I love books. I like the smell and feel of books and most importantly the wisdom contained in those books.
This bookcase behind me is not a carefully curated Zoom background but rather a collection of titles that mean something to me.
The art history textbook from my freshman year in college where I discovered my passion for architecture and art.
The medical dictionary my father gave when I thought about maybe going to medical school, an idea that did not last but the memories of the conversations with my father around that book have.
And the Modern Library Classics and Fairy tale books that belonged to my mother as a young woman. I’ve read these books many times and I keep them because they are an important connection to her.
Doing some Spring cleaning, I pulled this massive book off the shelf—it’s a Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary—you can see how thick it is—and this is a book that I haven’t touched in 10 years.
Because in this age of Kindle and The Internet, when I need to look up a word, I go online. And right next to this dictionary is my Roget’s Thesaurus, and again I haven’t taken it off the shelf in quite some time.
And I’m faced with the dilemma as I contemplate a move in the next few months: what to do with all these books?
Do I donate them to a library? Do I hang on to them because they are connections to people, places and passions that I have?
I’d be curious to hear from all of you, what you do with your books?
