I love books, always have. One of the oldest photographs of myself shows a small chubby toddler looking happily in the lens while she’s molesting a big book. Already then I enjoyed playing with books. I love the feel of a book in my hands. Needless to say, I own a lot of books.
I was always strongly against e-readers because they do not compare to real books. The cover that speaks to you, the lovely sometimes-a-bit-stuffy smell of an old book… But last year I bought an e-reader nonetheless. Could be handy on vacation and for reading in bed. And now I cannot do without it anymore. What a great device! Mine has a small reading light in the cover and I can use it everywhere. No hassle with the reflection of the sun. I can read comfortably lying on my side. And you can store so many books on it! If a book disappoints, you just pick the next one. Although I don’t do that often, by the way. Usually I’m too curious to see whether it will get interesting further on. And some of the best books take some time in the beginning to wrestle through. But now that I have such a device I don’t need all those real books. Well, as far as novels and such are concerned. For practical books about gardening, for example, I still prefer the paper version.
While I’m typing this on my PC there are about 12 piles of books surrounding me. I’ve categorized them roughly: a pile for eBay in hopes of getting some money for them, a pile for the flea market. Not a small feat, but novels are definitely out, so that helps. In the end I want to have only one small shelf left. Not a small feat either… And what to do with all my photo albums? Those can’t go, but I can’t take all of them with me to my Tiny House either. I’ll have to sleep on that one. Maybe I can temporarily store them somewhere else. Although I want to do that as little as possible. Life in a Tiny House is about having that which you need. Not about having storage full of stuff somewhere else; that’s cheating. But for photo albums I think I’m allowed to make an exception. They are your memories after all. And even though you might not look at them for years, that one time you do want to go through them can be quite good for you. To see how far you’ve come in life and which people played a part in that.
It’s funny going through your life’s collection of books. It shows quite nicely where your interests have been through the years and how that changed. Often there is a theme to discover that can give you hints as to where your true interests or maybe even passions lie. In my case, love of nature and alternative plant use (or maybe it’s actually more traditional than alternative) constantly shows up even though I don’t do much with it at the moment. But who knows? Maybe I’ll take that up again when I’m living somewhere in the middle of that so-loved nature!
For now back to my piles of books. The work is not nearly done yet. Should you be looking for a book or two, check out eBay. ;)
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