I have been collecting books for years. A couple of houses have had rooms dedicated to them ("libraries" for want of a better word). I used to love sitting in those rooms surrounded by the physical volumes and reflect on what I'd read and the books on my shelf that I was yet to read. Well, recently I've found I wasn't enjoying having them as much as I used to, and I've started a process of releasing them. Bags of books have gone to friends, and to various other places. I don' want to take them all to one place - I want to spread them around.
A few weeks ago I discovered a community bookshop at
Annerley. It's run by volunteers, they get their stock from donations, the prices are reasonable, and profits go back into community programs. I took a few bags of books there.
The books each have memories. I collected authors such as Nancy Mitford and Martin Boyd. Some were hard to get collections like Let's Parler Franglais
There were those I'd meant to read
and those I'd had good memories of reading
some were very much of their time
and some had personal history
