What happened this year?
At base, I am bound by the limitations of space. I miss the days when I tracked the changes in Ceptsform Library on an annual basis that showed absolute growth in the number of added volumes less those withdrawn and the resulting proportional changes among the subject categories. Such a system ended when the cascade of metal shelves toppled the center part of the library stacks and forced me to “weed” the collection under a new set of priorities. Deselection accelerated under the decision to move and shift the collection to what had been the family room in the house we bought. I estimated enough room for about half the collection – approximately 6,000 titles. I still do not know how many I actually have. I do know that space is at a premium.
This year’s more careful count shows than the years since 2008 account for 151 volumes added and those subtracted at, least 108 volumes. Volumes withdrawn prior to May were not documented in the same way, but I know they constituted a few sacks. Most of these books go to Ramsey County Library or charitable organizations. Some that I consider out of date or too technical for other users, I turn into recycled paper.
Acquisitions this year fill the following classifications –
A Genera/Miscellany 1 The Great Ideas Today, 1961.
B-BJ Philosophy 15 Notably: Hadas, Humanism; Vico, Keys to the New Science; Lasch, The Minimal Self; Haidt, The Righteous Mind; Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity.
BL-BX Religion 35 Notably: Hering, Writing to Wake the Soul; New International [chronological] Bible; Hall, What Christianity Is Not; Lutheran Perspectives on Biblical Interpretation; Bruggeman, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth; Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion.
D Other Countries 14 Notably: Kubizek, The Young Hitler I Knew; Loraux, The Divided City: … ancient Athens; Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages.
E-F United States 10 Notably: Lopez & Herbert, The Private Franklin; Gopnik, Angels and Ages: … Darwin, Lincoln, and modern life; Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas?
G Geography 3 Notably: The Travels of Ibn Battutah.
H Social Sciences 11 Notably: Himelfarb, One Nation, Two Cultures; Ignatieff, The Needs of Strangers; Murray, The Law of the Father: patriarchy.
J Political Science 7 Notably: The Portable Edmund Burke; Purdy, A Tolerable Anarchy: … the making of American freedom; Robert’s Rules of Order, 11th ed.
L Education 2 Notably: Lewis, The Abolition of Man.
M Music 1 Ross, The Rest is Noise.
P Language & Lit 12 Notably: Maggio, Talking about People: … fair and accurate; Culler, Literary Theory; Brady, Story Logic and the Craft of Fiction; Everyman and Mankind (Bruster & Rasmussen).
Q Sciences 5 Notably: The World of Mathematics (4v.).
U Military 1 Warry, Warfare in the Classical World.
Individual literary works 34 Notably: Auden, Collected Poems; Chmielarz, Love from the Yellowstone Trail; Hasse, Earth’s Appetite; Kafka, The Man Who Disappeard (America); Oliver, New and Selected Poems, v.1-2; A Shakespeare Glossary (Onions) 3rd enl. & rev. ed.
As it stands now, my book collecting is most heavily influenced by my need to know for writing purposes and my wide-ranging interests which all boil down to trying to understand myself and others besides the book clubs where I participate and the recommendations of my maturing grandchildren. You can see my primary interests and representative prime discoveries. For the full list of 2013 acquisitions, see Additions 2013.
Copyright © 2013 by Roger Sween.
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