What is so special about keeping books that you have read? Nothing.

Senior Tip- Send your books to your friends and relatives. Become book free and keep your books in transit.

When I moved into a smaller house about 15 years ago, I gave away more than 3,000 books to a local non-profit organization, As a result, I picked up a nice tax deduction. At that time, I vowed never to buy another print book. I have broken my vow and I now have accumulated more than 250 books. 

But this time I have another solution, however, without the tax deduction. I am sending the books to people I know with the message to read and pass the book to another person. My goal is to send two books each day until all my print books are gone. I sent two books yesterday and I sent another two books today. I never read them the second time anyway and some books I have never even read the first time. Sure I have a few books that I read or consult from time to time and I expect I will keep those for awhile, but eventually I wish to be print book free. Now I keep my books in electronic form in my iBooks folder so that someday I can delete those books with a single click. As I write this blog, I have about 50 print books on the shelves behind my desk, I could not even tell you the name of any of them without looking. I do have a dictionary that has been trumped by spell check, grammar check and meaning check. 

I have a book written and autographed by the grandson of Ty Cobb. I met him at a party in Palm Springs. That book will go to my grandson who is in love with baseball. I have another book autographed by a famous coach at UCLA, but I have forgotten his name. I have other books that will go to my sons and a few books that I am sending to my friends. You may get one from me. Some are autographed, but I do not read those again either. There  is something special about having an autographed book on your shelf, even though I do not know what is so special about it. I suspect there is some mysterious, magical pride of book ownership that comes with knowing the author. 

I have none of my books from school. I am not sure if I ever read those either. Yesterday, I took out a stack of paper and started to write down everything I learned from my school books. I could not fill a single sheet of paper. I need to accelerate my plan to go book free and spend more time at the beach.

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