MY MANY BOOKS

 

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