Shelf Life
There are a few good things on the internet, despite its many foibles. This morning Wired had a funny article proving how silly and ridiculous we all are.
I have a response to said article:
Another valid response: online book swaps.
As I pack for Miami I realize two things. First, my lack of commitment to the concept of summer means I have very few things to wear and should buy summer clothes.
Second, what I’ll probably buy is a paperback novel. Probably “After Dark” by Haruki Murakami.
I was just adding books I’ve read to Facebook (don’t ask) and looking over my piles of brutalized and bent paperback books. Most probably won’t be read again but hold on to them. They’re small and light and have a special way of matching: The Exorcist, right up next to Call of the Wild or Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays and Poems.
I can’t qualify this judgment, or prove that they match in any way other than if aliens came to Earth, the aliens would indeed agree that these were Earth books specifically… American, from a relatively recent blip of time. The books cover animals and spirits and something in between. Wolves fight, little girls pee, and every living thing walks alone amidst beauty and injustice.
Better let me talk to the aliens when they come. Mi gente.
Aiming to be a person of logic and action, I believe I should join one of the book-swapping sites I read about in Bust magazine: PaperBackSwap.com, BookMooch.com and FrugalReader.com. (Etsy gave a free copy of Bust in our goody bags, and I’d forgotten how good it is. Mi gente!)
If you’ve ever stuck books under your AC unit (i hate summer) and then come winter, wanted to loan the book to someone and realize with guilt that you’d been willing to destroy something of unforeseen value, then this might be a better way to get it out of your house.
I wish I’d not thoughtlessly destroyed “Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Doctor Kassler, J.S.P.S” when I needed something “old” to prop up the AC with. No excuse, and I’m sorry.
I think the act of mailing a book, and the act of paying a little bit of postage so that someone may enjoy Thing X enhances its value. Rather than it rot in a landfill or use shocking amounts of water and energy to recycle, someone is making an effort, someone’s request is being fulfilled. This makes the world a better place where people feel more connected and involved.
It is global, there are 91 countries involved on the PaperBackSwap.com site alone. Ever wanted to read Madame Bovary in French, allez-y. Or try BookMooch.com or FrugalReader.com
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