Books, Books, Books, Books, & more Books!

Booking Through Thursday

School days, Golden Rule days…. June 21, 2007

Since school is out for the summer (in most places, at least), here’s a school-themed question for the week:
1. Do you have any old school books? Did you keep yours from college? Old textbooks from garage sales? Old workbooks from classes gone by?
2. How about your old notes, exams, papers? Do you save them? Or have they long since gone to the great Locker-in-the-sky?

As an English major, I think I kept almost all the books and novels I acquired as an undergrad, and definitely all those I acquired for my Master’s and for my doctorate so far. The only real drawback is that moving is a MAJOR undertaking! [laughing] I think I was up to nine or ten milk-crates of books that came with me to undergrad each year – just the essentials, mind. Nothing extra or unneeded – at least not to my way of thinking!

I ditched the books on the hard science and the one Calculus class I took [shudder], but I kept many of the business and accounting books. Both came in handy as I helped a small living history museum I was working for set up a double entry book keeping system and begin to make use of standard business reports for financial matters.

The most interesting thing about that school schedule of acquiring books is this: I STILL get an almost uncontrollable urge to buy stacks of books, paper, pens, etc., each August or September. At this point, I’m doing independent research, and don’t need such things, but there you have it. [grin] Each fall, I start to haunt the stationery aisles in stores and to roam the discount book stacks at local stores to fulfill these cravings. I’m sure there’s a twelve-step program out there for this somewhere, but for now, I remain unrepentant. Ah – check back with me after my next move!