Books and thoughts

[minoanmiss]

Every time I think of my books . I think of how two well to do White people, who I had thought knew me accused me of racism for not wanting to give up my personal library. On behalf of a well to do Japanese lady they’d never met they told a not all wealthy black woman to impoverish myself. One of these people is a friend of friends so I see their name come up often and am thus reminded of this often. But anyway.

I am about to start packing my books and so I should probably weed them. I will sadly probably have to discard the paperbacks with crumbling pages. Some others I don’t need as much but I’m not sure how to get them a good home. I wish I had the wherewithal to set up a Little Free Library. I’m sure my local library gets a lot of offers and to judge by the comments of librarians on Tumblr they’ll probably look at me and assume I'm offering copies of Patterson books and 50 Shades. You all know me well enough to know I wouldn't be.

What do you think ?

Comments

[baranduin]

I think your brain is eating away at you again. You don't need to get rid of a single book if you don't want to. As for the charming people in the first paragraph? *spits*

[dewline]

Seconding all of that.

If you need to cull, you cull for your own reasons.

*looking at my own collections and bracing for more self-induced heartbreak to come*

[ex_flameandsong751]

Thirding.

[sabotabby]

Fourthed.

[caitri]

Fifthed!

[amaebi]

Sixthed.

[purlewe]

Adding my voice to this. Only remove what you want to remove. Keep what you want to keep. DO NOT CARE WHAT OTHERS THINK ABOUT THIS MATTER.

[bikergeek]

I think you should do whatever the fuck you want and fuck what anybody else thinks. If a book is in sufficiently poor condition that it shouldn't be kept around, and isn't sufficiently rare or unusual to warrant preservation, then yeah, trash itput it in recycling. If it's something you don't want, then donate it. (I might make an exception for nonfiction books that contain outdated scholarship, or fiction books that are by problematic authors or that contain outdated or stereotypical or unflattering or otherwise problematic depictions of BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ people or members of a few other assorted groups I could name--but reasonable people of good intention can draw those lines in different places.)

Keeping books you no longer want just to spite people whose opinion shouldn't matter to you serves no purpose and is a waste of space.

[princessofgeeks]

I wish you could banish the stupid and ridiculous statements of those 2 from your mind.

THEY DO NOT GET A VOTE ON YOUR BOOKS OR ON ANYTHING ELSE.

I wish you could fire them.

I know it has a bad reputation in some regions of the US, but when I had books I didn't want any more I gave them to Goodwill. They have a used book store.

Or if you are more organized than I you could take them to a used book store that will trade them in for you on other stuff, if they want them.

Good luck!

KEEP ALL THE BOOKS YOU WANT. YOU GET TO DECIDE HOW MANY BOOKS YOU WANT. OWNING BOOKS IS NOT RACIST. I am the princess. I have spoken.

[redbird]

I have occasionally placed books I don't want in other people's Little Free Libraries, as well as occasionally taken books from those LFLs.

I don't, of course, know if there's one near your house where you could place books.

[amaebi]

Yes, that's what I was going to say.

[sonia]

Oof. I second everyone else. Keep what you want. Ditch what you don't want, including other people's messed up messages.

I'm sure your area has plenty of used bookstores, but just in case, Powell's Books in Portland OR will buy your books online and pay for you to ship them. Powell's credit is a useful thing to have. I hauled books across the river to them by the bike-trailer-full before I moved away, so I have enough credit to mail order from them for years to come.

[sovay]

I am about to start packing my books and so I should probably weed them.

Unless you do not have the cubic space to store them, I don't see why you should. If you do not want to keep a crumbling book for whatever reasons, stuff it in a local Little Free Library and wish it godspeed. If you want to hang on to every oxidized flake and fragment of text, hang on!

*hugs*

[petra]

As Richard Feynman's spouse said to him, "What do you care what other people think?" Keep everything you want, give away everything you don't want, and flip off anyone who thinks their opinion matters more than yours.

[xenacryst]

All of the above. Also, if you feel like keeping some of the books is not what you need, and none of the other options seem to work, make a list of them and offer them here for anyone who wants to pay you shipping.

[kore]

I think of how two well to do Whit people who I had thought knew me accused me of racism for not wanting to give up my personal library. On behalf of a well to do Japanese lady they’d never met they told a not all wealthy black woman to impoverish myself. One of these people is a friend of friends so I see their name come up often and am thus reminded of this often. But anyway.


They can go sit on a pencil and spin, Jesus.

I second the idea of maybe giving the books to a pre-existing Little Free Library, or even just a box with "Free Books" on it. Libraries and I think even Goodwill got overwhelmed with book donations during the pandemic, altho I don't know if that tapered off.

they're you're books, you get to decide.

[ororo]

Also...if your books bring you joy, Kondo would tell you to keep them.

Re: they're you're books, you get to decide.

[minoanmiss]

I have the feeling that every dollar I can save on moving will bring me joy ahahahah

Re: they're you're books, you get to decide.

[conuly]

Honestly, books should be free to move. Just... free.

Though I suppose that means we should have some sort of public fund to compensate the movers.

Re: they're you're books, you get to decide.

[conuly]

Yeah, people have really gone waaaaaaay overboard with her statement that she, personally, doesn't have many books. Though usually it's overboard in the other direction, and no matter how hard I squint I just can't get the leap from "Kondo and if not, you are doing racism".

[cellio]

Other people are not entitled to the control over your life that the people you're describing seek. They're your books and it's your life; the opinion that matters is yours.

I hope you don't make irrevocable decisions now while thinking you have to compress yourself into a tiny space or meet others' expectations or something. If you have any doubts about whether to keep or toss something, keeping it allows you to make that decision another day.

[gingicat]

There's a Little Free Library at my workplace and things get snapped up quickly. You'd be doing me the favor of having an excuse to take out the "accidentally" racist books and toss them.

[minoanmiss]

It's a deal!

[gingicat]

Also I owe you a replacement copy of Tehanu because it never dried out properly.

[minoanmiss]

I'm going through my journal to find the charity we just discussed and found this. I'll make up a curated bag for you.

[lilysea]

There is nothing inherently ethical about having less books.

If having less books makes your life/moving easier, that's fine, but you are not a bad person for keeping your books! ^_^

I've had good results giving books that I wanted to rehome to public libraries and Op Shops (secondhand charity shops).

I've also given away books on Buy Nothing with contactless collection (no face to face).

Ugh! Moving house sucks. :(

[anna_wing]

I think of how two well to do Whit people who I had thought knew me accused me of racism for not wanting to give up my personal library.

These are nonsensical opinions of no consequence to anyone. Disregard them. If the thought of them pops into your head, contemplate the excellence of your collection instead.

If you have space to store books, and you want to keep them, keep them.

I'm glad that you are better from your medical ordeal.

[potofsoup]

Agree with what everyone has said. I guess another logistical possibility is getting free digital copies of books that you aren't particularly attached to. Like, there's books that I want to flip through, and there's books that I want to have "just in case." Some of the latter might be ones that I only have a digital copy of. Project Gutenberg has a lot, as does archive.org and the usual z-lib, libgen sort of places.

eta: my general philosophy re: digital books is that ... if I already bought a physical copy of the book, I don't feel particularly bad getting a digital copy of said book for free. It's essentially saving myself the effort of scanning the book. YMMV. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[lavendertook]

The right antidepressant for you can stop those hamster wheels from turning. That’s what cymbalta does for me. I still get anxious and depressed and deal with executive dysfunction, and procrastinate horribly due to that, but the hamster wheels taking all the old issues and going round and round with them and what those people said aren’t ready to start turning at every trigger, and when they do start whirring, I can identify I am riding them and step off, take a breath, and walk away from them. I am no longer their prisoner. I can have peace and quiet and focus on now and the future without getting mired in my past.

I know it’s more than “old issues” and these people’s word acts are concrete parcels of the systemic racism you face anew daily, but the way they trigger you in your history of personal relationships where there is nothing further you can learn and are just hashing over old ground you need to leave behind makes them part of the hamster wheels that really are purely chemical and can be stopped with the right med. I know it’s hard to get an appt with a psych who can prescribe them, but once you get one, your pcp can get you refills to minimize how often you need appointments with the psych; prescribing psychs aren’t the people you do talk therapy with these days. *hugs*

[cmcmck]

WTF is this thing with people and hating libraries?

My library is who I am- I wish they'd get over that!

Ignore them.

[lunabee34]

Hugs

I'm sorry that happened to you.

[adrian_turtle]

You can keep as many books as you have room for! There is nothing racist (nor otherwise wrong) about keeping a personal library of whatever size makes you happy. Cost or space, or changing tastes, are different issues than ethics. If you want to give a few books away, you can put them in someone else's Little Free Library. If you have a LOT of books to give away, More Than Words will come pick them up. https://mtwyouth.org/
They're a secondhand store in Waltham run by an organization fighting youth homelessness and helping kids as they age out of foster care. They'll pick up donations if you have at least 8 bags of gently-used books and/or clothes.

[minoanmiss]

Oh my goodness this is exactly the kind of resource I want to support. Thank you so much!

[julian]

These guys are really great, in case you want an endorsement. (They'd slid out of my brain because I'm more focused on Providence lately.)

I thought their Waltham location had a cafe, but I guess not. (Or maybe the Boston location does? Website confusing.)

[gingicat]

That sounds amazing!

[elrhiarhodan]

Don't get rid of a book you don't want to. Hold them close, they are your children, your family, your memories. Even if you are never going to read them again, they have meaning for you.

Unless of course you hate them, they disgust you, or you find them an intolerable burden.

But don't give away your books because you think you should, or because some fucking Karen says you ought to.

[acelightning73]

This old white woman is telling you that it's nobody's business but yours how many books you have or what bookd there are. I lost a lot of irreplaceable books in Sandy. I had some old cookbooks that had been my mother's when she first got married, and those all got destroyed. And a bunch of other books that I wish hadn;t turned into mold farms. So keep whatever books you want to keep. And NOBODYbut you gets to decide what you keep.