Scary thoughts – I have most of my books from my home study fitted comfortably into the new study at Westhill. But I have the same number of books at College – Church History, Theology, Pastoral Theology and Spirituality with miscellaneous other stuff. Not a problem just now – but six years down the line when retirement might just about catch me up – what then? Those who don't understand scoff and see the easy answer as a major literary cull. Oblivious to the terror such vocabulary arouses, insensitive to the passionate attachment of soul to library of books, never occurs to such literary utilitarians that a library isn't an aggregate of disposable units, but an organic collection of people, places, ideas and conversations bound up with personal identity, individual history, human development and prolonged intellectual adventure.
So what to do? Thinking about it. Open to suggestions – but not suggestions that upset my inner equilibrium which is finely calibrated and depends on the presence of books collectively bonded together into not just a library, but MY library.Don't want to go digital – I love books not just text. Don't want to throw out furniture to make room for more bookcases – though that may well be negotiable, though the person I'll need to negotiate with is no pushover. Don't want to put books in storage, why keep books to hide them away on the off chance you MIGHT read them. I've always wanted books around me as companions I notice, acknowledge and spend time with. However in a previous post or two I did concede that pushed to the place of having to choose, I could reduce my library to manageable proportions. It's just that the reality is likely to be harder than the hypothesis, the empty claim, and the cheap boast! Meantime I'll do a W E Gladstine and work out how to cram maximum books into minimum space.
Never mind though – as long as I don't retire there won't be a problem 🙂
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