Teach42

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Last night, I said farewell to some old friends. Aiden is growing older and we’re getting ready to switch him into what was formally the office/library. As I stood there staring at my bookshelves, I realized that it was time to let most of them go to that great library in the sky (the book recycling box in the Target parking lot).

This was not an easy decision for me as Jess will attest to. Many of those books I’ve had for a couple decades. I re-read books often, and a few of those books had been read by me dozens of times (no exaggeration). But in the end, I kept thinking about how nice it is to read books on the iPad and iPhone, and how much I hate carrying around a hard bound book or heavy paperback nowadays. In fact, the only time I turn to print anymore… is during the first and last ten minutes of a flight. Other than that, I tend to grab the iPad and read there. Yes, I still miss the sensation of turning the pages, and I look forward to the day when they add logic for pages to yellow and get frazzled the more you read an eBook (someone will do it, trust me). But other than the sake of nostalgia, it just didn’t make sense to devote a significant portion of a room to books that oh so rarely left the shelf.

And so I let them go. I kept a few of them of course. Any book that was signed by the author got an instant reprieve (yes, Will, that includes my copy of Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts). As did the yearbooks, photo albums and some comic books I’m not quite ready to let go (Is Paul dead? Batman investigates!). And then there were just a few that I couldn’t bear to toss into the pile.

Hickman and Weiss’s first DragonLance book was one of the first large chapter books I ever read. I bought it WAY before I was ready to read it and it sat on a shelf for about 4 years before I finally made my way through it. But that kicked off a love of Sci-Fi and Fantasy that continues to this day.

I couldn’t let go the Westing Game either. I know it’s a kids book, but something about that mystery continues to thrill me. Such a fun book, and one I look forward to passing on to Aiden some day.

I’ve always been a big fan of conspiracy theories, so the Illuminatus trilogy got amnesty. And in a related note, my tattered copy of the Principia Discordia is safe fnord now.

Other much loved books had to be let go. One of my favorite books was my copy of Mario Puzo’s Godfather. A simple paperback, but a fairly early edition. Old enough that the cover, back when it HAD a cover, said “Soon to be a major motion picture!” on it. The spin had long since surrendered and been reinforced with electrical tape, but pages insisted on trying to take flight. Rest in pieces.

In the end, this isn’t me saying goodbye to reading… Far from it. But at this point, were I going to buy a book, I am now confident that I can buy it digitally and always have access to it digitally on any device I own. The kindle alone wasn’t enough to make me that confident. It was seeing the kindle being made available on the iPhone and iPad. When something comes along that replaces those, I’m guessing it will be available there too. Yes, it’s a leap of faith, but I think the time is right to make that leap. While I’m sure there will still be books that I buy in print, that will be the last resort.

Viva la revolution.