Friday, November 21, 2014

Books as an Inheritance

I think for those of us with large libraries, it can be really hard to decide what to do about the books that are still in the collection after we are gone.  It used to be that there would be booksellers that would come and buy up interesting libraries, but those days are quickly passing.  Even CDs and LPs have pretty minimal resale value, with some exceptions.  I think if I passed in the next 5 years, my wife could still turn to some music shops to get a halfway decent price on some of the jazz CDs, but probably not on the classical and certainly not on the pop CDs.  Those would just be destined for the landfill.  But 20 years from now (and I think I have at least that long!), I doubt they will have much value at all.  And probably there will be almost no resale value to the books, especially since I don't collect first editions.  I think it really will be down to the kids wanting some or all of the books and CDs, so I will have to find out closer to the time what they think about that.  They may well be totally digital, growing up in this era.  (If that is the case, I should do them a favour and start de-accessioning in about 15 years.)

Despite Anthony Powell's dictum that "books do furnish a room" (though it is far better if this is a working library and not just for display) and Erasmus's wise words: "When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes," there is no guarantee that someone else will really want your books, precisely because they reflected your interests and intellectual history, or indeed, any books at all.  Some of my books are held onto purely for sentimental reasons, and do I really want to inflict this on my children (hanging onto a few dozen books just because they were mine)?

I am thinking about this because I have finally gotten around to reading one of the books that I took from my mom's collection, close to 20 years after her death.  I can't recall exactly how many books I ultimately took from her collection at the time, but I think it is down to 2 or 3 left after all these years of carting books from place to place.  I have to admit I didn't care for this book very much, and I'm a bit nervous that if I don't like the next one, I may have no books left to hang onto.*  Most of her books went to a nearby community center, where I am sure they are still being appreciated.  If we lived just a bit closer, I would probably take this one back to donate as well.

One of the few books I remember her having was a hardcover set of F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, but I honestly can no longer remember if they were in her house when she died or if they ended up with my father.  I might well have discarded them by now (since it is even harder to move hardcovers than paperbacks), but I do wish I had those books.  (Of course by now I have a fairly mismatched set of most of Fitzgerald's novels and stories, and I'm sure it would just be easier to get the missing ones.  Still I suppose if the set did fall into my hands, then I would make space for it.)

In general, there is not much of a tangible legacy left, other than a few artsy photos she took and some jewelry.  I would have liked to have a few more books as well, since an appreciation for art and literature was certainly her main legacy to me.  I think I actually loaned her an art book (Janson's History of Art, which she wanted since it reminded her of her college days) but never got it back, so I eventually replaced it.  On the flip side, I just recalled that I do have her copy of a Georgia O'Keeffe catalog, and I will certainly hang onto that until the end, so I guess we're even after all.  Anyway, I might as well cut this short, as it is getting a bit too morbid and maudlin (quite the combo!).

* In the same way, I have a bit of a mental block against finishing Gloria Naylor's Mama Day, as I started reading this to my mother in the hospital, as a way of passing the time (since it was unlikely she truly heard me by that point).  I had kind of expected to get through the entire book (over the course of a week perhaps), but I had to run back to Chicago to take care of some things, and she took a real turn for the worse while I was gone.  I haven't really had the heart to return to it, but maybe late next year I'll read Naylor's Bailey's Cafe, and if that goes well, I will tackle Mama Day the following year.  I think it is time to close out this book.

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