Title: I Murdered My Library (Kindle Single)
Author: Linda Grant
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Publication Date: May 6, 2014
Length: 28 Pages
About The Author
Linda Grant is an award-winning novelist and non-fiction writer. She lives in London with fewer books than she used to.
Books Are Your Friends
What happens when you have too many books?
At the end of 2013, novelist Linda Grant moved from a large house to a two bedroom flat with a tiny corridor-shaped study. The trauma of getting rid of thousands of books raises the question of what purpose personal libraries serve in contemporary life and the seductive lure of the Kindle.
My Thoughts
I chose the word "poignant" to describe this essay about a bibliophile and her beloved books. Ms. Grant describes the bittersweet experience of having to weed the books that she has collected since childhood.
The obvious question is, "What do I do with all of these books?"
The first thought might be to give them to friends and family members. I found this quotation very poignant and real;
"The idea that I was building a library to bequeath to the next generation is one of the greatest fallacies of my life. The next generation don't want old books - they don't seem to want books at all. This is very painful to me".
When Ms. Grant looked at her new bookshelves with empty spaces glaring at her, she thought:
"My library is denuded. It doesn't seem like a library. It feels...like the house of a person who reads, but not the house of a person for whom books have been everything".The author purchases a Kindle and is resigned to building a new digital library that she can carry in her purse. She discovers the advantages of the Kindle...it's portability, the quick ease of buying a book and the mutable font size (great for aging eyes).
I am an avid Kindle fan but I also have a stash of print books "cluttering" my home. It is difficult to adjust to change but you have to move forward. Very poignant.
MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5
FYI ~ I purchased this ebook with my Kindle Unlimited subscription on Amazon.com.
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