9 thoughts on “The Books”

  1. My collection of “non-digital” things (soon to be “relics”), by shelf space, is approximately 80% CDs, 15% DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, and 5% books. I would venture to guess that the books weight more than the videos, but the cases on CDs are small enough and dense enoguh that the music definitely outweighs the books by the pound.

    All of my CDs are ripped into iTunes, for music on-the-go, but I won’t put them away in binders or discard the cases like some people I’ve known in the past. I think that my music collection (sorted by genre and artist), and my movie collection (sorted by single movies, series, and TV shows) says just as much about my personality as any book collection would.

    And, honestly, the method in which I’ve organized and displayed those collections probably says even more about my personality than the content of those collections…

  2. One wall of my apartment is nothing but books, with a couple of auxiliary shelves for favored magazines. That’s not to mention the large number of vinyl albums I still have.

    The linked article reminds me of a facet from the original Star Trek before Roddenberry turned the universe into a socialist utopia; Kirk was well-known for keeping some printed-codex books in his quarters, indicating both his interest in history as well as symbolizing his role as anachronism. A Hornblower in space, as it were.

    The possession of printed codex books may eventually revert into a symbol of wealth, with the proles only able to afford small, inexpensive e-readers.

  3. The world trade center used to have a magazine stand I visited five days a week being a simple stop on the subway. It seemed like they had every magazine published. I don’t read that much any more.

  4. When I moved last year, I culled over 1000 books from my collection. I’d had some of those books for over 40 years. It was like losing old friends but there was no choice. We were up against weight and volume limits. It was time to let go. Don’t be owned by your possessions.

  5. I don’t consider myself a Luddite or a technophobe, but I haven’t yet caught the e-reader bug. I don’t have a cellphone, either. Or a laptop, for that matter.

    For years I mainly bought paperbacks, but since I discovered Brodart, I’ve favored hardcovers. I don’t often buy new books. Rather, I can’t resist yard sales and library sales. In the last few years, I’ve been seeking out out-of-print books about the early years of the Space Age online through Abebooks and Alibris. I’ve had very good luck buying used books in very good condition.

    Alas, I tend to accumulate books faster than I read them, since I spend so much of my leisure time online. Yet I keep on buying them. My bookshelves have long since filled up, and now the piles of books are starting to multiply.

    At times I despair of the future because of the way we’re heading. At those times I think I should be getting busy sealing my books in plastic and burying them in lead-lined boxes in my backyard. I wish I was kidding about that.

  6. In 20 years all that stands between civilization and the stone age is one large Coronal Mass Ejection.

    1. Dennis,

      Yep. Then they will be looking for us stone age book collectors who kept the paper ones.

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