What to Keep and What to Let Go

On 3/28/10, I wrote about various ways that books are recycled. I acknowledge, though, that for an individual who is a great reader, it is hard to decide which books to borrow from a library, which to buy and keep, and which to buy and pass on to friends or charities or used bookstores. Even with many bookshelves at home and in my office, I have to regularly and severely control and trim the number of books I keep; there just isn't enough room to keep everything. My general guideline for deciding is that if I think I will only read a book once, I borrow it, or buy it - generally in paperback - and then pass it along. If it is a book that I think I will re-read, or will be useful for my teaching or my writing, or is a reference book, or is a book by one of my very most treasured authors (Austen, most prominently, but also Woolf, Wharton, and Cather), I will buy and keep it. Even with the books I keep, I execute regular "purgings" every year or two, and more extreme purgings every decade or so, and/or when I move to a different house or office. Not only do I give away individual books, but also sometimes whole categories of books, such as books relating to a class I don't plan to teach again. My biggest giveaway took place perhaps 25 years ago, when my parents needed me to take or give away the boxes of books -- many from college days -- that I was still storing with them, years after I had moved away. Doing so was hard, and sad, but in a way exhilarating, as I gave away books to family members, friends, and the beautiful little library in the Northern Michigan community where my parents had a summer cottage. I have to admit that after this event, I felt lighter, freer. This feeling of lightness is -- besides the practical, physical advantage of freeing up bookshelf and storage space, and the knowledge that other readers will enjoy your books -- the main benefit of giving away books. I came to realize that as much as I love books, I actually don't want thousands of them in my possession; they would weigh me down. What I want is to enjoy books, keep some special ones, and pass the rest on. As I mentioned in earlier blog entries (1/24/10 and 1/25/10), I keep a list of what I read; perhaps, among other things, this list is a sort of surrogate for keeping the actual books.

"The Privileges"

Reading "The Privileges" (Random House, 2010), by Jonathan Dee, made me feel a little soiled, a little sad, and a little mad. Dee portrays amoral, materialistic, unlikeable characters: Adam, a financier (doing something obscure, complicated, secret, and illegal with hedge funds, insider trading, and the like), his wife Cynthia, their children, and their friends. The fact that the couple eventually become philanthropists doesn't erase their essential negative characteristics: from the opening scenes before, during, and after their wedding, they think of themselves as special, invincible, and above the normal rules. I know that Dee is giving us insight into a very wealthy stratum of American families, and a substratum of those families who achieve their wealth through Wall Street misdeeds; I know too that, as Tom Perotta's back cover blurb says, the novel is "an indictment of an entire social class and historical moment, while also providing a window onto some recent, and peculiarly American, forms of decadence." It is of course good to reveal and critique these dangerous and selfish excesses, and the topic is certainly timely, given our current economic situation and the role of Wall Street in bringing us to this destructive place. But the book itself is disturbing. The sense of entitlement shown by the characters is astonishing. At one point Adam, in a rare moment of introspection, justifies his illegal practices to himself, thinking "he had done what he'd had to do...to get them all...to that place of limitlessness that she [his wife] so deserved and that he had always had faith they would occupy" (p. 170). I am actually very interested in the topic of privilege; I have addressed the subject myself in my academic writing. I admit that I started reading "The Privileges" partly because of the topic, and partly because I have a predilection for novels taking place in the affluent sections of Manhattan -- a sort of guilty pleasure. I must admit that the novel is well written. But still, I had a visceral negative reaction to it, and I can't recommend it to others.

Books for my Mom

My wonderful mother was widowed six years ago, and moved to a retirement home last year. After a lifetime of working, raising four children, and running households in three countries, she no longer needs to cook meals or do housework in her new apartment. One delightful result is that she has more time to read than she has ever had before, which she is enjoying. One of my great pleasures is supplying her with books. Of course she has, buys, and borrows books on her own, but because I read so many reviews and go to bookstores and libraries more often than she does, I have more opportunities to find books for her. One of my best sources is the monthly Friends of the Library book sale at my beautiful local library. The sale is filled with huge quantities of books, all donated and only very slightly used, nicely organized and shelved, the vast majority of them for sale at only a dollar or two per book. I often leave with a pile of 10 or 20 books, a few for myself but mostly for my mom. The next time I see her, I deliver a bag or two full of carefully chosen books. I know her taste fairly well. And even if I mistakenly choose a book that she has already read, or doesn't care for, at a dollar or so, she can simply pass it along to a friend or to the small library in her retirement complex. I have always given my mother books for Christmas and her birthday, but this new, more regular choosing and giving of books is a happy experience for both of us.

Book Business

Jason Epstein has been one of the great figures in the publishing world for the past 50+ years. Among his achievements are the following: starting the quality paperback revolution with Anchor Books in 1952, when he was just 22 years old; co-founding the New York Review of Books; co-creating the Library of America; and being editorial director of Random House for 40 years. He has won several prestigious prizes. In 2001, he published a book titled "Book Business: Publishing Past Present and Future" (Norton), a combination of a memoir and a history of the publishing business over the past century or so. I have just finished reading the book with great enjoyment. Epstein seems to have known everyone in the Manhattan world of books and the arts, including Vladimir Nabokov, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Gore Vidal, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick, Bennett Cerf, Hannah Arendt, Edmund Wilson, W. H. Auden, Frank O'Hara, John O'Hara, Ralph Ellison, John Ashbery, and Andy Warhol. He describes the evolution of the "book business," and its devolution as it became more corporatized over the past 25 years or so. Although he loves books and has spent his whole life devoted to them, he thinks it is inevitable that the Internet will change the publishing business beyond recognition. Surprisingly, he is cautiously optimistic that if we are open to innovation, the results may have positive aspects. His mixed feelings are clear in a recent (March 11, 2010) New York Review of Books article, in which he says he would be bereft without his huge collection of physical books, but he sees "the inevitability of digitalization as an unimaginably powerful, but infinitely fragile, enhancement of the worldwide literacy on which we all -- readers and nonreaders -- depend." Personally, I am still very resistant to digitalization or to anything that threatens the primacy of "real books," physical books in the hand, but I am impressed that such a figure as Epstein is able to look to the positive (more availability, instant updates, infinite storage, on-demand publishing, etc.). Let me finish by saying that "Book Business" is very readable and informative, and the occasional gossipy anecdote about the literary world adds to the enjoyment. (By now, you have probably figured out that I enjoy literary gossip!) Parenthetically, Jason Epstein also loves fine food, and in 2009 published a book called "Eating," a sort of food memoir/recipe book/ode to good food and good times; I recently read this book as well, and savored it thoroughly.

Recycling Books

I think it is wonderful when an individual copy of a book is read by several people. Books should be recycled, kept in circulation, for maximum value and effect. Let me count the ways that books can be recycled. Libraries, by definition, circulate each book to many readers, sometimes dozens or even hundreds. Used bookstores take in previously read books from owners and resell them to the next owners. Books can be given to charities for resale, with the funds going to good causes (back into the library, in the case of Friends of the Library). Books can be passed on to friends. They can be kept on shelves in shared spaces such as workplaces, apartment or condo community rooms, and community centers, where they are available to many readers. Although there is a pleasure in taking ownership of a crisp new book, it is also pleasurable to note the signs of prior readers of used books, such as turned down corners, annotations, coffee stains, and postcards or receipts used as bookmarks. You feel a kind of connection with earlier readers of that volume. Most of all, it feels great to know that a book has more than one life with more than one reader.

"Slipstream: A Memoir"

I recently finished reading a fascinating book: "Slipstream: A Memoir" (Macmillan, 2002), by the wonderful novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard. I often enjoy reading memoirs by writers, as they offer insights into those magical people who create new worlds for us as readers to explore. This one is of particular interest to me for several reasons. First, I have read most of Howard's novels, including the addictive, intense quartet about what was happening during World War II back home in England, collectively titled "The Cazalet Chronicles." Second, she apparently knew everyone in the world of English literature, as well as many in the other arts, throughout the second half of the 20th century. A short list of her famous friends and acquaintances includes Sybille Bedford, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Antonia White, Stephen Spender, Elizabeth Taylor, Marc Chagall, Philip Larkin, Penelope Lively, Evelyn Waugh, and many more. She was married three times, including a turbulent marriage to the celebrated but difficult novelist Kingsley Amis, and had romances with many others, including the French novelist Romain Gary. Despite all her publications, her famous friends, her love affairs, and her beauty, she was quite insecure most of her life. Only in old age (she was in her early 80s when she wrote this book) did she find a kind of balance and peace within herself. However, she did have a great talent for friendship, and appreciation of and loyalty to her friends; she also derived great pleasure from nature and gardens, as well as from travel. This brings me to the third reason this book is of interest to me: As with Diana Athill's memoirs (see my 3/15/10 post), it is wonderful to hear from and about a person who has lived a long life and is still writing, still reading, still enjoying life despite some physical illnesses and restrictions. Howard, like Athill, is also very candid about her life, her loves, and her weaknesses; perhaps there comes a point when it is no longer necessary to pretend and conceal the truth? It is also probably easier to be candid when one has outlived many of the people one writes about - family, friends, husbands, lovers, employers, editors, and agents. In any case, I admire Howard's making her way as an often single woman or a woman in a difficult marriage, working, writing, persisting, often short of money and support, at a time when these things were even more difficult for women than they are now. Although it is a bit of a commitment (477 pages), I recommend this memoir to those who are interested in writers' lives, women's lives, and the world of twentieth century English literature.

No Post Tomorrow

Dear fellow readers,
I will be at a conference for the next few days, and may not be able to post an entry every day. Tomorrow (Wed., 3/24), in particular, I will probably not be able to do so. But I will be back and blogging again very soon!
Best, Stephanie