A Sad Day for Obsession

[James Marinero]

It had to come. It's time to sell my flat and move on. Happy memories, but the hard part was dealing with my books. I have a lot of fiction (most of which I have kept, including almost every one of John Le Carre's novels), and a huge amount of non-fiction. I can keep some, but much of the non-fiction takes me back to times in my life when I struggled - for example with Classical Mechanics and with the Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory. Those are two textbooks I have retained as I plan to re-visit them in my dotage and finally try to understand them. Passing exams is one thing, but real understanding is another.

Many of my old sailing books have gone to a charity shop, but each one of them took me back to a particular time. They were the books that enthused me as a teenager and fired my obsession with the sea. The writers were real headline makers of their day - Francis Chichester, Alec Rose, Moitessier, Val Howells, Chay Blyth - and Robin Knox-Johnston (who still makes headlines). The world has shrunk so much since those days when a sailor could be out of comms for weeks on end and no one would be concerned.

I've kept as many of them as space allows, because the idea of re-reading them on Kindle just doesn't appeal. And of course (ignore conjunction starting a sentence) they have been a real, physical part of my life.

Chichester's 'The Lonely Sea and the Sky' has a textured dust jacket - one of the few books where the feel of the cover is as evocative as the picture.

Do any of you have obsessions beyond writing?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I feel for your plight in giving things up because of moving home. I've lived in about forty different houses in 61 years, so have slowly learned to adapt to having a transitory view of possessions. Moving is a great way of ridding oneself of clutter, and it can provide a strange view of our obsessions. When I emigrated to the U.S.A. in 2000, I realised that I'd been collecting classic car and motorcycle magazines for about twenty years and now had fifteen large cardboard boxes of them. I made a rough calculation on what I'd spent over the years, realising that had I saved the cover price I could have bought a decent Jaguar saloon or several motorcycles instead!

I've become quite sanguine about the things that I own, having lost everything that I had three times over - to theft, a house fire with attendant water damage and a storage warehouse burning down. Following the last disaster, I moved into my current flat with just the contents of what I had in my car boot.

Still, as Homer Simpson said "Possessions are fleeting."

 

[James Marinero]

Still, as Homer Simpson said "Possessions are fleeting."

That's a tough history you have. I'm no materialist but when it comes to books it hurts. On the positive side I've been preparing for this moment for some time. Possessions are a burden.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Aw, RIP your books

I, too, have a disgusting amount of books (at least compared to the size of my apartment). Over 700 of them between myself and my hubby. When we move sometime in the next year or two, we'll have to cull back through them--though I already keep mine pretty groomed. I go through them about every six months to make room for new arrivals.

I have a ridiculous amount of t-shirts. They're my favorite thing to wear, so, of the three closet rods we have, one is entirely dedicated to my t-shirts + like 5 of hubby's. Every time I've moved, I've gone through them, but it's heartbreaking. I've had some fun experiences in most and the others have special meaning. *sigh* But I will be going through those again very soon.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

My husband has a passion for cruise liners - not cruising on them, but the stories, the stats, the metrics. We have a lot of books and he has a live compendium of his own for sale. I have a lot of books. I don't collect Tarot decks. Some readers have 100's, all different designs and I have some very beautiful decks but that obsession hasn't got hold of me or I could spent a lot. My trusty favourites are getting quite scruffy, but people prefer that to smart and new.

 

[AgentPete]

I grew up on many of those sailing books, too. Plus Slocum, of course. But always non-fiction, never got into Patrick O'Brian etc, for some reason.

Definitely books to curl up with.

 

[Marc Joan]

Due to a fairly nomadic life since childhood, I've had to jettison things I'd rather not have thrown away - I thought I was being pragmatic at the time, but in retrospect I think I was only being cavalier. I wish I still had EVERYTHING.

BTW, my wife has all her milk teeth in a matchbox somewhere. One birthday I'm going to drill holes in them and make a bracelet out of them. But for me or for her? Not sure. Vote on it please...

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Write and tell the fairies. They will find good uses for them AND PAY.

 

[James Marinero]

I grew up on many of those sailing books, too. Plus Slocum, of course. But always non-fiction, never got into Patrick O'Brian etc, for some reason.

Definitely books to curl up with.

Ah yes Slocum - I have retained a copy of Sailing Alone Around the World. The first P O'B I read turned me off - too much about natural history in Chile AFAIR. But, recently have got into his writing. Good bunkside reading.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Sadly I gave up a lot but in some ways that was just as well with all the moving. I don't think I've finished yet, but it is rather sad to have so little to show for a lifetimes work. Time to bury oneself in the writing and live there. Still most stuff sits there not being used or even looked at, so novels, especially your own are more important.

 

[Marc Joan]

Write and tell the fairies. They will find good uses for them AND PAY.

Pah. Darn fairies have cost me pounds through no-shows for my kids' teeth. If I see one, I'll squash it.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Did they not show? The lazy slobs.

 

[Marc Joan]

Union activity? French fairies perhaps. What can you expect from effete Continentals...

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Having done Peace Corps as a young adult, then having moved across the country and across the world several times since, I've fallen out of the habit of collecting things (even books...I tend to read them and pass them on to others). My obsessions revolve more around doing things...growing things, in particular. I get stressed if I don't get my hands in the soil regularly.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Oh, yes and the Tooth Fairies here in New Zealand are a pathetic bunch of forgetful, lazy slackers... And when they do remember to bring money, sometimes they don't even bother to try to find the tooth--they just slip a coin under the kid's pillow. Fairies! They're just not the same as they were back in the day, are they...Maybe we need an international fairy standard...you know, the fairies could get some sort of accreditation, so we know they're up to the job...

 

[Emurelda]

I feel for you plight. Getting rid of books and mags..I just can't but have had to for the same reasons.

I used to collect 'Build It' magazine. I had it in my head to build my dream house. If I could have kept all those Mandy comics and Look-In mags I used to own I would have but unfortunately forced to dump

As for physics books - I can't seem to part with my Feynman volumes. Likewise thinking about revisiting to understand what on earth I'd been studying!

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Fairy Union, a novel of an idea

 

[Bernard Stacey]

Fairy Union

I'm pretty sure today's PC crowd would not allow this...

 

[Richard Sutton]

I grew up on many of those sailing books, too. Plus Slocum, of course. But always non-fiction, never got into Patrick O'Brian etc, for some reason.

Definitely books to curl up with.

Sold our '83 Endeavour 35 two years ago, but I'll never part with my sailing books. The Hiscock volumes are so worn they are barely there, but I will protect them, nonetheless... or my Tolkien collection, or the GRRM hardbounds (they might be useful if I need a jack to raise my car), or the...

 

[Jason Byrne]

Oh, yes and the Tooth Fairies here in New Zealand are a pathetic bunch of forgetful, lazy slackers... And when they do remember to bring money, sometimes they don't even bother to try to find the tooth--they just slip a coin under the kid's pillow. Fairies! They're just not the same as they were back in the day, are they...Maybe we need an international fairy standard...you know, the fairies could get some sort of accreditation, so we know they're up to the job...

You know, faerie coinage is generally known to transform back into its original form after it's spent — leaves, twigs, small gingerbread cakes — things of that nature. I wonder why money spent on teeth doesn't change back.

Also, we should count ourselves lucky that they pay for the teeth, instead of stealing our children and leaving changelings in their places, or tying their hair in unbreakable faerie knots. And those pranks are the ones played by the Seelie court. If we happened to attract an Unseelie with our children's teeth, they will kidnap them and play music and make them dance until their toes fall off.

A particular faerie named Aillen lulled the citizens of Tara to sleep with music every year on the same day, and burned the city down around them.

Faeries.

 

[Richard Sutton]

Weren't things better all around when they just lived under the hills? Blame those Victorian photographers for insinuating them into all kinds of untoward situations...

 

[Jason Byrne]

Weren't things better all around when they just lived under the hills? Blame those Victorian photographers for insinuating them into all kinds of untoward situations...

Truly. We have the Milesians to thank for that, round-about thirty-six centuries ago. They forced the Fae below ground — something even the Fomorians couldn't do.

'Course, by the time we got around to the Victorians the fae had mellowed out a bit, and Áine was only murdering lone men travelling alone on the road for being lecherous...

Faeries.