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!@#$%! · 06.08.2015, 07:11 PM

this is an interesting discussion but i'll only talk about one aspect of things:

used to spend summers cooped up at the library of congress where every book ever printed ends up somehow. it was beautiful. everything at my fingertips. i'd order a book, read it, send it back, get another. i even had a research shelf where you can keep a number of books without having to reorder. it was glorious. i wanted to live there forever.

my apartment(s) reflected that ambition. i was a major book buyer/hoarder.

the thing is, unless it's a really good book, or a reference, i rarely or never reread. maybe i'll want to reread something now that i read ages ago. but i won't reread what i read yesterday or last year. and yet the volumes accumulate.

all that my book collection amounted to was a status symbol, a badge of my dreams and ambitions, but it had very little use value. it just sat there, occupying space, demanding to be packed and carted and cared for. every. time.

since leaving grad school, and because i'm not a professor, i have dumped maybe 90% of what i used to have and i don't miss it/ have ever needed it. still the 10% left-- the only thing it's good for is for people to come into my house, take a look at the shelves, and say "those are nice books." then we have drinks, eat, and forget about them.

yes, those are nice books. as objects, they are heavy and they are pointless. even my precious dictionaries, for which i paid a mint on pre-internet days, have become irrelevant. they just sit there. i can google words in any language now.

you know what works better than a massive bookshelf? a good system of notes. i can take my notes everywehre with my favorite quotes and that extracts 99% of the reuse value of a heavy mass of paper and preserves it for posterity.

so, if you find a quote you love, or a book inspires a thought, write it the fuck down in a place where you can easily find it later. read and write your summaries like a goddamn researcher. keep the book without keeping the volume. like farenheit 451.

i loved reading ulysses, but every time i pick it up to restart it's uffffff... and i fall asleep. so all that it does for me to have it on the shelf is to say to visitors: "hey, look, he read that book with the man with the eyepatch."

it's very petty-bourgeois. like an old lady's ceramic figurines. a disgusting refinement.

knowledge + experience + tools are great. but so is mobility. and tchotchkes are lame, whatever form they take.

make your knowledge portable. tools you'll probably still have to carry, and that's enough weight.

06.08.2015, 07:11 PM	#30
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,483	this is an interesting discussion but i'll only talk about one aspect of things: used to spend summers cooped up at the library of congress where every book ever printed ends up somehow. it was beautiful. everything at my fingertips. i'd order a book, read it, send it back, get another. i even had a research shelf where you can keep a number of books without having to reorder. it was glorious. i wanted to live there forever. my apartment(s) reflected that ambition. i was a major book buyer/hoarder. the thing is, unless it's a really good book, or a reference, i rarely or never reread. maybe i'll want to reread something now that i read ages ago. but i won't reread what i read yesterday or last year. and yet the volumes accumulate. all that my book collection amounted to was a status symbol, a badge of my dreams and ambitions, but it had very little use value. it just sat there, occupying space, demanding to be packed and carted and cared for. every. time. since leaving grad school, and because i'm not a professor, i have dumped maybe 90% of what i used to have and i don't miss it/ have ever needed it. still the 10% left-- the only thing it's good for is for people to come into my house, take a look at the shelves, and say "those are nice books." then we have drinks, eat, and forget about them. yes, those are nice books. as objects, they are heavy and they are pointless. even my precious dictionaries, for which i paid a mint on pre-internet days, have become irrelevant. they just sit there. i can google words in any language now. you know what works better than a massive bookshelf? a good system of notes. i can take my notes everywehre with my favorite quotes and that extracts 99% of the reuse value of a heavy mass of paper and preserves it for posterity. so, if you find a quote you love, or a book inspires a thought, write it the fuck down in a place where you can easily find it later. read and write your summaries like a goddamn researcher. keep the book without keeping the volume. like farenheit 451. i loved reading ulysses, but every time i pick it up to restart it's uffffff... and i fall asleep. so all that it does for me to have it on the shelf is to say to visitors: "hey, look, he read that book with the man with the eyepatch." it's very petty-bourgeois. like an old lady's ceramic figurines. a disgusting refinement. knowledge + experience + tools are great. but so is mobility. and tchotchkes are lame, whatever form they take. make your knowledge portable. tools you'll probably still have to carry, and that's enough weight.
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