A few months back I made a major decision: it’s time to cull the herd of baseball books. Majorly.
I used to keep track on Library Thing. You can browse my collection via a link on the sidebar —–>. But I haven’t kept it up over the past two or three years. There was just too much coming in and finding the time to input the info became too cumbersome.
I’ve arranged for a Facebook friend to drop by and pick up as much as he wan take away. We’re estimating about 30-40 Banker’s boxes.If each box average’s 15 books, that tops out at 600 volumes. I’ve also arranged to donate my Yankees-related books to the Yogi Berra Museum and titles about the Indians to another friend. But that’s not enough.
Most of them are already packed up. But as I was going through them over the weekend to see what was there, I encountered what I imagine to be a common problem among packrats: Oh, I can’t get rid of this one. And I’m sure I will need to refer to this one some day. Do I want to get rid of books I’ve reviewed? Or those written by people I know personally? Is that somehow disrespectful? I find it an agonizing — and time-consuming — process
So far, these are the general topics where I decided to keep just about all the titles for topics of particular interest:
- Anything personally autographed by the author
- Art/photography books
- Books about baseball movies
- Anthologies (Fireside Book of Baseball, Armchair Book of Baseball, et al)
- Books about sportswriters
- Books about the Mets
- Books more than 50 years old
- Books about Jewish ballplayers
- Books about baseball during World War II
If I pared down the collection to just these items, that would bring the total on hand down to a few hundred books.
But then I ask myself, why? There are some things I’ve never looked at after they arrived. Will I ever get to them if I haven’t by now? Why no just get rid of everything? If I tossed them, would I ever really miss them? That way I don’t have to decide. I had to throw out four boxes because the cats peed on them. Although I was initially pissed (no pun intended), I got over it. Perhaps I need to get over the “sacredness” I have always held for books, as if putting them in the garbage was somehow heretical. (And believe me, I’ve tried selling/trading.giving them to used book stores. I even swung by the local library in the early morning hours to deposit them in the book return slot because they wouldn’t take them as donations.)
Simplify.
is available on Amazon.com,
{ 6 comments }
Ron, I love your donation to the Yogi Berra Museum!
The trick is to find book lovers, or expand your storage space. Or as you've been doing, become more selective re: what you keep. I'm facing a similar issue. Evenutally something will have to go. Museum donations are often a good bet.
I’ve tried museums, but the answers are always the same: no room, not what we’re looking for, etc.
One of these days some is going to design an “accordion house” that contracts and expands as necessary.
There is a relatively new Sports Journalism Certificate Program, under the direction of Professor Vicki Michaelis, within the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Regarded as among the top five programs nationally, the Grady College is also home to the Peabody Awards, widely known as the "Pulitzer Prize of Broadcast Journalism." As a former adjunct professor at the Grady College and a past-president of the Journalism Alumni Association (1988-91), I would be happy to provide the introductions. If you're interested, call me on my cell (248-320-1846) or e-mail me at robhilliard@msn.com. If you wish to contact Professor Michaelis directly, Vicki's e-mail is vickim@uga.edu. Dean of the Grady College is Charles Nelson Davis (cndavis@uga.edu).
I hear ya. I keep the HOF memoirs/bios and anything that is STL related or Jewish related.
It's not just the sports books but other genres, too. Publishers are sending them faster than I can read them. In some instances, they'll send books I didn't even request.
When the catalogs are posted on Edelweiss, I'll choose which ones I want to review and add them on a private Amazon wish list. I try and read them as quick as possible but on top of a full time job, it's not that easy. I got the Gibson book as a review copy, which led to the interview on Redbird Rants.
Heard back from Dean Charles N. Davis of the Grady College, who thought the University of Georgia's Special Collections Library might have an interest. The ball is in your court (Oh wait, that's tennis – lol). I stand ready to assist.
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