December 29, 2009

Getting rid of books?

So I stumbled on this online debate at the Times about how to cull books from your personal stash/collection/library/unsightly pile. And I got to thinking a bit – I’ve only played with electronic book devices a little bit, but I can see how they’ll be the future of the written word. So, I actually wonder if I’ll have any books at all in 20 years – I pretty much only read books once (though on rare occasions I’ll re-read something) and so most of the books that Sarah and I own are ones we really like that we want to have on hand to lend out or give away to friends.

I’m guessing if we actually went through our 10 shelves (or so) of books and kept only the ones we’d actually read again, we’d only keep 10%, if that.

Which, I guess, is a great opportunity for cheapskates – if you don’t need the latest best-seller, I have a feeling used books are only going to get cheaper and cheaper as the snobs and geeks move to electronic devices. So I can actually envision a personal future with GIANT piles of old books, or alternately none at all.

I might or might not get a chance to do a post or two from Tucson, but I will be checking email and (sometimes) answering my phone if anyone needs to contact me. Back on the 13th of January. Happy New Year!