Wednesday 25 July 2007

Pic of the day: Still full.

Time for pruning?

When I moved from my original Chaos Node to this House of Chaos, I threw away a lot of stuff and especially paper. In the city where I work, there is a store that sells used books and comic books. From the beginning of November till the end of January I carried with me a shopping bag of paperbacks or comic books from home. During the actual moving, I even threw away some comic books that I hadn't found in time. Those books and comics that I brought with me to the new location were those I could not bear to part with, those I was fairly certain I would read again and possibly even buy again if I didn't keep them.

I am sure you can see where this is going. Despite getting rid of my own weight in books several times over, I still have this fairly large bookshelf full. And almost needless to say, I don't touch them. (Well, I have touched the Bible and the Bible Index in the upper left corner, but not very often; certainly less than I've just looked them up online, and even that is probably less often than you would expect, knowing me.) The fiction books are simply gathering dust. I also have some books in a cupboard, which I haven't opened either. And I have a couple crates of comic books, all but a few albums untouched. Another crate of Japanese manga books, untouched. I was so sure I will read them again; I am not so sure now. It has been a year and a half, and I can think of no reason why it will be different for the next year and a half. And of such years and halves are our lives made.

It is still not clear whether I am going to move by New Year's. It depends on whether someone in Skien is willing to move away, and whether I get in on the re-training courses here in Kristiansand. And of course, even if I should stay in Kristiansand, it is anybody's guess how long I can stay here. It is not like I own the place. Sooner or later I am going to move again, unless I die a very untimely death; I am not likely to stay in this house for decades. So why not just bite in the sour apple, as we so descriptively say in Norwegian, and start carrying books to the city again?

Several of Piers Anthony's books are already available as e-books. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land comes next month. There are bound to be more and more of them in the future. Those are 3 minutes away if I really feel the urge to read them, and I still don't have to pack them in crates and drag them with me from home to home for the rest of my life, if any. In the meantime, if I hand my books in to the used- book shop, someone else might read them for the first time. I know that Piers Anthony's books were instrumental in changing English for me from a high school subject to a language I could actually think in. He extended, expanded and enhanced my vocabulary in ways that were easy to remember, because they were funny. If it worked for me, who knows if it could work for someone else? Young Norwegians today have a pretty solid foundation in English, and would certainly not mind grabbing some dirt cheap used paperbacks. They are ideal for the exact kind of people who could most benefit from them.

The comic books are also in English for the most part. Some of them were actually bought used, at the very same shop. Perhaps it is time to take them home. If I am moving again, I definitely will. Oh, I would still keep a few, but probably not more than a tenth of what I have now. And for some reason I have totally stopped buying tankubon, the books of Japanese manga. It seemed like a good idea back in the Chaos Node, but not anymore. I guess I have changed a little. But I still buy Scientific American and the Norwegian magazine Illustrert Vitenskap. In fact, I am about to start subscribing to the British New Scientist. (Despite its name, there is nothing New Age about this … it is more serious than the usual crop, with science- related job listings instead of the glossy ads for brain machines and sex-ed videos.) Narvesen International Bookstore used to have that magazine here, but it has been gone for a long while now. I'd be happy to just subscribe to it online, but this is not possible without also getting dead trees sent by air mail. Boo, hiss. The Economist has a reduced-rate web-only subscription that I have used for years now. It isn't that hard to do, folks. You better not write about saving the environment again until you get that fixed.

It goes without saying that I haven't opened all the bags of CDs either, but there isn't a store that will take those. Good work, record labels! (NOT. ) And don't get me started on the few videos I have bought. I have all the earlier seasons of Smallville on DVD. Since I only watch them once, I should have just rented them, if I could, which I couldn't at the time. Perhaps I should just steal the next seasons off the Net until I have taken back what rightly belongs to me. Or perhaps they won't be worth watching, what do I know? Anyway, there is more and more free video content on the Web, so I may have more than enough with that. (Heroes Season 2 starting in September… then again, is it more fun than playing City of Heroes, where I am a hero?)

The short of it is: Too much stuff, too little time. But I am learning. Slowly, perhaps, but I am learning. And that's something, in a world where the prevailing slogan seems to be: "He who dies with the most toys, wins."