Lightening the load

A couple of years ago, I would probably have sworn to you that I’d never do this.

It’s funny how our thinking on things can change. I started staring at one of the bookshelves in our living room a month or two ago, a shelf that contains some of our more special volumes, and realized that I’d never even opened some of those books. Some are fairly valuable, but what good were they doing on my shelf? I wasn’t enjoying them, unless you consider occasionally glimpsing the spine of one of them and remembering that I owned it enjoyment.

I don’t make New Years resolutions, but I decided in early December that I would gradually divest myself of some of these books. Many are King books, limited editions, first editions or otherwise signed volumes, but some are from other authors, too. I’m not getting rid of everything–some of these books are unique or are special to me for other reasons than their value or scarcity. I’m keeping, for example, the lettered edition of The Stand, my personalized copies of Six Stories and The New Lieutenant’s Rap, the beautiful limited of The Eyes of the Dragon and many others. I still haven’t decided about the signed/limiteds of the final four Dark Tower books (matching numbers), but I’m starting to believe they may go, too.

My resolve to do this was reinforced by recent events, when I came to realize that the things we collect in our lifetimes, as I mentioned before, becomes the burden of the next generation. Were I to die today, it would fall to my wife to dispose of these books at some point, and with collectables like this, it’s no easy task for someone who isn’t familiar with the field. If I’m not getting anything out of them, why keep them?

So, it starts today, with my auction of Stephen King’s Rose Madder. This is the UK signed/limited edition, one of only 250 copies in existence, bound in faux red leather and signed by King on a bookplate. Check it out! I’ll probably have something new listed every week or so as my gaze falls upon one of those book spines and I decide that it’s that book’s time to find a new home.