I stack books in double rows on each shelf so that an invisible row sits behind the visible row. Some shelves are three thick. I’ve also begun to stack books in horizontal piles on top of a row. Last year, I donated a boxful to a children’s library. But a donation cull is one thing; sentencing a book to death by drowning is another thing. To leave a book vulnerable is to say that the ideas it holds are insignificant. Which leads to a difficult question: what books are more significant than others?
There is no better time to evaluate a book than a physical crisis. A couple of years ago, the house was flooded again. As the water rose around my ankles, I decided to put on a pair of gum boots and get down to the dirty work of classifying books in descending order of ‘significance’. On the lowest shelf went the most ‘dispensable’ ones. I’m not naming names but...
Read the rest of the essay on trying to rescue books in a household flooding situation and thus assessing its importance, published in the new edition of Kindle mag.
2 comments:
I keep secret books behind the stack because others may not pick and run away.
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Much like fiction, much like life, a crisis forces one to choose. What to do with memories, which to save, which to let go, what holds value. Choices will have to be made, for stories need to move. Choices will reveal a newer character, as she discovers newer facets of who she is and what is true to her today. Interesting how life and fiction overlap, even in the seemingly simple non life threatening, altering decisions one makes.
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