with a little room left over for our DVDs. That just leaves the CD collection, and he found places for those. This is in addition to the two 6-foot bookcases in the garage that we need to sell. This is a much more manageable number of books! I feel like I can breathe now. Although I bought a replacement bookshelf from Home Depot back in the Fall (with the intent of getting a twin that now seems to be unavailable). I don't think I even need it, and it's never been opened. Wonder if I can return it (months later)?

In TV news, we finished S2 of The Night Manager. What a shocker of an ending! Overall, I was most intrigued by Teddy's character this season, who was cool, volatile, and vulnerable all at once. Very complex, with a great performance by Diego Calva. It haunts me even now. Not sure when S3 is coming out, but at least it won't be 10 more years...

We are also in the middle of watching Amazon's Heads of State, after resisting for months because it just looked too stupid. It is MUCH better than we expected, when all we really expected was mindless fun. I had thought John Cena was horribly miscast, but he's making it work. Who knew?

Comments

[kizzy]

So many people in my town try to donate books that many places no longer take them, especially paperbacks. I still have all of my dad's hardcover history books including Churchill's History of the English Speaking People series and probably every book by Barbara Tuchman. I know all my college textbooks will end up in a dumpster :(

[halfshellvenus]

I've split our donations, where some of the paperbacks are going to Goodwill (especially the children's books--the library won't even bother with those). Our library tends to sell most of the books donated to it, which is another issue. I've ranted before about the "board feet" of actual books in the library dwindling over time as it becomes more of a community center. It was down to about 40% of its peak, the last I checked. But OTOH, money helps fund the Kindle books I read courtesy of the library, and I believe in libraries in general, so...

[bleodswean]

I won't part with my books. Can't read on an e-book to save my life. But I do understand feeling burdened by things.

OMG - Teddy!!!! I loved this season and we are getting S3 next year. Hiddleston is criminally underutilized. So versatile.

[halfshellvenus]

Well, you know. Do you have 200 books? Because that's about what HSH had when we moved back into the house. And some of them he has never even read (like, the whole book-of-the-month collection he was part of some 25+ years ago).

I don't have any trouble with e-readers, myself. I don't want them for illustrated books (like kids' picture books!), but I've adjusted to even reading Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next footnotes on Kindle now! Also, the technology for that has improved since the original conversion.

Teddy haunts me. I keep wishing we'd had EVEN MORE of him with Pine! Great chemistry, and great shifting back-and-forth of the relationship dynamic from violence/threat to intimacy and tentative trust.

I would love more Hiddleston. He has such charisma. And, get this-- I think he has an uncredited cameo as a TV reporter in the Heads of State movie I just watched. It was about a 10-15 second glimpse, and I've been meaning to go back to that point to see if it's actually him!

[thewayne]

Another excellent source for seeing that books go to a good home is retirement homes! Be sure to call first. When my father died, a year after my mom, we had a lot to get rid of, and the home that he helped build took EVERYTHING. Including 40+ y/o encyclopedias! Bible commentaries, children's books, everything. They're ravenous for printed books.

[halfshellvenus]

Oh, that's a good thought! My parents were in a retirement "village", which had its own library of donated books. Mostly paperbacks of popular genres, but what a great idea for the residents. They might not be able to drive to the city library, but they can usually walk or wheel over to the village's community center for books.