The Lifeboat
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I'm in an odd place; one of the things I am planning to do this year is return to the UK and find somewhere to live. This means that I need to think about packing and the extortionate costs of shipping goods across the Atlantic. If I were more Zen about this, I would be casting aside as many posessions as possible and just turning up with a suitcase.
It turns out I am less than Zen, because of my ongoing book addiction.
While I have steeled myself to not buying any more new books, something that grates at my nerves daily, and while I have steeled myself against buying new things generally, I still have a small collection - perhaps a couple of dozen books - that I cannot bear to be parted from. I now face the unhappy choice of deciding which ones come with me...and which ones don't.
I toyed, briefly, with the idea of putting up some kind of poll and letting other people help me decide. Then I decided that would be far too callous. These aren't people, these are books, they're important. Also, I can't ask people to decide on something so personal unless they have the same relationship with said books that I do. So it really comes down to me making the final cut.
This is an aspect of the final move I am really not looking forward to. It's odd, too, because of all the roots I should have put down in the last seven years this is the biggest wrench. This is the one that's difficult. Moreover, it's like a little window into mortality. At some time in the next...ooo...seventy* years or so someone else is going to have to go through my book collection and sort out what they want to keep, and what to throw away, and probably make little "tsk tsk" noises at my fondness for British fantasists with comedic tendencies. My bet is that they will box up the dusty tomes and ship them off to an Old Folks Home where people still enjoy print as opposed to reading things via direct retina projection (ooo - can we call the interface the iBall?) or having them channelled directly into their CNS.
*a wildly optimistic ballpark figure. If I get through today alive I will be impressed.
13 comments:
Why can't you take them all? :-(
Ditch the unimportant stuff like clothes, and rescue as many books as possible.
ditto.
It's tempting but seriously impractical. For one thing, I need the clothes. Have you ever attemptd to convince people you're worth employing if you turn up naked? Or, worse, in a Hawaiian shirt?
No, some of the books must go so I have room for things like shoes, and so i don't end up having to spend all my savings on replacement clothing.
Although this does leave me with the paradoxical situation of having to spend my savings on replacement books. Axtually, I rather like that thought.
Maybe I'm not buying books to read them Maybe I'm nesting.
Nesting? I rather like the mental image that gave me of you as a fluffy little bird. A wise old owl, possibly.
Seriously, you only need two sets of clothes - one to wear, one to wash.
(Then again, perhaps I am not the best person to give advice on matters sartorial.)
Wise? Old?
Owl?
Definitely travel wearing the bulkiest shoes. (And since it's to the UK, you could wear all your clothes, freeing up suitcase space.)
Lucy, if I were less scruffy and less of a sloppy eater I would declare your sartorial advice sooth and follow it wholeheartedly.
I'm trying to embrace minimalism but my attitude to workspace was subject to being imprinted by Merlin's home in the Disney The Sword in the Stone.
"Wise? Old?"
- well spotted, Mand. As a fellow Gamer, you're well aware that when I was rolled-up, Wisdom was my Dump-Stat.
Nay.* As you have just implied, you are an owl.
I think.
(Mine? probably Charisma.)
* This makes me a nay-sayer.
It is decided. Dave is an owl. Now we must announce this news to the world.
Charisma, Mand? A dump stat? For you?
Is this shameless trolling for compliments? If so then I shall happily oblige with "Oh come now! I'd have said you'd got at least 14 Cha!" and then made some mildly suggestive comments about you having a couple of positive modifiers.
If you feel like being subjected to that sort of thing, do let me know.
;)
Lucy...why do I have to be an owl? Isn't it wrong to go around imposing identities on things?
Yes, but it makes me giggle :-D
And I am a magpie.
Lucy, now you make me think about which bird i am. I know my gran would have wanted me to be a kingfisher but that's not it. Heron perhaps? This could keep me pondering for ages. 80)
And Dave, i was truly NOT angling (hey, pond theme going on here) but considered all the others; eg pretty sure i rolled well on Int... ;0) and besides, remember last time you saw me was before i got mumsy. I now have more chin n less makeup.
I love being subjected to that sort of thing but you can consider me sufficiently dosed up with it now. Thanx.
With the general lack of internet today I made a list of all the books.
Then I started reading them.
Then I had a few minutes alone with them, explaining that it was nothing personal.
Then I started drinking.
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