That's what they look like when you have to pack 'em up.
All of these are in various stages of being read...which means none of them are actually being read.*
It's been ten years since I stopped buying paperback books...if I can help it. I beat 'em up so bad that few of them would last through one reading. There must be two tons of books in this house.
In English, that's 4,000lbs...I looked it up. I have no idea how many kiliomillimetergrams that is but, it's a lot.
I know how badly you want to...but, NO you can't borrow it for your next holiday.
There's probably something in here for everybody.
Every time I think I don't have room in my life for literature two things come to mind...Portrait of a Young Man with Career. A brilliant description of the strongest of all human desires...that is to beat other people to death with a fire poker. The other is the Vicar from Handful of Dust...keeps recycling his sermons originally written for soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. Hahahahah. So, I stick with it.
Every time I think I don't have room in my life for literature two things come to mind...Portrait of a Young Man with Career. A brilliant description of the strongest of all human desires...that is to beat other people to death with a fire poker. The other is the Vicar from Handful of Dust...keeps recycling his sermons originally written for soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. Hahahahah. So, I stick with it.
Muj?
Don't you know I could flip through this for about five minutes...come up with somethin' cock-eyed
and ruin Adamparsons' whole weekend with nonsense?
Speaking of Adamparsons....
No...he's not an Anglican....he's a *&%$#@ archaeologist.
Dig this...
It's from a picture book of Aylesbury, England.
We'll end with a cherished favorite...
It might be the coolest thing ever written by a mortal...including the original. Read it. Love it.
Anyway, this is my life for the last 20 years and for the next six days. Books and boxes...books, cds, records, etc.
*Except for Mimi and Tou Tou...which I have read and love...and the one facing away, Danto's Unnatural Wonders. Another good one.
“Laid his trunk open from shoulder to hip—Like a beauty-queen’s sash.”
It might be the coolest thing ever written by a mortal...including the original. Read it. Love it.
Anyway, this is my life for the last 20 years and for the next six days. Books and boxes...books, cds, records, etc.
*Except for Mimi and Tou Tou...which I have read and love...and the one facing away, Danto's Unnatural Wonders. Another good one.
Hey you! Love it. You packing those books up for me or do I need to come get them...?
ReplyDeleteYou could be writing about our last house move 14 years ago... we eventually stopped from killing each other ('my 10 trillion books were worthy of being kept, his weren't' type burning infernos of arguments) by agreeing that Oxfam could have everything in the lower floor (he thought there were more of my books there - but I knew there weren't!).
14 years on and we've got the book total back up to (and over) the previous high count. All in states of semi-read-ness - which is to say, not being read at all.
But this house would feel naked and unworthy without them...
PS I've got that history of the Labour Party...somewhere...
With the exception of the Anarchist/Anarcho-syndicalist tract and Spain Betrayed...I'd be happy for you to have the Spanish Civil War books.
DeleteWe've got three sets of bookshelves that are being packed and I am dumping maybe a quarter of them...paperbacks, novels without jackets, etc.
Martha readers on the kindle...so, she's had no problem packing hers.
That's us sorted then.
DeleteStill undecided about the kindle. It doesn't smell right. Not fowsty enough.
Good luck for the move e.f.
I've been through enough of them to remember why I'll not being doing another one...
Yx
Martha insists that our next house be the last house. Surrounded by boxes...I'm inclined to agree.
DeleteHey e.f. mightily impressed with your volumes... hope you and your tomes get through the house move unscathed. Sounds like you'll need a 'library' in your new place, so good luck with that. ;) Kat (in the UK)
ReplyDeleteHey Mrs Kat...good to have you at the party.
DeleteI think we'll make it through this move...the books will make it. Martha may dispatch with me if I don't start packing quicker.
We are actually moving into an apartment for six months while we look for the right house. The few we wanted sold before ours did. So, we're gonna take our time lookin'. The next house must have a sizable office/library.
Make yerself at home.
you got all the knowledge,just don't get me started on the Labour party.
ReplyDeletegood luck with the house move
Oh please do start...I'd love to hear it.
Delete:)
I spy with my little eye ;-) !
ReplyDeleteWishing you lots of luck for Wednesday, e.f. Or perhaps more pertinently, for Tuesday evening?
I know just how it is to live out of boxes. It is at least better than living in one...
;)
DeleteTuesday night...definitely Tuesday night. I'll be working all day in Memphis on Tuesday...drive back just in time for all that.
You know my Daddy's MGB I told you about. For a couple of years, he didn't own any more than could be thrown in that car....in a hurry. :)
How's "Spain Betrayed"?
ReplyDeleteGood.
ReplyDeleteIt's a collection of documents from the Soviet archives that shows just what %#^{]s the Soviets were in (man) handling the leftwing war effort in Spain.
Have you read "Homage to Catalonia" yet?
DeleteYes ma'am. Long time ago...excellent.
DeleteAnd here I was thinking I was the only person who had more half read books in the collection than read ones lol... The things I learn from you e.f.
ReplyDeleteOhh and good luck on the move mate... one of my pet hates is moving house.. Hope this one is better suited to you and the family
ReplyDeleteI think half read books are just a normal part of collecting books.
DeleteThank you sir. We'll be able to take our time and either find or build the right place.
Building is stressful and fun, worth the effort to get what you want.
Delete38-0. Go. Gators.
ReplyDeleteThere. At least somebody in the family (that's right - I _am_ family) cares enough to post it on this blog.
Geez...Are you a baseball fan now? Is that it? Just catching up on the Orioles pursuing the Yankees in the AL East? That must be it.
I'm sooooooo disappointed in you...
I don't use these very much, but you deserve it: :)
Maybe we'll cover the Arkansas/Rutgers match up later tonight...traitor.
DeleteWe had excellent coverage of the Florida/Tennessee game last week...for an empty house.
Come down from the peanut gallery and get involved.
traitor? hahahahahahahahaha. man, i had to do it. otherwise the lovely bride and i would've picked exactly the same teams! not much fun in a pool like that! [and i kinda' thought wilson wouldn't play either...] looks like i'm gonna' owe her some money this week though.
ReplyDeleteI lost a lot of money doing that.
Deletespeaking of the pool...what's up with Martha?!?! she trying to aid the enemy? she's supposed to be giving ME tips!!!
ReplyDeleteDid you ask her?
DeleteShe's sneaky man...I don't know what she's up to.
yep, she's sneaking information to my opposition! and apparently it's pretty good advice. at least, my wife has never watched a (complete) college football game on tv in her life, and she's swaggering around here with super-confidence!
ReplyDeleteamazingly, it's looking like i might've made a lucky pick with rutgers. the 'hogs look pathetic. as one commentator put it, the guy's name AIN'T "john W. smith"...:)
lsu is getting smacked in the mouth by the war eagles right now though. wild night, man.
Hard to say who Martha's workin' for after tonight.
DeleteOnly somebody who's seen, with his own eyes, a number one Gator team lose at Auburn to a hapless team can appreciate what LSU accomplished tonight.
An amazing Grand Prix like Singapore, such thrills and spills, and a little heartache, setting us up for a thrilling season finale, and your posting about books.
ReplyDeleteJust read a comment on the BBC website, relating to this evenings BBC coverage of the race too, seemed appropriate to one of your comments:
Delete"Please can the F1 commentating team stop using metric units, e.g. kilometres per hour/ kilograms? I have no idea what 300 km/h is. I have no idea what 150kg is. I'm British, I'm not French. This is the BBC, paid for by British licence fee payers, not by the EU. Thanks."
Flippin Robots.
DeleteMaybe you and Allan and Mazes can start your own sports blog since y'all seem to have all this spare time on your hands.
Seriously, post the race schedule for next week and we'll give it a go.
This is going to sound sad, but I actually enjoy watching American TV channel weather reports even though they're of no practical interest to me, simply because they're in Farenheit, which actually means something to an old fart like me. Congratulations on cleaving to tradition in this area. No doubt some idiotic member of the British Meddle Class is working on a timetable to get rid of miles, with the BBC acting as outriders.
DeleteAround here only triple digits will do in the Summer.
DeleteI thought I was bad with books but I'll leave that title to you. Any 'easy reads' in that collection I yours? A few guilty secrets?
ReplyDeleteDeb...
ReplyDeleteNone of my guilty secrets involve books. :)
There's a lot of narrative military history in there...really frowned on by academics.
I save most of my trash time for the television...I'll watch anything that involves being getting drunk or arrested...both is even better. If I can get all that and it's a dating show...I'll clear the calender.
you seen HELL ON WHEELS yet? if not, look it up. i've heard it's worth watching. so i put it on tonight. thought i'd share with you the first lines of the show:
ReplyDelete[union soldier - following L's death - walks into a Catholic confessional booth]
priest: "unburden yourself, my son."
soldier: "i was with general sherman on his march south...what we did...[church bells toll]...evil...unspeakable things."
priest: "you were a soldier. you were just following orders."
soldier: "no, not just following orders. we opened a dark door...and the devil stepped in."
now this might turn out to be the worst show ever put on television. but at least they got something right from the get-go!
Sounds like an appropriate and subtly exact prelude for any story set during Westward expansion.
DeleteIt's on the list now.
Did you hear Coach Williams refer to the Razorbacks as Alabama's team this weekend?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"Ideology, Autonomy and Integration in the North-East India"!!!!! I'm guessing you read that for your research into the British Empire - all I can say is, you're a brave man. As for "The Origin of the Labour Party", I'm really hoping one day soon there'll be a companion volume entitled "The Demise of the Labour Party" - preferably before the next election in 2015.
ReplyDeleteGetting rid of books is always painful - I've had to ditch hundreds and hundreds in my time, and I miss them all - even the ones I didn't like.
Anyway, I hope the move went well (do they ever?). We haven't moved for 22 years - not because the house is so perfect, but because the whole thing was so damned traumatic last time. Do you also have the privilege of paying a fortune in stamp duty to the government for no reason whatsoever when you buy a house? Here, if we moved to a similar property to the one we live in, we'd have to pay over £30,000 in tax. For no reason whatsoever. Please tell me you don't have a similar system of licensed robbery in place.
Heavens No! I wouldn't move either. What th...
DeleteBelieve it or not that title and it's contents is one of the more decipherable I've had to read. Some of the post-colonial nonsense, with it's origins in Deconstruction....took me to the wall.
I chucked a lot of books and periodicals...lots. Mostly garbage though...or garbage condition, ex-library, etc.
The move went fairly well thank you. It's mostly over. I have passed the point of being of ASSED...hahahahaha
My word, how very odd. I was just musing about doing a post about leaving home for University, which I did almost exactly thirty years ago. One of the books in my box back then ( and required reading for the first year of my original degree course) was Headrick's 'Tools of Empire'. I have no idea what happened to my original copy (unusual for me), and I haven't seen the cover of that volume for a good couple of decades. Seeing it photographed there, on your page, was mighty, mighty weird. Like seeing a bit of my own past transported into yours.
ReplyDeleteWhich is a terribly narcissistic way to look at it, really.
Good luck with your move.
Naw...I like the thought. Besides, I tried to throw up enough stuff that something will stick with people for whatever reason. I'd like to hear that story.
DeleteSeeing that book has a weird effect on me too. It was published by Texas A&M or Headrick was at A&M when I bought...anyway, I applied to the PhD program there and was accepted (probably should have gone...maybe not...I don't know). That's where my thoughts on A&M started.
Thank you. I just got a text from Martha...she made her last trip to the old house to pick up what was left. The floors been swept...we sign the papers tomorrow.