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| books = love |
I'm a bibliophile. And a former librarian.
But over the years I've cured myself of needing to keep all the books I read. I own a few books that I want to read, and I donate all but the most precious to the public library when I'm done, so others can benefit.
Mold loves books and papers. I got severely ill from mold in my apartment. Now I have to get rid of (or store indefinitely) my remaining collection of books and paper.
In casting about for solutions, I found two solid ones.
Books:
1 Dollar Scan will scan your books into PDF files for cheap. I have a few books written by friends and family that were never made into ebooks. If they exist in digital form at all, I don't have access.
So I will send these paper books to 1 Dollar Scan, and they will digitize them for me, recycling the paper. Bam.
Looks like most books can be scanned for under $3. So it's actually cheaper for me to have them scan my 7 or so remaining non-nostalgic books as well, rather than to re-buy them in ebook form from the publisher.
All my paper books that can be digitally checked out of public libraries have already been dispensed of. I only have hard-to-find books left.
I don't have any bright ideas for my remaining, gorgeous, new-ish "coffee table" books, and I don't want to talk about it.
I already divested myself of my entire vintage map and globe collection, so the bag of pretty books will probably continue to live in the trunk of my car until I'm ready to say my last goodbyes. (I give it 2 to 5 weeks.)
It helps that a lovely friend of mine is a used book seller. He will delight in the donations, and I will get to see how much his smarty punk rock little daughters have grown.
We usually donate any "store credit" I earn to the Prisoners Literature Project, so their director can pick out paperback books that are popular requests among U.S. prison inmates. (I used to volunteer there, and the top 4 requests were 1. Dictionary 2. Spanish-English dictionary 3. Legal dictionary 4. Malcolm X's autobiography.)
Paperwork:
I have a scanner, but it's a big machine and a slow process, requiring opening and closing the lid of the scanner for every. single. page.
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| mobile office |
So I plan to buy an efficient, mobile scanner. That way I can not only digitize my backlog of paper, but also keep up with the daily onslaught of paper going forward. (which will minimize the possibility of bringing mold spores and random toxins into my future clean home via dirty, dirty paper.)
I just have to decide on functionality and price:
Doxie Go - Rechargeable Portable Scanner $190
(Lifehacker likes this one. supermobile! can use without computer, and on battery power.)
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Mobile Scanner $260
(techie friend likes this one. bigger footprint, but has 10-pg document feeder.)
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 USB Mobile Scanner $165
(consumer reports like this one. this would be good for ongoing needs, after initial backlog is gone.)
Now, for the hard part: deciding what, out of my piles of paper files actually "needs" to be scanned for future reference.
The plan is to immediately scan the critical files and photos that I'll need over the next 6 months, shred what is deemed unnecessary, and store the rest in a bin.
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| desktop of the gods |
Then, as I regain energy and focus, I can retrieve the important-but-not-urgent papers from storage. I'll take them to a neutral location with good ventilation, like an outdoor cafe', and make an afternoon out of digitizing the last of my paper trail.
"I knew there was something I liked about you..." We're a family of book worms, and two entire walls of our living room are bookshelves. Thank goodness they were opposite end of the house from the mold we had, or I'd be right where you are now. But these are fantastic resources -- had no idea the price of scanning a book was so low/affordable. Definitely bookmarking this!
ReplyDeleteAck, posted too soon. I also meant to comment on working through the grief of having to let go of such meaningful and special possessions such as your map and globe collection, coffee table books, paper itself. I had to go through artwork I had done since high school yesterday before much of it got carted off. Only at the last minute did I realize "I could photograph these"! So I saved some to photograph outside later once the pollen count goes down. We salvage what we can, but in order to live we need to shed our skin, hopefully emerging anew and healthier!
ReplyDeleteMinimalism is a lot easier, as a practice, when your belongings are (or will be) making you horribly ill. ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, my whole family is nuts about books. My dad's a writer and book editor. When we were kids he hired a carpenter to line the walls floor to ceiling with bookshelves. I think that's the only home improvement project he ever hired someone to do. Not because he's handy (not at all!) but because book storage was that important.
I'm the only one who stopped hoarding, I mean, "collecting" them. And honestly, it was mostly because I moved a lot in my 20s, a couple times paring down to only one carload of belongings. (a 23-yr old Chevy Nova!)
It was so painful to get rid of books (I would literally cry) that I couldn't keep re-accumulating and going through the heartache again each time. So I guess I kind of think of physical books as only the physical manifestation of what's really important about them.
It helps to always have to be frugal, too. You get your stacks of books from the library for free, and then you get to bring them back for others to use! It's so brilliant. :)
Gotta go, both cats are puking their guts out. Weird, as they had stopped puking after we moved out of the mold. Poor boys!
Yes, Libraries, and for that matter used book stores -- you can always visit your favorites. And that's why Wim Wender's "Himmel Uber Berlin" (the ORIGINAL "Wings of Desire" not the crappy one made in the USA) is my favorite movie. The angels all live in the libraries.
ReplyDeleteI grew up as a military brat so I completely understand the having to pare down due to moving frequently. One of my coping mechanisms for displacement, though, was having a shelf of specific things that came with everywhere, and that only got worse as I got older.
Poor cats! Hope they feel better soon.
omg, i loved that movie so much when it came out. i haven't seen it in so long.
ReplyDelete"Companero!" :-)
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