I was reading these before I decided on that book cull (and one was actually a re-read) but here are two more for the discard pile:
Into the Land of Bones, by Frank L Holt, a look at Alexander the Great’s campaigns in Afghanistan, from the perspective of modern scholarship, as a way of looking at our current war in Afghanistan. This is a subject I thought I knew a bit about, though my own knowledge was formed by older scholarship of the “we really don’t know what happened in Bactria” school, and the book was an eye-opener, especially on the subject of how successful Alexander was in subduing the country (answer: not very). A very good read, but one I’ve now read twice and it’s time to move on.
The Lost World of Byzantium, by Jonathan Harris, yet another book about the Byzantine Empire, but shorter, less expansive than most, one that focuses on the empire’s resilience and ability to change with the times, and the changes that eventually brought it down. Another good read, but not as good as that first one — I had to push through to finish, and it’s definitely a one-and-done.
Do you actually trash books or give to some group or such?
I keep mine forever and esp. those I loved or were special gifts.
Same with gifts. My house is a museum of tokens from friends and family.
Same with photos. I can’t destroy them as they seem to embody the memory of a loved one.
Crazy and I’m 78! My house is neatly “stuffed.”
What would it be like to have no memorabilia or books about?
Liberating? Or desolate?
I get rid of the ones I don’t especially love, especially the ones I don’t love. These here were books that got one one more chance at engaging me, before I did what I knew I was going to do; ditch them. I can’t speak for memorabilia (I notice I care more about missing things before they’re gone; once they’re out of my life I never think of them again) but I don’t have to worry about what it would be like to have no books about –I have whole rooms full of books that I look at, and I just know I will never read them again, and I get more all the time.