When I was
starting out in my career, it was customary to have an extensive library. In addition to novels and histories, one needed dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, thesauruses, and other reference
volumes in which one could find exactly what was needed for study or writing.
It was an honor to have as many books as one could afford and use. When I was
studying theology I needed an exhaustive concordance, several commentaries, a
few Bible versions, devotionals, topical studies, and others.
One problem,
however, was if you needed a fact about a certain topic you would look it up,
write it down, and place the volume back on the shelf. Then it would stay there
until you needed another piece of information from it, if ever. So some collected
more dust than others, but you had to keep them just in case.
I once had a
few hundred books, but I’ve given many away – to the library, to Goodwill, to
thrift shops, to friends – and I’m down to around 100 now. There are more I can
eliminate, but some are hard to part with. For example, I still have my
“Handbook of Chemistry and Physics” – a 2,054 page tome that weighs five
pounds. I’ll never need it again, but it brings back a lot of good memories. In
fact, most of the books I still own have more sentimental value than any
intrinsic or actual value.
Now, of
course, everything I need is on my computer. I have more books available online
than I could have ever owned. I don’t need to walk to a bookshelf, I simply
search for what I want, and it’s on my screen before I blink. To me, this seems
unfortunate for the younger generations. There’s something cold and impersonal
about reading electronically. They’ll never experience the feel and fragrance
of an old familiar title.
That’s what
I mostly miss about my many books. Alas, my sentimentality has been revealed again.
Copyright 2024 by Carl E Gustafson
