Some months back I was puzzled about the irrationality of throwing things out that work but retaining things that don't. I gave as an example old scissors. They never get thrown out, just tossed in a drawer. Another example might be books: people will keep a forgettable $19.95 paperback on a bookshelf for decades.
Helene Hanff remarked on this in 84 Charing Cross Road (Andre Deutsch, 1971):
"I houseclean my books every spring and throw out those I'm never going to read again ... It shocks everybody. My friends ... read all the best sellers, ... get through them as fast as possible ... skip a lot ... never read anything a second time ... don't remember a word of it a year later. But they are profoundly shocked to see me drop a book in a wastebasket or give it away. The way they look at it, you buy a book, you read it, you put it on the shelf, you never read it again for the rest of your life but YOU DON'T THROW IT OUT!" I personally can't think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book."
My bookshelves contain hundreds of books but if I'd kept every book I ever bought I'd need a new wing. (On the house, not my shoulder.) I've disposed of literally thousands, usually to charity shops or book exchanges. Sometimes I might impulsively get rid of a certain book and regret it later, although I've never had the opportunity to dispose of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, a set of all five editions of which is currently available at AbeBooks for a touch over $87,000.
Helene Hanff again, from 84 Charing Cross Road, in replying to the London antiquarian bookshop Marks & Co. which had just sent her a copy of The Compleat Angler they had obtained after buying a private library's collection:
"Dear Frank: meant to write you the day the Angler arrived, just to thank you, the woodcuts alone are worth ten times the price of the book. What a weird world we live in when so beautiful a thing can be owned for life."
Helene Hanff paid $2.25. No wonder she threw away cheap novels.
Good heavens. Sadly, I read that at the time of her death she was supported financially by friends and fans of her books... I wonder if she considered selling that set.
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