Books in the Trash

I threw out three books yesterday and an incredible wave of guilt has been coming over me.   The books that I decided to get rid of was the Lord of the Rings triology, with the movie-colored  covers. I was absolutely obsessed with the Lord of the Rings when the films came out, and I read and reread these books a number of times to completely analayse the pros and cons of the decisions made in the produciton of the movie. I had enjoyed the books, and they showed it. The covers were ripped in places, the binding was badly broken and random pages were falling out everywhere.

Due to all this damage, I decided that I would get rid of these books. At the time, I justified it by telling myself that I don’t have to be emotionally attached to these physical items. These books are not special or unique, they were sold by the millions and are still widely available.  If I have any special attachment, it should be to the story or the characters, not those particular books.  But, having the books around gave me a great emotional calmness that I can’t properly describe.  For some reason, it is especially nice to look up at the book shelf and know that the books you once loved are still available at a moments notice.

The silly part of it all, is that I don’t see myself through them any time soon. I enjoyed the story at the time, but it definitely lost some of the mystique that surrounded the series.  My ‘to read’ list is about 15 books deep at this point, and I don’t think that the Lord of the Rings is simply too predictable, and too like so many stories that I have read before and after.  It is probably a better idea to think about these books in the positive light when I loved them.

Being able to rid myself of some of these books is an important aspect of my efforts to free myself from clutter, but I still feel incredibly guilty about doing it.