I was all set to 'like' this essay until you brought up throwing out books again. I still can't bring myself to doing that. I went ahead and 'liked' the essay anyway though. :-)
This is relatable for me. As a Computer Science graduate, people assume I spend my nights and weekends programming, and I can fix their printer. I haven't written a line of code in over 20 years. I am part of a team that includes programmers, but I'm more interested in figuring out how to solve problems and what role computer systems might play in those solutions.
So yeah. We are none of us our profession, and that's OK.
I love absolutely everything about this post, Alison - you made such great points. I gasped when I read 'If there’s anything that’s going to hurt your love of reading, it’s university.' I had NOT ever put two and two together any more - but YES, that's what happened to me, too!
I love that you can remember when reading clicked for you. That's both extraordinary and beautiful.
University destroys love of reading. It’s taken me years to get back into reading for pleasure, and even then it’s cyclical because a chunk of my day already is reading. So instead I go home and draw and paint and write about silly things.
It's so sad, Bryn. And I can't believe I hadn't made the university connection. I only started reading again daily for pleasure at around this time two years ago - which is shocking! I would read stuff every now and again, okay, but I'd lost the habit of it. Now I read every day, and I can't believe how much it's added to my life. I hear you about drawing and painting and writing - I'm about to embark on a craft project for Christmas, and once I've got some chores out of the way I hope my weekend will grant me with the time to do it!
A friend and I have talked more generally about the ways you need to find yourself again after such an intense period like university, and then launching your career, but it was the fact that I just stopped reading which really made me think about the ways I had traded parts of myself (not that it was a bad bargain!) and had to relearn my hobbies again.
I threw out a book the other day because of you. It was an especially large book and it got damaged but it took me far too long to part from it. Only because of you am I free! 😃
More seriously, I love this. Until I had friends who were librarians, I had no idea what “librarianship” was, and how little your day consists of story time and reading circles. (Well, okay, that WOULD be funny at your library.) One of the most misunderstood professions.
Throwing out books is the worst thing you can do. I don't understand why you would do it when there are people who would love to have books and can't afford them. How about donating them?
Donating them is a very loaded way to go, and based on my professional experiences with well-meaning people, I would strongly advise against it unless you can cultivate that harsh eye for what is useful and what is actually garbage.
Professionally, I run a hospital library. I can’t have outdated materials lying around, and I can’t in good conscience donate them for the same reason: outdated information can be dangerous. My library is almost entirely medical and nursing texts. When they get removed from the collection because they no longer serve our community, they get trashed.
I also don’t want most donations to my library because they’re usually old and outdated. What am I supposed to do with that? The garbage can is over there. Of the dozens of donations I’ve received in my career, I can think of two books I’ve accepted into the collection and catalogued accordingly. The rest were, frankly, not appropriate to be giving to anyone.
In my personal life, I don’t throw books out very much at all unless they’re damaged beyond repair, old and mouldy, or otherwise unfit to let another person have. Donating books is fine IF you’re donating things that are actually in good shape to a group which has the resources to actually go through them, process them properly, and get them to people who can use them. It’s why public libraries have rules about what you can donate and they don’t accept just anything.
If you’re committed to donating books to people who don’t have them, a) give them only new or like new books and b) ask them what they want or need.
I was all set to 'like' this essay until you brought up throwing out books again. I still can't bring myself to doing that. I went ahead and 'liked' the essay anyway though. :-)
This is relatable for me. As a Computer Science graduate, people assume I spend my nights and weekends programming, and I can fix their printer. I haven't written a line of code in over 20 years. I am part of a team that includes programmers, but I'm more interested in figuring out how to solve problems and what role computer systems might play in those solutions.
So yeah. We are none of us our profession, and that's OK.
Scott! I’m going to have to have a book purging session to teach you the ways of throwing books out.
I'd rather just keep buying bookcases, but thanks for the offer!
I love absolutely everything about this post, Alison - you made such great points. I gasped when I read 'If there’s anything that’s going to hurt your love of reading, it’s university.' I had NOT ever put two and two together any more - but YES, that's what happened to me, too!
I love that you can remember when reading clicked for you. That's both extraordinary and beautiful.
University destroys love of reading. It’s taken me years to get back into reading for pleasure, and even then it’s cyclical because a chunk of my day already is reading. So instead I go home and draw and paint and write about silly things.
It's so sad, Bryn. And I can't believe I hadn't made the university connection. I only started reading again daily for pleasure at around this time two years ago - which is shocking! I would read stuff every now and again, okay, but I'd lost the habit of it. Now I read every day, and I can't believe how much it's added to my life. I hear you about drawing and painting and writing - I'm about to embark on a craft project for Christmas, and once I've got some chores out of the way I hope my weekend will grant me with the time to do it!
A friend and I have talked more generally about the ways you need to find yourself again after such an intense period like university, and then launching your career, but it was the fact that I just stopped reading which really made me think about the ways I had traded parts of myself (not that it was a bad bargain!) and had to relearn my hobbies again.
I threw out a book the other day because of you. It was an especially large book and it got damaged but it took me far too long to part from it. Only because of you am I free! 😃
More seriously, I love this. Until I had friends who were librarians, I had no idea what “librarianship” was, and how little your day consists of story time and reading circles. (Well, okay, that WOULD be funny at your library.) One of the most misunderstood professions.
Brb going to start a story time where I read from Harrison’s Internal Medicine. It’ll be a hit!
Throwing out books is the worst thing you can do. I don't understand why you would do it when there are people who would love to have books and can't afford them. How about donating them?
Donating them is a very loaded way to go, and based on my professional experiences with well-meaning people, I would strongly advise against it unless you can cultivate that harsh eye for what is useful and what is actually garbage.
Professionally, I run a hospital library. I can’t have outdated materials lying around, and I can’t in good conscience donate them for the same reason: outdated information can be dangerous. My library is almost entirely medical and nursing texts. When they get removed from the collection because they no longer serve our community, they get trashed.
I also don’t want most donations to my library because they’re usually old and outdated. What am I supposed to do with that? The garbage can is over there. Of the dozens of donations I’ve received in my career, I can think of two books I’ve accepted into the collection and catalogued accordingly. The rest were, frankly, not appropriate to be giving to anyone.
In my personal life, I don’t throw books out very much at all unless they’re damaged beyond repair, old and mouldy, or otherwise unfit to let another person have. Donating books is fine IF you’re donating things that are actually in good shape to a group which has the resources to actually go through them, process them properly, and get them to people who can use them. It’s why public libraries have rules about what you can donate and they don’t accept just anything.
If you’re committed to donating books to people who don’t have them, a) give them only new or like new books and b) ask them what they want or need.