there was a lot of snow, or possibly, an alot of snow

[beachlass]

IN: 2 (PS3 remote, new snowbrush for the car)

OUT 3: books

So often letting go of something involves letting go of an idea of myself as the person who is going to use that something. Like admitting that the houseplants are really dead. And some of the books on gardening and houseplants never, ever get opened. (Which might explain some of the dead houseplants, really). And sometimes acquiring the new things means letting myself have something to make life easier. Like a not worn out snowbrush.

Comments

[angelbabe_cj]

Well done.

[beachlass]

Thank you!

[bethctg]

letting go of an idea of myself as the person who is going to use that something
Well said. This is why bookstores are my downfall: so much potential for me in every book.

[beachlass]

Argh, I know. When I get rid of books, I always try to frame it in my head as letting them go for someone else to enjoy. But it took a bunch of intentional book-giving a couple of years ago to start shifting my comfort level.

[iliketea]

Me too, sadly. I've had to look at a lot of my books and say "Look, I'm not the person who is going to enjoy this, and hauling all of these around in the hopes that I'll magically become that person is an inefficient use of space." Plus, you know, there'll always be more books.

[beachlass]

Plus, you know, there'll always be more books.

Somehow, no matter how many books I buy, borrow from the library and otherwise acquire, this continues to be true!

[all_adream]

I agree. We moved from our old giant house maybe eight months ago to a much more modest apartment, with plans to empty the old house, get rid of tons of stuff, and then eventually move to another place, all cleverly uncluttered and streamlined by then. We have done very well in many things, but MAN: books, books, books. A lot of them are in the "could be useful or interesting someday" category, or "oh, I used to study this, and this is an example of the mainstream stuff promoted in psychology/sociology/whatever which I may need for writing imaginary papers if I ever get, you know, more advanced degrees, which I never actually plan to do". My partner is just as bad, if not worse, about books, and he has made a resolution to buy no new/used books until he reads all he has. HA! Good luck to him. I think that part of it is our age, since we grew up in these last few decades when books were so valuable and personal and helpful, before the internet or kindle 'books', so we still value them all.

[beachlass]

One of the things I started telling myself was that I am not actually the designated archivist for x type of book. Like bad lesbian mystery novels from the 1980s. If the feminist community held a meeting and put me in charge of that, I think I missed the memo.

And I've tried to start asking myself: If I/the kids wanted information on insert subject here, are we likely to need this book, or more likely to look up information on the net?

But yeah, books are just plain hard for an awful lot of us.