move planning progress

[redbird]

We have been to the self-storage place in Medford, and have a specific unit and a signed contract. That was annoying, not because of anything the storage company did—they were organized and helpful—but because of transit stuff. We didn't want to wait half an hour for one bus, so we took a different one, and got to wait half an hour there. And on the way back we were late for lunch, and had a plan, and then cattitude said "get off here" and then "no, really, we overshot" convincingly enough that we were off the bus before I clarified that we hadn't overshot, except that the app he was using had suddenly decided we wanted the 89 instead of the 90. *sigh* But we eventually got back to Davis Square and had smoked salmon crepes, and bought some plums at the farmers' market, and came home.

Then I did another round of book sorting. (The categories for now are "I want this in the apartment, given limited space there" and "I'm fine storing this for a while.") I continue to be surprised at how few books I'm putting into the first category; it's not just because Cattitude did a first pass while I was in Montreal, because he hadn't looked at the paperback shelves. Once I've gone through the rest of the hardcovers, and he's looked at those paperbacks, we may do a second round and add some things that we might read, or that we'd be okay storing because we can borrow them from the library if we want. It is very weird to be thinking "why do I own all these books?" I have read about sixty books this year, with significant rereading, but relatively little of that has been rereading my own physical copies of books (rather than borrowed books, library or ebooks, or purchased ebook copies of things I'd forgotten I owned).

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Is that the storage place on the same street as I live on?

[redbird]

Not if I remember your address correctly; it's at 970 Fellsway.

[minoanmiss]

At the corner of the Fellsway and a street starting with M? I'll have to look at the addresss next time I walk past the one near me!

[redbird]

I don't remember the cross street name, sorry.

[minoanmiss]

No problem! I'm interested for 2 reasons: if it's the storage place near me I could come help you move stuff in and out of it and/or catch up with you when you come to deal with it. So I'll try to remember to email you more specific info.

[raino]

It's not easy culling books, it feels somewhat blasphemous, but have regretted giving away only one book. And that's because I can't remember the name or the writer's name and can never find it again, if I wanted to read it a second time.

[redbird]

Culling doesn't feel blasphemous. Some of the books we cherish were bought used (including some we had to buy used if at all, because they were and are out of print); recycling books rather than selling or donating them can feel that way, but there are things nobody wants, like Windows 95 documentation.

What culling feels, other than odd, is potentially risky, in a "but what if I change my mind?" way. Thus, the easiest things to cull are very old works that I know I can get from Project Gutenberg.

[raino]

I grew up in a book-worshipping household, and have some trouble tossing even old Wndows manuals, but getting better at it. It's such a great relief to know 99,5% of books are replaceable or loanable these days. As long as one remembers the name!