Getting ready to move next week. Boxing up my books is a delightful task.
I’m a minimalist and throw away almost everything. Except books. I have a rule for them. If it’s a book I’ll read, or if I’ve read it, good enough to read a second time, I keep it. If it’s a one and done, I toss it. I’ve gotten rid of more books then I’ve kept, still, I have quite a collection. Probably 600-700 books.
I probably won’t read most of them a second time. But I love their presence.
I arrange my books in chronological order on my intellectual journey. It serves as a physical timeline of my mental and spiritual growth.
Just being in the presence of the books that helped shape my thinking does something. It reminds me of the ideas and fills me with a sliver of the magic and illumination I had when I read them.
If I never pick them up a second time, they still make my life better as living furniture.