Anyway, the quote came to mind last night when I finished a book from the library and found myself wandering around the house, a habit I usually engage in after I wrap up a book. Sadly, I wasn't able to pull books off the shelf and consider if this or that book was what I wanted to read next since all our books have been gone for several weeks. I donated at least half of my books to the friends of the local library and the remaining ones are packed up and in storage. We even sold all of the bookcases that aren't built-in. I find myself avoiding the office nook since its bookcases (below) make me sad just to look at them. All that's left here is a few staging items and a printer.
We will be moving at the end of December, but I don't know how soon I'll have my remaining books unboxed, or even if the house we're renting has much in the way of bookcases. You can bet I've already checked out the new town's library's website to see what is available, what their interlibrary loan policy is (free!!!), and what events they have planned. There will be plenty to check out and explore once we're there, which I'm looking forward to doing, and friends seem to find it funny that I know more about the nearby libraries than I do about the house into which we're moving. Hopefully I'll get some books from my wish list for Christmas to help bridge the gap.
What started with a joke by my wife at a conference in May led us to check out the new area at the end of July, then spending the next two months purging the house and sifting through the detritus of our lives. It has been an intense process, but the thought of moving to an area we love where we can be financially secure makes it all worthwhile. So yes, our house feels like it is without a soul right now, but at the same time it represents a lot of promise.
Update: For Lisa...here's a picture of some of the books the stager used in our house. I would love to know what they are just to pretend I'm able to read them.
Update 2: Pictures of the title pages. Table of contents are in the back, but I'm more interested in the "Printed in the USSR" stamps on them.
And here I was talking about a house without books, and I'm focusing on the books in the house. Seems contradictory, doesn't it?
12 comments:
brother, i can't imagine having to do that... we're so ensconced in our place with 2 dogs and 2500 books, the very idea seems ludicrous... we're not getting any younger, though, so...
The initial plan wasn't to move until next spring, after the school year was over, so the decision to accelerate it made any thoughts of a leisurely sorting and clearing go out the window. Almost sixteen years in the same place is the longest of any one address I've ever had.
The books...well, it was a process, probably not unlike the five stages of grief. It hit some of the same highlights as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, although maybe not in that order and sometimes in combinations. And numbness. Can't forget that stage.
mudpuddle's use of "ensconced in our place" fits here, too! I've been trying to get rid of more things, including books I know I'll never read again. It's hard! (Lots of bargaining here, too.)
Dwight, I hope the move goes well! And thank goodness for a good library in your new town. We have a nice library in our town and reciprocal agreements with libraries in four others make it very easy to get a good selection of books without even having to use interlibrary loan. I need to get better about using interlibrary loan for ordering Russian books: I have way too many (purchased books) on the shelves that turned out to be, er, rather dull! Happy Thanksgiving.
I have to say we felt ensconced here as well. And without going all Marie Knodo (who I haven't read, but probably should if I'm going to mention her), I realize now that it felt like our things owned us rather than us owning our things. I need to keep that in mind as we settle in the new place.
Thanks for the good wishes. We'll need it! Lots of challenges coming up as well as lots of unknowns, but I'm looking forward to it all.
The Santa Clara County Library system here is similar to the set-up you mention, where several of the smaller cities' (i.e., non-San Jose) libraries in the county have joined together to form a much larger system. I highly recommend interlibrary loans. I started with expensive books I knew I couldn't afford or books that weren't even available on the market and began requesting more and more. The small fee here was worth it, but I'm really happy about the free option at the new place.
By the way, check out the updated post for a picture of some of the books the stager used in our house. I have no idea what they are, but they definitely get comments! It would be funny to tell people exactly what they are, as if I could actually read them. Let me know if I need to take a closer picture.
Well, you do like Gogol, right? (You must because you have a lot of Gogol!) The others are "selected works" by Alexander Mitrofanov (1899-1951) and one book each by Tikhon Semushkin (1900-1970) and Semyon Babaevsky. I knew nothing about those three (and they're not in my Oxford History of Russian Literature) but looked them up online. Mitrofanov apparently wrote a lot about the working class. Semushkin seems to be best known for a novel that has been translated into English as Children of the Soviet Arctic and he is featured fairly prominently in this New Yorker article. And here's Babaevsky on Wikipedia; Russian Wikipedia categorizes him as a socialist realist, too, and he was also a journalist.
If you want to take photos of the tables of contents (usually in the back of Russian books) of the three books on the right, I'll tell you what's in them. (If only vaguely, like "a lot of short stories"!) With the Gogol, you're probably pretty safe mentioning just about anything since only the first volume is missing. :) Thanks for posting this photo: I always find it interesting to read about Soviet writers.
Yes, I love Gogol! I hadn't even looked that close or I might have figured it out. Thanks for the links. I'll do some more exploring. I'll skip the table of contents since I won't be able to read them. I added two pictures of the title pages though since they have the "Printed in the USSR" stamp which must have been required at the time (the 1950s for both I showed). Thanks so much!
The Gogol is Dead Souls (oops, almost "Dear" there!) so you really do know how to pick 'em! The other is a Babaevsky novel, called Light Over the Land by USIA's Problems of Communism. It's apparently a sequel. Both this book and the one that preceded it were Stalin Prize winners. I have to say that I'm now thoroughly curious about these Soviet-era books and authors since I've always been oddly fascinated by genres, particularly socialist realism and eighteenth-century sentimentalism. (I'm also curious about whoever did your staging!)
I thought that was Dead Souls but wasn't sure. FYI: for my son's English class last semester he got to read The Nose, which made me extremely happy.
I will have to see where she picked up these books. You have to wonder how they made they're way here.
As I noted in the update, for a post about not having books in the house, I'm spending a lot of time talking about the books that...are in the house.
I could tell it was Dead Souls! :) But not a lot more. Best of luck with your move; are you staying in CA or getting out? Free ILLs are indeed a great perk.
We are escaping California. Evidently there is an caravan heading out, and the state just doesn't get it yet, other than trying to figure out how to tax those that are leaving. There's a lot I will miss here—much good, much bad. I'll leave it at that.
I wasn't sure if it was just this area. Everybody I know seems to be moving to Idaho, but we did have this great big fire so that was a lot of it. Yeah, California...is tricky. I think I live in one of the best parts, but...anyway, hope your new location is great!
Thanks. There is a lot to love here. I hope you continue to enjoy it!
Post a Comment