Throwing Books Away

More than a few times in the past several years I have tried to trim down the number of books I own.
Space is limited now in this house where my wife and I live, and I am reconciled to selling, trading, or giving away a large percentage of my substantial library.  Her collection of books is also substantial, and I see no evidence she is likely to clear out shelf space for my books.

I remember hearing a visiting speaker at Davidson College tell us in the 1950's:  "Very few of you will read more than four books a year after you graduate from college."  He went on doing his best to inspire us and stimulate us to continue and expand our reading after college.  I took up the challenge.  My first several years out of college, I must have I read about a hundred books a year.   I sought out especially those authors whose books had been banned -- D. H. Lawrence, Colin Wilson, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, James Joyce, Anais Nin.

Reading became my most enduring hobby.  My library grew and grew, and I took great pleasure in arranging my books carefully on the shelves every time I moved to a new residence.    And I moved often - taking positions in schools, universities, and educational programs in Tennessee, Minnesota,
Texas, Ontario, Santa Barbara, and western North Carolina.

Today I am facing again the odious task of drastically reducing the size of my library.  I spent all day yesterday hauling boxes of books to a used bookstore in downtown Asheville.  Going through each book in each box, I had to decide which ones to hold back and which ones to let go.  It put me to the test.   It was downright painful.  Here are a few of the books I simply could not let go of:

Biography of Erik Erikson
Poems of Robert Frost
Poems of W. H. Auden
Book on the History of Outward Bound
Books by Parker Palmer

And this process got me to thinking about books that really stick in my mind and that
I would like to re-read in the years ahead:

Look Homeward Angel by  Thomas Wolfe
The New Testament (and probably the Old Testament as well)
Autobiography of Clarence Darrow
Naturalist by E. O. Wilson
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray
Three Lives for Mississippi by William Bradford Huie
The Last Puritan by George Santayana
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The Farther Reaches of Human Nature by Abraham Maslow
The Sands of Karakorum by James Ramsay Ullman
In and Out of the Garbage Pail by Fritz Perls
Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner

Each of the books on this "working list of my all-time favorites" have touched me at a deep level.  And if anyone is reading this, I welcome hearing from you and seeing your list of favorites.  If I hear from you, I doubt I will be able to resist running out to Malaprops, our wonderful hometown bookstore here in Asheville, to purchase a few books from your list -- and that will bring a temporary halt to my library-shrinking project.   In that event, I will simply accept the consequences -- and if necessary start a pile under my desk, or under our bed, or in the closet.    Let me hear from you!