++ I am actually suffering PTSD from the sale of my library. No,It's not good because it is part of the process of decluttering our lives. It is the Hurricane Sandy of my personal life. The Dream has died--like The Donald said in his announcement.
++As Warner Wolf said,"Let's look at the video tape." What dream was it. I looked forward in my dotage to living in Maine in a farmhouse that could house all my books--a dream stimulated by an LSD trip at Williams where I spent the night meditating on a bookstore which consisted of a white frame house filled with books.
++Now let's be practical here. The odds that I could actually move to Maine with all my books was very low. It took at least a year to box what I had for sale. The cost of moving them would be prohibitive. So I get there and have to spend months and money to arrange space for them--preferable in an outbuilding.
That done,we are facing the limits of McColm male life expectancy--which never exceeded 68 in generations.
++Give me the benefit of the doubt and add five years until health issues arise. We are only talking about five years to enjoy the library. P.S. I have a contingency library that will last that long.
++Then you are faced with disposal. My son doesn't want them. My wife doesn't want them,although she has enjoyed the fruits of the library for years. So someone has to dispose of them. Having disposed of my parents' belongings and a friend of mine has been spending at least a year removing things from his parents' storage locker,it would be cruel and costly to put that burden on anyone.
++Still I don't consider selling my library a humanitarian act, nor was it that profitable. I equated BOOK with GOOD and still do. But let's face it I was a hoarder. I tended to say I was a completist--I had complete John Le Carre's, complete Graham Greene's, complete Peter Matthiesson's. I was a compulsive collector. If I wanted to read about the Spanish Civil War,I bought and read everything. The virtue was that I had read every book I purchased or owned. Now I am in detox. It will be interesting to see how I fare over the next few months.
++I don't have the regret I had when I sold my first art library. But lacuna appeared last night. During this whole process I never saw my Cormac McCarthy's or Francis Yates' The Art of Memory. This is strange. I can almost recite all the books sold and selected those most cherished for their reading pleasure. Even yesterday as my home bookshelves were being emptied, I never saw them. Francis Yates'book has been with me for years and ,yes, I did buy another copy for safety sake. You see I needed up buying "reading" copies or books and copies to collect. So it's strange to miss these two authors in the whole process. Also add Engels' translation of the Aeneid
++Now today begins the rebuilding process. I would guestimate I am down to a core library of 500-750.
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