Saturday, July 16, 2022

Culling a library

When books must go:
A reader in Philadelphia, a retired attorney, tells me he and his wife are moving into a retirement home....

“But our apartment,” he writes, “is far smaller than our six-bedroom home so I am situationally compelled to perform a massive bibliotomy. ...."

I don’t envy him the task of culling his library. One gauge of worth is re-readability. I would be unlikely to dump a title I might want to read again, or at least consult. Books frequently reread maintain continuity with the past – always a source of consolation. They live in us like pleasingly pleasant memories, the bittersweet sort we revisit and savor. ....
Patrick Kurp, "My Reluctance to Let Certain Books Go," Anecdotal Evidence, July 16, 2022.

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