Review: "I was being freed from the burden of all those bloody books."
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 8, 2014
Novelist Linda Grant has been collecting books since she was a child. She doesn't collect rare first editions or autographed copies -- she just saves all the books she acquires, a fifty-some year accumulation. A move to a new apartment spurs her to tackle the overwhelming stockpile and leads to a contemplation of why it's so difficult to get rid of books.It's a short (I don't know how many pages, but it took about 30-40 minutes to read the whole thing) essay that considers a problem that many of us have faced. She admits that she doesn't intend to read most of the books again. Many of them are dusty, moth-eaten, moldy, or otherwise in poor condition. They aren't worth selling, no one would buy them. She gives away as many as she can, but there are few takers.Looking into some of the books she read decades ago, she realizes that she can't even read the tiny print (I've found many books that are printed in Britain to have uncomfortably small type and opt for an American version or ebook when possible). She likes reading on her Kindle (This is the second Kindle Single I've read that mention Kindle by name, leaving me to wonder if it's an unsubtle form of product placement), but many of the books that she would like to replace with digital copies are not yet available in that form.She goes back and forth, eventually culling the books to a manageable three bookcases worth for her new house. But now she worries that she doesn't have enough books. Is she really the same person without all those books?Grant eventually reaches a kind of peace with her decisions, leaving her readers to grapple with their own thoughts on physical books vs. digital. As for me, I found that getting rid of all the books I knew I would never read again was a huge relief.