Books I Want to Grow Old With
One of my bookcases in 2024
If you’re a reader of a certain age, like me, you likely have more books in your home than you have time left in your life to read or re-read. (This isn’t even counting the thousands of e-books; that’s a subject for another post.) You may also have a husband who is concerned that the beams in the attic floor won’t hold the weight of the boxes of books you moved up there. It begs the question of which of those thousands of books collected over 50 (?!?) years do I want to grow old with.
It’s not an easy question. There is the first book I ever bought with my own earned money (a green-leather-bound volume of Thoreau’s “Walden” I found in a used book store when I was 16), old favorites that I re-read periodically (“Rebecca” by Daphne DuMaurier, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and “Smiley’s People” by John le Carre) and books acquired on memorable trips (“A Moveable Feast” by Hemingway purchased at Shakespeare and Company in Paris and “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” purchased in Dublin). There are also books inherited from book loving family members, like my father’s collection of Ohio history books, my grandmother’s cookbooks and my mother’s complete set of Charles Dickens novels and her classic mystery novels. Some “keepers” are gifts from people I love, such as “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” (by the way, I haven’t).
More books
I’ve moved roughly every 10 years in my adult life, but the books have always come with me. Although my husband and I love our cottage in the woods, we may not be done moving (you never know). However, it’s not likely we’d move into a bigger home, so culling the herd of books in the attic only makes sense. Two houses ago, I built the library of my dreams. I’ve had that; it was fun, but I’m ready for a simpler book collection, one where each tome holds a memory, one that doesn’t weigh me down. After all, if a book doesn’t make the cut, I can always read it on my Kindle.
My library in 2004
So, I’ve embarked on a book downsizing campaign. It’s a bittersweet process, but it’s also strangely liberating. Look for my former books at a church yard sale, little library box and library sale near you.
Still more books
What books do you want to grow old with? Which ones hold the memories of your life? What does your “library” look like?