Memory BANK

FOR KEVIN, DOWNSIZING HAS BEEN A TURN-UP FOR THE BOOKS

Downsizing doesn’t just mean a smaller house – most things in it need to downsize somehow. We’re currently going through every book we own, deciding if they should stay or go. I thought the only question

I’d need to ask of each book would be, “Will I ever want to refer to these pages again?”, but that’s not as simple a question as it sounds.

My wife Linda reads much more fiction than I do. My view is that when you’ve read a novel, that’s it – it’s read, like going to a movie. Linda disagrees. If she’s loved a story, she won’t part with it. It’s understandable, but it makes downsizing our book collection more problematic.

Then there are the books family members gave us.

It’s hard to say goodbye to them, but if you’re seriously downsizing, some you’ve had for decades must go. I clip out any personal messages and cheer myself up with the thought that someone else will now get pleasure from them.

I can’t throw out any books my late mum wrote her name in, though. Actually, I can’t throw out anything that contains my late parents’ handwriting. That includes letters, postcards and recipes. Yesterday, I came across my New Zealand Herald Manual of Journalism, a compulsory text book for my journalism studies in 1970. My mother had written my name in it so I didn’t lose it – without knowing it, she thus ensured it would never be thrown out, either.

The most difficult category for me has been books belonging to my late brother Brian. He was killed in a car crash when he was 23, way back in 1966. I’m keeping any books he bought me as gifts – they’re treasures. After he died, I also kept all the books he won as prizes.

It’s odd. I’ve since discarded any book prizes I won, yet

I felt I had no right to throw out Brian’s. Now, I’ve finally decided that they should go. It won’t be easy, but they were only prizes. He didn’t select them – I’m not sure he even read them.

All these issues make downsizing a book collection much more complex than expected. I’d hoped we’d throw out at least half our books. But it’ll be nothing like that.