A few years ago I oiled my bookshelves, necessitating pulling the books off and replacing them, an activity that encouraged culling. I wound up giving about 250 books to my favorite book sale, the Visiting Nurse Service Auxiliary books sale in Phoenix, the largest in the country now. I’ve attended almost every year since 1958. Donating to them involves recycling quite a few books I bought there and this February I’ll have to be careful not to buy back any of my own books.
But looking over my books necessarily evoked some reflection. Certain topics I no longer am drawn to, certain books are hopelessly out-of-date, others I’ll just never plow through and I know it. I do keep some out-of-date books b/c it’s good to read what people were saying 40 years ago on certain topics. I esp like to keep books on teaching language in order to illustrate common notions back in the day and to herald those who advocating methods we are just now see spread wide.
This culling of books, some of which have been on my shelves for over 60 years, schlepped from place to place, has merged with the election results, which, as I write, are getting bizarrer and bizarrer, to spur me to write on this blog, esp on those BIG ISSUES I usually put into the Basics category or into Pat’s World View.
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
