I’m torn on the idea of using books as trophies. If this were the thirteen hundreds and books were like cars–rare, elegant and a statement about one’s station in life–I could possibly understand it a little bit better. But a book on a shelf isn’t being read, and to me that’s not unlike a baby crying in a crib, begging to be be held and cuddled. Some things are created to be interacted with and reacted to. Books and babies and pets and dinner are all things that suffer when neglected.
I used to have shelves loaded with books, and the overflow that wouldn’t fit on the shelves ended up in boxes, in stacks along the wall, scattered under the bed. Our house had books the way some houses have dust bunnies. (Ok. Our house has dust bunnies too.) I don’t know why the philosophical change happened, but once I started sending novels overseas to soldiers in Afghanistan I began to see books as the blood of the mind and necessarily to be kept in circulation. What books I didn’t ship to the soldiers I gave away to housesitters and party guests. You couldn’t enter my house without having a book pressed into your hands. Funnily enough, that all happened before my body began to rebel against holding the bound books and turning pages.*
Now that I have a Kindle I can’t circulate books. That bums me out because I’m bothered by not being able to say “here, I loved this. You try it and see if you love it too.” Instead of sharing joy, telling people about books becomes a sort of financial obligation I’m foisting upon them. I find that I recommend fewer reads because of this. I don’t want to be telling people how they should spend their money.
I’m going into all of this because in this week’s Entertainment Weekly there is an article about a book which illustrates (?) the “permanent shelves” of prominent authors. It’s one of those coffee table proceeds-to-charity thing and I’m not sure why you buy it instead of reading the eight dozen internet articles that have essentially the same information. I mean, really, did you NOT know that Stephanie Meyer loves the Book Of Mormon? Do you need to spend $15 for a pretty drawing of The Book Of Mormon next to Jane Eyre?
The article did get me thinking about the books I’ve kept and why, as well as the books I’ve rebought on Kindle. What is it about a certain story that begs to be kept close by? In my case a brief analysis shows that all of the books I love have a strong sense of faith–not necessarily Christianity per se, but that engine of belief in the unseen that compels one to triumph over the tyranny of sorrow. My most beloved books also have a strong sense of family. I was raised in a big family and now live in a very small one, so it’s nice to find other big families to spend time with, even if they’re twisted Lannisters or goofy Weasleys. My Permanent Shelf changes over time, just as I change over time. Heidi was the book I loved as a young girl, but it’s been largely supplanted by other, newer-to-me stories. I don’t love Jane Eyre as much as I did twenty years ago; twenty years ago I hadn’t heard of George RR Martin. So to call it my Permanent Shelf is a bit of a misnomer. But there are books that drive me and comfort me and that I like to have within reach for the times I need that space. Right now the list is:
- Harry Potter
- A Song Of Ice And Fire
- The Curse Of Chalion
- Katherine
- Pillars Of The Earth
- Dune
- The Physician
- Shaman
- The Kingkiller Chronicles
This isn’t to say that I don’t like or appreciate other books; these are my comfort reads. That’s the only type of book I keep on a permanent basis.
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*Now that I think about it, turning pages is as much or more of a problem than holding a regular book. I was wondering why I went off the paperbacks because they aren’t that heavy. I picked one up this morning and realised that the finger contortions required to turn pages just didn’t happen for me. So there’s that mystery solved.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
Most of the books I hang on to are reference-esque books (“Agility Training for You and Your Dog” or some college text books like “History of Modern Art”) because no matter how much I like a fiction book (or a non-fiction story), I know I will not go back and re-read it. I’ve tried and I can’t. I start skimming through it.
I do have a select few fiction books that I simply loved beyond most that I keep, not because I have some illusion of re-reading them, but because I simply can’t bring myself to throw them out. That short list includes Le Petit Prince and Lord of the Flies and a couple others.
The last category of “permanent shelf” books are books that I was given as gifts for a reason (not talking Christmas gifts but like the classic graduation gift of Dr. Seus’s Oh the Place You’ll Go!). Some of these (Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese?) I haven’t even read but I hang on to them all the same.
Funny that you write this today of all days–a day in which I decided to clear out and reorganize my permanent collection. I have a bookcase, approx 6 1/2′ tall by 3′ wide, and I limit my collection to that space. (Well….a lot of books I’ve read end up in my kids’ rooms as I read so much MG and YA and both kids are reaching the age of really diving into longer reads. But again, they each have their own bookcase and what they keep needs to fit on that.) Part of my reasoning is an OCD-like tendency for a lack of clutter. The other is that I know I can’t possibly go back and re-read ALL those books.
There are certain books I will NEVER get rid of. Certain reference books, and the fiction that won’t let me let it go–the stories I know I’ll read and read again. Harry Potter, of course. Narnia, LotR, Hitchhiker’s Guide, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time, and a lot of newer books and series that have completely captivated me.
I admit that at some point the single bookcase will need to grow to two–either that or my kids will simply take over some of my collection if they fall in love with certain books I own. (Unless I make them get their own copies, which is quite plausible as an option :P.)
Another reason I clear out my bookcase is that I love getting books, and I know other people do too, so I donate a LOT to the library’s “for sale” room.
And I agree–as much as I love ebooks, it really bugs me that I can’t give away the ebooks I don’t really care about keeping. It’s hard for me to just delete them, too. Unless it’s a book I *hated* it feels so wasteful.
Gosh, I have four permanent book cases: Literature/Poetry, Military History, Faith/Apologetics, and Spec Fiction. All of them full.
When I reach a spill-over point, I cull that particular herd and post the excess on Paperback Swap.
That said, if I was moving overseas or somesuch and had to decimate the collection, I could probably make a Top-Ten list from each case. But it would be painful.
Coble, you’ve seen the bookshelves downstairs at my place. And there are more of them upstairs. And that is with books we don’t want to keep given away. I understand your point of view, but I find that the more things I have around to be read the more likely I am to re-read widely. I have very few books I’m likely to re-read every year, but scads that I’ll circle back to once a decade or so.
The Kindle replaced my need for physical books for the most part. Apart from manga, which is hard to replicate well on an e-reader or tablet, and books that aren’t available that is. Any physical books I own are because it will be hard or impossible to find them again, and I like them enough to keep. I’m in the middle of defining that shelf again, but it’s kind of pointless for me to keep LOTR or C.S. Lewis because I’ll almost always be able to find them. It’s the hidden treasures that I have to find and keep safe.
Currently on that shelf are:
-The Last Yggdrasil and Eridahn by Robert Young
-The Active-Enzyme Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch by E.W. Hildrick
-Saint Tail by Megumi Tachikawa
-The Lotos Caves by John Christopher
I have an impermanent shelf too, it’s filled with a bunch of manga and books I purchased at stores, but those will be given away soon.