Farewell, my lovelies
Parting with friends
by quinnsmomMay 26, 2006
Au Revoir, Flaubert! Do Svidanya, Tolstoy! And as for you, Jack Kerouac, it's time to get On the Road. Steinbeck, see you later. Oh no! I can't let you go, Inspector Morse! Or you, Inspector Maigret! Oh great Cthulhu, you MUST stay!
Every move is stressful, but when you're moving 3000 miles away and you have to leave two-thirds of your books behind, what do you do? How do you decide what stays and what goes? I'm here to tell you that this is probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, and that making the choice of books to take and books to leave behind has been extremely painful. I think it's even more painful than what I felt when I fell down my stairs on St. Patrick's Day this year and broke my tailbone! Considering I couldn't sit for over 4 weeks, you might begin to imagine just what kind of pain we're talking here.
Dig in the box, pull out a book. Does it stay or does it go? Can it be easily replaced? Did I really love this book? Will I suffer if I have to leave it behind? Let's look at an example of the process at work. A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute, was one of my favorite books of last year, one that touched me very deeply. I absolutely fell in love with this story, the characters and the Australian Outback while reading this book, and it had a special place of honor on the "these are my favorite books" shelf. But then again, Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov, which turned out to be my favorite book of 2005, is also a member of the "my favorite books" club, proudly displayed in my family room. So I now have a choice of 2 favorite books from which I can only choose one to keep. I have to add one more to get rid of, so I'm going to choose Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie – very easy to replace. So the choice is really between A Town Like Alice and Pale Fire. I can't even begin to think in terms of how much either will cost to replace, so I have to think back to reading both books. Which one did I like more? Which one gave me the most pleasure while reading it, and which one will I cry over the most when leaving it in the "give away" box? Now, imagine going through about 126 boxes of books and having to do this with each and every set of three books. It has taken me weeks just to go through the process, and then there's the problem of where the books are going to go.
No one needs to remind me that BookCrossing is all about leaving books behind, and it's not like I haven't released over 1600 books in the last 4 years. This is totally different – for me it's like leaving my dearest friends behind, and hoping that I'm going to see them again some day. I'm sure I will, but for now, well, let's just say that I'd rather have the broken tailbone than to ever have to go through this again.
Every move is stressful, but when you're moving 3000 miles away and you have to leave two-thirds of your books behind, what do you do? How do you decide what stays and what goes? I'm here to tell you that this is probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, and that making the choice of books to take and books to leave behind has been extremely painful. I think it's even more painful than what I felt when I fell down my stairs on St. Patrick's Day this year and broke my tailbone! Considering I couldn't sit for over 4 weeks, you might begin to imagine just what kind of pain we're talking here.
Dig in the box, pull out a book. Does it stay or does it go? Can it be easily replaced? Did I really love this book? Will I suffer if I have to leave it behind? Let's look at an example of the process at work. A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute, was one of my favorite books of last year, one that touched me very deeply. I absolutely fell in love with this story, the characters and the Australian Outback while reading this book, and it had a special place of honor on the "these are my favorite books" shelf. But then again, Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov, which turned out to be my favorite book of 2005, is also a member of the "my favorite books" club, proudly displayed in my family room. So I now have a choice of 2 favorite books from which I can only choose one to keep. I have to add one more to get rid of, so I'm going to choose Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie – very easy to replace. So the choice is really between A Town Like Alice and Pale Fire. I can't even begin to think in terms of how much either will cost to replace, so I have to think back to reading both books. Which one did I like more? Which one gave me the most pleasure while reading it, and which one will I cry over the most when leaving it in the "give away" box? Now, imagine going through about 126 boxes of books and having to do this with each and every set of three books. It has taken me weeks just to go through the process, and then there's the problem of where the books are going to go.
No one needs to remind me that BookCrossing is all about leaving books behind, and it's not like I haven't released over 1600 books in the last 4 years. This is totally different – for me it's like leaving my dearest friends behind, and hoping that I'm going to see them again some day. I'm sure I will, but for now, well, let's just say that I'd rather have the broken tailbone than to ever have to go through this again.
