I recently had some of my father's books passed down to me. Not his entire library (he was an avid reader) but a sampling of things it was thought I would enjoy, because I inherited many of my interests from him.
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I'm guessing most people have a variety of interests. Some of these change over time and some stay with us for our lifetime. We can pursue them through a variety of means: magazines, clubs, internet content, borrowed books, etc. And then there are the books we collect, the books that make up our personal libraries.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate that these are print books. I've always been a fan of real books. But when Kindle first came out, I got one. It pushed the popularity of electronic books, so much so that technophiles were saying that digital was the future of books and print books would soon be obsolete.
I found my Kindle useful for fiction, and I liked the mobility. I could read a book while standing in a long line at the grocery store. But for nonfiction and research, I thought it left much to be desired. It boasted search and note-taking features, but I found these time consuming to use and inconvenient to find things again. I especially missed being able to flip back and forth between passages on several pages. And of course, the device was constantly nagging to be fed, and it was fussy about format. The Kindle will only read mobi formatted books. Other eReaders want different formats. Eventually my Kindle became outdated and obsolete. At that point, all the books I had stored on it were lost to me. That's pretty much when I abandoned digital books.
My dad's books are part of his legacy to me. They aren't just the outline of his life, i.e. name, dates, places, and major events, rather they document the person he was. A peek into his soul, so to speak. They are a sampling of the things he was interested in, the things he cared about. He listed page numbers in the fly-leafs, underlined passages that spoke to him, and made a few notes in the margins.
All of these are precious to me. They give me a sense of belonging. Rootedness. Groundedness. A sense of my personal heritage. They represent my father's legacy to me.
What legacy of books will I leave to my children? Gardening, homesteading, permaculture, historical fiction, science fiction, biblical hermeneutics, natural animal care, herbs, historical bibliographies, classical literature, historical farming, traditional skills, DIY, cookbooks, nature identification, food preservation, history, fiber and textile arts.
Having your father’s books is such a tribute to him. Knowing that they will be treasured by others, would no doubt bring him joy. I too, enjoy having the physical book in my hands and have rejected reading on a screen. The experience is just not the same. I have donated most of my books to the library, as my son does share my love of reading, but not the same subject matter. So glad your father’s books have found their way home.
ReplyDeleteDaisy, it is interesting about the experience. eReaders have tried to be easier on the eyes, but it's still not the same. I do have a few eBooks on my yearly reading lists, PDF format, if I can't find a print copy but really want to read the book. In spite of improvements manufacturers have tried to make, screens still aren't as enjoyable for reading.
DeleteWhat a wonderful post. You and I have similar feelings about Kindles - good for escape literature you wouldn’t keep anyway after it is read. Real books for everything else. We used to have a huge selection of books before my husband lost his vision. We used to haunt book stores (new and used). It is one of the many things I miss from our previous life together. When we moved I brutally downsized my books (my husband's was all digital by that time), and now I am down to real books of cooking and craft books only on a short shelf - and I am constantly culling those. At this stage in my life, digital books (books for entertainment) take up no space. Reference books get thinned when after a year I don’t look at them even once. But how I miss those days of book shopping and the feeling of abundance when I could pull information from my book shelves or boast of owning all the books from several favored authors. I didn’t come from a family of readers so nothing was handed down to me. What a treasure you have!
ReplyDeleteRT, very well said. What you point out is that book lovers have a book culture, which is lost in the digital world.
DeleteOne time I got a free download of a book but apparently I didn't read it fast enough because it self-deleted before I got to it. That was an eye opener. Libraries can lend eBooks with cancellation dates, so it would seem that we can't really own eBooks. They can disappear at a moments notice.
I have my mother’s Gregg Shorthand book. Talk about obscure lol. For me, since childhood and my earliest memories, to be among racks of books was my Eden. Our little town library could hold me in thrall for hours. Long before I could read, I would hold a book, talk to it, make up a story about it, surround myself with stacks of them. All was right with the world in those moments. And don’t get me started about used books! Do you remember the annual AAUW used book sales? Gymnasiums filled with donated books, to buy for pennies on the dollar…Heaven.
ReplyDeleteMy Kindle is wonderful to check out fiction from my local library. I am so grateful for this tool because if I love the book, I buy a hard copy to hoard…I mean stash away like treasure in my library.
I have many of the same books as your father. Touching the same books he did must be Magical.
Anonymous, yes! The culture of being a book lover. You all are making that so clear to me. Our home libraries are part of our intellectual wealth.
DeleteI too am thankful for our public library, and also discount used book sellers like https://www.worldofbooks.com/. For some series, like Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe, I've been able to buy inexpensive volumes to fill in the ones the library doesn't have.
I just want to reach through the screen and check out some of those books, Leigh!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the e-readers are not my favourite way of reading books, and only use it for fiction. My book shelf holds the books I could not bear to part with when we downsized and moved.
Rosalea, I can relate! We made two long-distance moves in 2005 and each time I had to part with books I wish I could have kept.
DeleteIt’s also nice to have the books from a couple of generations ago. I like the Internet archive that has scanned books that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to find: https://archive.org/details/internetarchivebooks
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, yes! That is my source too, for public domain books. I'm quite interested in these older books because the authors haven't been influenced by modern cultural trends, like the new stuff often is. (The internet archive has a good selection of audiobooks as well).
DeleteLeigh, perhaps surprisingly I feel the same way you do about physical books. I have some texts that belonged to my maternal grandparents - mostly my grandmother's study texts but also a book from grandfather on Trout fishing, which he loved. I have also kept at least three full boxes of books from my parents (mostly my mother), which are a variety of practical items, books she owned as a children, and children's books (She has the complete Redwall series, which she read to her classes but I have never read).
ReplyDeleteBeyond just the multitude of benefits of physical books - always available, not editable, physicality - is also the fact that for me, I spend most of my working day looking at a screen. To do so for enjoyment makes it no enjoyment at all.
TB, oh yes. I think we all need a break from screens. I know I've been drifting away from them from taking up knitting and weaving again. And it leaves more time for reading real books too. I really don't miss the screen much at all.
DeleteLeigh, I agree with your assessment about ebooks. They were very handy to use when travelling for work. I used to panic when I got on the plane for a long flight & realized I would finish my current book before the flight was over! With the Kindle, I could conveniently download a new book before the flight took off. But, I retired & had no more use for it after that. When my kindle got outdated & wouldn't load any more updates, I moved the books I had stored on it for future reading, to my tablet & tossed the kindle. Even so, I haven't opened any of them on my tablet, in over 8 years..... Still pick up novels at estate & garage sales for reading while camping.
ReplyDeleteDeb, for some reason, I had a harder time getting back to looking at book on the kindle than I do on a bookshelf. The bookshelf is a constant visual reminder and I like that. The kindle eventually became out-of-sight-out-of-mind. It has its uses, but only for throw-away books.
DeleteYou are lucky and blessed to get a rich treasure as books! I too love reading.
ReplyDeleteKevin, I agree! :)
DeleteI didn't receive one. My business is doing estate consultations, sales and consignment. Over the years I have collected a library of Native American (I am), Gardening, cook books and Old Fairytales. I just went through about 100 of them and let my girls pick first. They each left with a box full. I only have about another several hundred to go through. (eek).
ReplyDeleteDicky Bird, what a great opportunity for collecting books.
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