BTT (#2) ~ Personality

Today's Booking Through Thursday, a weekly meme mostly about books and reading, is about personality:

"I was reading the other day a quote from JFK Jr who said on the death of his mother, that she died surrounded by family, friends, and her books. Apparently, Jackie’s books were very much a part of HER, her personality, her sense of self. Up until recently, people could browse your bookshelves and learn a lot about you – what your interests are, your range of topics, favorite authors, how much you read (or at least buy books). More and more, though, this is changing. People aren’t buying books so much as borrowing them from the library. Or reading them on their e-readers or computers. There’s nothing PHYSICAL on the shelves to tell strangers in your home, for better or worse, who you ARE. Do you think this is a good thing? Bad? Discuss!"

At the moment, my bookshelves don't really reflect who I am.  In the process of moving a couple of years ago, I had a heart attack, followed by bypass surgery and months of recovery.  For over a year, I wasn't supposed to lift anything really heavy – and we all know boxes of books are heavy.  I still have not gone through all my boxes, mainly because they include thousands of books from the bookstore we closed.

My friend Donna and I opened a bookstore – we bought, sold, and traded used and rare books, as well as new books.  When we went out of business, we put the books into storage units until we could figure out what to do with them.  The movers threw things into boxes indiscriminately, we discovered, so I never know what I'll find when I open a box – books from the store or my own books.  Oh, yeah, I was also teaching at Chattanooga State during that same period, and the movers tossed school papers and notebooks into boxes along with the books.

When I unpack books, I stick them on my shelves to sort later.  I have a strange assortment of books displayed from time to time, like novels by authors whose last name starts with F – Fford, Finney, Follett, and Forsythe – alongside nonfiction titles from the religion section of our store – The Sea of Galilee Boat; Beyond Moralism; The Gifts of the Jews.  I may want to keep some of those books to read later, but most will be put aside to take to the big store that accepts used books for trade or cash.

NOTE:  If you are searching for a book, I may have a copy of it I'd let you have for a great price.

I have a question:  Why should I care what "strangers" in my home think?