Books Left Behind
Barons of bounty favor floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that cover the entire wall of their living rooms, brimming with expensive-looking titles, perfectly arranged for show. Supermarket-style ordering, with the priciest and rarest titles placed at eye level. Not that they’d really read these–you’d have to sneak into their bedroom, dare to peek into their nightstand drawer to reveal what occupies their literary minds, assuming they read at all.
Beggars of beauty often have similar shelves, except theirs are simple wooden ones bending under the weight of books touched by hands, destinies, and even the hand of destiny, at least in this corner of the world, where mere book ownership could get you into a serious pickle for a good portion of the last century.
Municipal Library of Prague
Being a bookworm by nature and in spirit, I had always dreamed of these saggy bookshelves. Or, more precisely, I longed for the masterpieces whose heft made the shelves sag. Roaming abandoned aisles of antiquarian bookstores in small towns, breaking through dusty spiderwebs like a wannabe Indiana Jones, I hunted down books I thought I had to possess, possessed by my dream of abundant shelves. I couldn’t do that in Prague where those very titles were priced far beyond what a teenager, and later a college student, could afford.
Eventually, I gathered quite a nice collection. Pride filled me.
Then I moved. Several times. Believe it or not, books happen to be quite a burden if you’re moving into new places you intend to call home for a while. Regardless of their brilliance.
The weight wasn’t what really mattered though. It was the dead weight. Any book that patiently waits for anyone to open it, feast their eyes on it… is in a coma. Turning dead after a couple of years. I realized most of my books were of that kind. Great, rare books. Unused. Comatose.
What did I need them for? To impress myself? Or the occasional visitors, who often didn’t really care what my shelves held? Or just to have them, an aspiring beggar of beauty myself?
Then I started giving them away. To friends. To random people. Strangers on the metro. Bar flies. On one condition – read it and pass it on to someone else. At the very least, I honored every one of these books by saving them from their near-death experience, inscribing every single one of them with a personalized note for anyone who’ll ever open it. No two were alike; each echoed the book itself, its writer, or my personal connection to it.
“I’m a book. I’m meant to be read, that’s my purpose. Read me, and then give me to anybody who might find me interesting. Don’t keep me sitting on a shelf, let me roam from one reader to another.”
That’s the general message in all of them. They were all set free. Two of them found their way back to me once, returned by a completely different person to the one I handed them to. About a year later.
It made me happier than owning all the books again. I reread these two when I got them, and then set them free for the second time.
I wonder where these books that I left behind are now. Or did I leave them behind—or did they leave me, travelling to places I’ve never seen or never even heard of? The English ones could easily travel the world on their own.
Free to grab books
My favorite study room in the National Library of the Czech Republic. Definitely not a minimalist place.
Posted Using INLEO
My wife has a pretty good book circle going on with her mom, aunts, and sister. They become pretty well used by the time they finish that circuit, then they find someone else to pass them along to. I used to have a fair number of books, but like you said, after moving a couple times, it has dwindled. Now I just own a few that have special meaning for me. Everything else we pass along.
Good for the books :) And for yourselves :)
We have a lot of books and some will never be read again. Some of those go to charity shops. Years ago I played with a service that let you track books by sticking a code and URL in the front. We found one of those that had been left in a bathroom.
There are certain books I would never part with.
Sounds like geocaching, except with books :) It could be fun!
It's called BookCrossing
Cheers! Gonna check it out :)
Bibliophilia is word that describes the feeling of liking to be surrounded by books, or liking to be in the presence of books. I definitely have that feeling
I love having some good books around, yet I borrow them in libraries these days :) Fortunately, Prague offers several great ones ;)
What an incredible read this is! 🙌
Regardless of the messages, which btw, sounded ideal... that's a beautiful idea, for anyone with a minimalist mindset.
😍
Thanks for your #KISS
I enjoyed it 😉
lips sealed
I'm glad you liked it :) And that Intuitive Fox herself introduced me to this community ;)
Welcome! 🤗
I'm pleased that she did, because you have been a refreshing change, and the kind that we'd both appreciate more in the community 😉
Thanks :))
🤗
Já se nestěhoval. Mně se narodil syn. Moje knihovna, knihovna mých rodičů, knihovna mého profesora angličtiny, další knihovny ... To vše mám v 80 přepravkách od banánů ve sklepě. Výjimečně se mi podaří něco někomu darovat ... Říkám si, že jednou, až se syn odstěhuje, já budu na penzi, že si ty knihy znovu vrátím a všechny si zase přečtu ...
Kousek od školy, kde učím, je knihobudka. každé ráno k ní přijde bezdomovec s dvěma ikeáckými taškami. Vyrve knihy z desek a odnese do sběru. Teď se platí 3.6 Kč za kg. To je hodně. Takovou konkurenci četba neustojí.
A během dne lidé přinášejí do knihobudky další knihy se sladkým vědomím, že je zachránili, že ještě někomu poslouží.
Svět je složité místo.
Třeba ty knihy prostě jednoho dne odneseš/odvezeš do sběru. Nebo tam s nimi pošleš syna.
This is just so beautiful 😍.
I have a lot of ebooks that I regularly share and recommend.
I love the idea of book shelves and if I was financially able, I'm sure I would have pursued that dream too.
But now... I'd rather just get 2 or 3 and pass them along too...
Well you know I couldn't agree with this, but it's an interesting point of view. Definitely worth being part of this community:)
Lovely write-up.
I reckon it's an intuitive fish's perspective ;) Doesn't suit foxes :)
My girlfriend and I buy a lot of books and we have full shelves (but not the ones from floor to ceiling, in solid wood, with a ladder in the middle, the kind of library I fantasized about having) that I made myself and we often give them out for reading.
We write the books in a pad like in a register, so that we know who has finished which one, because we still want them to be returned to us sometime.
Sometimes they come back in a half-decomposed state and that's when we know that such a book has fulfilled its mission, passed from hand to hand, and sometimes it comes back to us after only one reading.
You must have a lot of great books to read.
I also have dreamt of a shelf full of books as I personally enjoy reading books than just reading them through phone.
When I was a student, I also love staying in the library and read books, mostly about history and culture. I could even stay in a bookstore just to read books for free. It's truly hard letting go of them.
You haven't really read the post, have you?
My apologies. As a newbie, I was so excited to share my own thoughts right away. I'll be careful to understand posts next time. I might have missed this important reminder during the training. Thanks for being patient with me.😊
Quién tiene un libro nunca está solo.
You haven't really read the post, have you? ;)
Of course I read your post and identified strongly with it. I also have many unread books in my personal library, and I likely won't have time to read them either. I've gifted many to friends and acquaintances, but I still have others in a "coma," as you rightly say. With my previous response, I simply wanted to summarize the great value a book holds. Sending you my greetings and a hug from Havana. I hope you have a very good day. 🙏
I explained why I don't have any books now. And yet you replied that those who have books are never alone. So it was just a mockery then?
Of course it wasn't mockery, quite the opposite. I would never mock anyone; I'm a respectful person by nature. It was just a comment, and I'm sorry I was misunderstood. I completely agree with your decision to get rid of those books—in fact, I'm doing the same myself. Why keep books gathering dust at home that won't be read?
I belonged to an online group called Bookcrossing and gave books away to people all around the world. I purchased stickers that had the same sort of message and had so much fun giving books away. Then book rate postage became unaffordable and the grouo activity died out. I still set books free though!
@steevc has mentioned Bookcrossing too; he's still in the game though.
Thanks for stopping by.
I have cleaned off many of my bookshelves and donated them to charity sales. These days I mostly listen to audible books. It's easier on my old eyes.
I played with Bookcrossing many years ago. I'm not sure any of the books I released got tracked, but we did find one from someone else somewhere. We still give a lot of books to charity shops so that others can enjoy them.
I love books 📚