Love, Poetry and Revolution - Monday 12th June 2023

Multiply interrupted sleep due to the heat and flies. Woke up several times, each time still feeling tired.

Today is the big day.  I shall (valuation notwithstanding) be taking around a hundred books, mainly novels, to the charity shop.  This is the first stage of a bigger process to get to a book collection / library that fits into the four (maybe five) book cases that I have.

When I delivered the books to the charity shop, the man in the hat asked if I was moving house, and I said "no, I've just realised that I will be dead before I've read all the books I have remaining." As I continue the process of sorting through my books, I've decided that those that go will be called 'post-death' books and the books as a whole will be my 'dead list'.   Most of the books I have given to charity are books that I've read, but know I'll never read again, and they are mainly novels.

It turns out there may be such a thing as "too many books" or perhaps it's more a case of life being to short, or houses not being designed correctly?

The next round will be a little more difficult, as I will face some tough decisions. In particular there are the Folio Society books, beautifully produced and illustrated hard backs in slip cases. The challenge they pose is two-fold: some are on the dead list (for example 'The Old Wives Tale' by Arnold Bennett - what possessed me to buy that??) and some are for children (I read them to the boys when they were boys, and my/our plan was that they would inherit them for their children, should such entities come to pass). Some I sell as Folio books are very collectable and others I will store. I just need to find the best way to store the books so they are not damaged by dust, moisture etc.

Over lunch I watched more of the excellent Kurt Vonnegut documentary and then finished reading the weekend papers.

The phone rang and it was a good friend, H, who I've been playing answerphone tennis with.   We had a lengthy catch-up and a lot of discussion about books and getting rid of them (she also has a large library) and more importantly, a long talk about E, how it's going and what would be best.

After the chat, I lost the plot a little, maybe because of the morning's achievements and so didn't do much. Restless soul and all that.

Son #2 made dinner and then son #1 and I ate together whilst watching the last 'HIGNFY' we've not watched.  Friday's edition should be really good now someone's resigned.

Time to go and melt.

Ty Segall / 'Every 1's A Winner' / 'Freedom's Goblin'


[[Yep, the Hot Chocolate song.  I think I prefer this version.]]

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