Jun. 4th, 2007

kniteracy: You can get this design on a card or a picture to hang! (writing)
Yesterday, my husband and I went through all the books on two of our massive bookshelves, and we managed to identify enough books that we didn't think we'd ever want to read or read again to fill four boxes. (I said the bookshelves were massive, didn't I? Wait 'til we get to the paperbacks!) During this task, we found things we had forgotten about, found things we'd been looking for, found things we didn't know we needed, and laughed at stuff we'd never want to look at again. I do feel the need to inform you that we did keep a couple of books that were just too bad to throw away (we're the same way with films)!

So much of our lives' histories were present in the books we went through. We identified closed chapters in our lives that we'd want to remember, and we kept those books. Other things, things that meant less to us or were only important for a very brief period in our lives (I kept The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, for example, but got rid of What to Expect When You're Expecting), those things were put into boxes. Soon, we'll donate those boxes to charity shops or libraries, after we've given friends a chance to come round and see if they want anything.

One of the books that came to light yesterday was A Writer's Notebook, copyright 1984 by Running Press, which has been absorbed into a larger press conglomerate and probably doesn't remember this book at all. In fact, it was a fad book, a cheaply put together "blank book" with fancy, textured paper. I never wrote a word in it. It cost $4.95 in 1984, and you can buy it today for £1 or so via Alibris. But I kept it, through all the years and all the moves. Why did I keep it?

Why did I keep it? )
kniteracy: You can get this design on a card or a picture to hang! (writing)
Jack London said that. Jack London wrote The Call of the Wild, which I had to read in middle school like everybody else. I don’t remember much about the book except that it had some vague business to do with wolves, but this quote, the first one in A Writer’s Notebook, always makes me happy. Lots of people who write writing pages use this quote somewhere, but I am not sure how many of them really understand it. Obviously, there are many ways to interpret the things other people have said, and Mr. London isn’t here to defend himself, but I interpret this to mean we must find our own inspiration.

Harper rambles on about things she demonstrably knows little... )

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