9 posts tagged “books”
One of the things that haunts me (and you can tell it haunts me, because I've written about it on numerous occasions before) is how much "stuff" I own. Stuff here, stuff there, stuff everywhere. How much of it do I need, and how much of it is just insulating me from some primal, deep-seated nervousness about some kind of nonexistent scarcity? What are twenty pairs of athletic socks going to protect me from, exactly? Granted it's been unseasonably cold recently, but at best I'd be able to get three pairs of socks on before it turned into an exercise in foolishness. So really, all those socks just keep me from having to do laundry as often- but when I do finally do it, there it is, a massive pile of socks just looming, waiting to be washed. The socks, of course, being a metaphor for many items, seem to represent an instinctive fear that if I don't have too many, that means I don't have enough.
I own a lot of stuff. A lot. I've been working on reducing it and I still have a lot of stuff. A lot. It's overwhelming. I don't need all this stuff!
So what to do about all the stuff? Well, I instituted a "one in, one out" rule. If I buy something new, something old has to get pitched or preferably donated. This has worked out really well for things like clothing, and somewhat less well for things like books- it's hard to let go of books, especially good ones. But I've reached a point in my life where even if I read a good book, and rave about it to anyone in a five mile radius who will stand still long enough to listen, chances aren't great that I'll ever find the time or inclination to read it again. Once is enough. So instead of buying books, I started a subscription at Booksfree and now I borrow two books at a time. Once I read them, I send them back, and they send me two more from my queue. Netflix and Blockbuster Online users are already familiar with the concept, but not being a movie person myself, I found this to be quite innovative when I discovered it last year. The local library is a bit of a disappointment, not for the lack of material, but for the fact that I can't seem to go there without getting accosted by gentlemen of questionable intent who hang around the downtown library. When I find myself walking the long way around the block to get to my car just to avoid those folks, it stops being worth it to bother.
Anyway, aside from my little library tangent (which is a topic for another post), back to the stuff reduction project. One in, one out seems to be the way to go. We'll see. Maybe I can write about it less as time goes on and the effort progresses. It sure would be nice to move on to something new to try and fix!
Boy howdy, am I tired.
When I left the house last Saturday, I packed a book to read in my spare time while I'm up here. Now that it's the weekend and not all of my free time will be monopolized by catch-up sleep, I'd like to introduce you to my new friend:
I sure hope it doesn't suck, but I'll let you know.
