So the time is fast approaching when all of my books will finally be reunited—I mean, I will finally have them all stored in the same place. (Right now, they’re spread across my apartment and my parents’ house, in two different cities.) I can’t wait. I’ve been designing custom bookshelves for our living room for weeks, no, months now. I’ve also bought extra wall-mounted bookshelves for our bedroom.
Although I did cull my collection somewhat the last time I was at my parents’ house, I think I still have quite a bit of sorting to do. I’m really debating whether or not I should get rid of all the cheap paperback copies of books that are out-of-copyright, and that I can read electronically for free. Some editions I like too much to get rid of, of course. (I’m thinking of my copies of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and some Shakespeare.) But all those “classics” that I bought just because they were in the dollar bin at my favourite used bookstore, telling myself that these were books that I was most definitely going to get around to someday... well, I could always read the e-book versions. (Only the books that have just the straight-up text, no introductions or annotations of any kind.) Especially now that I’ve experienced what it’s like to read on an e-reader (I loved it!).
One thing a colleague of mine mentioned, though, is that some classic ebooks he’s checked out have been poorly edited. For example, Proust’s spelling was “corrected” throughout, and entire passages were omitted. I’m not sure how much of a problem this is. But I do know that maybe books that are really easy to find I can get rid of, and rarer ones I’ll hang onto. When I decide to read them—when I have time—then I can check out and choose between various electronic editions, library copies, or at the very worst, another used copy bought from AbeBooks.
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