Ok, I'm gonna do it
I'm old enough and I've thought about it enough...
Anyone who has visited my office at work - and anyone who has visited my Fortress of Solitude at home - knows that I have a lot of books. A lot of books. I have a good 8-foot tall bookcase at home that is completely stuffed and two bookcases about the same size that are almost stuffed at work. I think at one point I had over 300 books at home -
Last summer I did some paring down at home and I think I'm somewhere around 200 or so now. Combine that with the unknown number in my office and I probably have enough books for the rest of my life. If you really want to get kooky, combine all of those books with all of the journals and photocopied articles from journals and book chapters... man, I probably have enough for two lifetimes.
Well, I'm tired of it. I've decided that I am going to take the minimalist route and start really cleaning it all out. And by "really cleaning it all out", I mean dumping all of it. All. Of. It. And as it is dumped, start looking for digital alternatives. Something that takes up much less space and might be a little more eco-friendly (since that's all the rage among hippies these days).
I'm not sure which digital route I would take tho'. That will have to be considered at a later time. But why nuke it all, especially at this point in my life? Let me tell you a story (real fast): For my entire life, somehow I've had the thought that more is better. Not only that, but I've also had the notion that time is infinite. That is, if I don't have time to do something now, then I can always do it later. I suppose there aren't many huge pitfalls with those separate outlooks? I know that when they are combined however, problems arise. Sprinkle in a dash of procrastination from time to time and then you really have a problem.
So I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days and came to a specific instance that led me to making this decision. Among my many books at work is one titled American Terminator: Myths, Movies and Global Power. It was published in 2004 and I probably bought it - brand new - around that time... maybe 2005, I don't know (there's one sign that something is wrong). Anyway, the book was new when it was purchased. And it is still new to this day because I haven't read the damn thing! Now you tell me - how long does something have to sit on your shelf before you do anything with it? An even deeper thought - if my life has cruised right along with this book gathering dust for the past five years (at least), how much will it suffer if I just got rid of it? The answer is, probably not much. If I made it this long without reading it, chances are I can survive the next five years of my life without it. So I'm selling it on Amazon.
When I came to this conclusion, I began applying it to all of the books in my office and I realized that I could probably live the next five decades of my life without all of these things. So I'm going to start working on selling all of them on Amazon. I might make a few bucks on it all, and in the meantime try to figure out whatever type of digital solution I can.
Don't think I hate books or anything. On the contrary, the books I will keep will be those that struck a chord with me when I was younger and books that I can probably pick up anytime in the future - books like Rich Media, Poor Democracy and The Image, just to name two - those books aren't going anywhere. My plan is to list them on Amazon and let them sit for a year - if they sell, they sell. If not, then they get processed at the next Snyder County recycling event and turn into cereal boxes.
So that's what I'm gonna do - at least I'll start working on it. Who knows - if it works out I'll probably do the same thing with all of the videos and CDs I have laying around as well. I agree there does seem to be some sense of calmness in being minimal. I'd like to experience more of that feeling.
Oh and if you want to buy a book, buy from zekesbooks at Amazon (or stop by the office to save $$ on shipping)
Anyone who has visited my office at work - and anyone who has visited my Fortress of Solitude at home - knows that I have a lot of books. A lot of books. I have a good 8-foot tall bookcase at home that is completely stuffed and two bookcases about the same size that are almost stuffed at work. I think at one point I had over 300 books at home -
Last summer I did some paring down at home and I think I'm somewhere around 200 or so now. Combine that with the unknown number in my office and I probably have enough books for the rest of my life. If you really want to get kooky, combine all of those books with all of the journals and photocopied articles from journals and book chapters... man, I probably have enough for two lifetimes.
Well, I'm tired of it. I've decided that I am going to take the minimalist route and start really cleaning it all out. And by "really cleaning it all out", I mean dumping all of it. All. Of. It. And as it is dumped, start looking for digital alternatives. Something that takes up much less space and might be a little more eco-friendly (since that's all the rage among hippies these days).
I'm not sure which digital route I would take tho'. That will have to be considered at a later time. But why nuke it all, especially at this point in my life? Let me tell you a story (real fast): For my entire life, somehow I've had the thought that more is better. Not only that, but I've also had the notion that time is infinite. That is, if I don't have time to do something now, then I can always do it later. I suppose there aren't many huge pitfalls with those separate outlooks? I know that when they are combined however, problems arise. Sprinkle in a dash of procrastination from time to time and then you really have a problem.
So I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days and came to a specific instance that led me to making this decision. Among my many books at work is one titled American Terminator: Myths, Movies and Global Power. It was published in 2004 and I probably bought it - brand new - around that time... maybe 2005, I don't know (there's one sign that something is wrong). Anyway, the book was new when it was purchased. And it is still new to this day because I haven't read the damn thing! Now you tell me - how long does something have to sit on your shelf before you do anything with it? An even deeper thought - if my life has cruised right along with this book gathering dust for the past five years (at least), how much will it suffer if I just got rid of it? The answer is, probably not much. If I made it this long without reading it, chances are I can survive the next five years of my life without it. So I'm selling it on Amazon. When I came to this conclusion, I began applying it to all of the books in my office and I realized that I could probably live the next five decades of my life without all of these things. So I'm going to start working on selling all of them on Amazon. I might make a few bucks on it all, and in the meantime try to figure out whatever type of digital solution I can.
Don't think I hate books or anything. On the contrary, the books I will keep will be those that struck a chord with me when I was younger and books that I can probably pick up anytime in the future - books like Rich Media, Poor Democracy and The Image, just to name two - those books aren't going anywhere. My plan is to list them on Amazon and let them sit for a year - if they sell, they sell. If not, then they get processed at the next Snyder County recycling event and turn into cereal boxes.
So that's what I'm gonna do - at least I'll start working on it. Who knows - if it works out I'll probably do the same thing with all of the videos and CDs I have laying around as well. I agree there does seem to be some sense of calmness in being minimal. I'd like to experience more of that feeling.
Oh and if you want to buy a book, buy from zekesbooks at Amazon (or stop by the office to save $$ on shipping)
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