Thing #231: Sports Instruction Books

Coaching the West Coast Quarterback is a book about football.

Hockey is a book about baseball.

I put these two in a box bound for an Amazon warehouse, along with some video games that I'll write about later, and some other video games that I won't write about (rules).

The books haven't actually sold yet, but I'm going to assume they will, because I want to close out this book level, finally. I'm already physically rid of them, anyway.

Adding in the last eight books (3 pounds), I've eliminated a total of 64 books, weighing 71.3 pounds. (I could get rid of more books later; the count was just for the book level.)

And we're done!

Thing #230: John's Books

I had extra copies of these two 7th grade English books. I don't have a clue how they ended up in my possession, but they have a classmate's name written in them.

He probably doesn't want them, either, but I mailed them back, for my own amusement. I last saw this guy around ten years ago, but I was able to look up his address, so I hope he gets them, and I hope he's incredibly confused when he does.

Note to John: if you Googled your way to this page, you have solved the mystery. I'm getting rid of a bunch of my old stuff and blogging about it. What are you up to these days?

Thing #229: More Junior High English Books

I don't actually remember which grades required me to read Farewell to Manzanar or Walkabout, so I'm guessing junior high based on page count and font size. I decided not to reread either one, because I need to keep this project moving.

Fun fact, though: I found a Star Wars pog tucked inside Walkabout. It's a lenticular image (a term I just learned) that switches between Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine. It's pretty cool and deserves its own post, which it will get when I throw it away. Later.

Thing #228: More High School English Books

I reread A Raisin In The Sun, which doesn't take very long. It's terrific and I love all the characters, except possibly for Walter Lee (Brother), because he seems to have a complete change of heart twice in every scene. It's a play, which means the characters have to develop in a very short amount of time, I suppose.

Ethan Frome is not a play, which means everything can happen in slow motion, and it does. It's the longest short story ever, and I completely love it. I won't turn this into a book report that lazy English students can plagiarize (ha ha; we didn't have the Internet when I was your age), but I'm terribly grateful to have rediscovered this work in my adulthood. Guess I've been in Starkfield too many winters.

I'm nearing the end of the book phase, and I've reread quite a few old books now. Not every decaying paperback turned out to be a gem, but the few that did -- like these two -- made it completely worth the effort.

Thing #227: Computer Science Books

This stack of computer books is mostly Computer Science textbooks, and mostly obsolete. Half Price Books not only accepted the pile, but returned me a voucher for two dollars and fifty cents! (Which I immediately applied toward the purchase of a single, more expensive book.)

I had to give away twelve computer books as one "thing" because I counted and I've acquired eleven new computer books since this project started. Okay, it's more than eleven, but I plan to give some of them away later, or something, so I just now decided they don't count.

This lot weighed in at a whopping 28.4 pounds, which means I've now lightened my bookshelf by 56 books and 68.3 pounds. Wolfram Alpha says that's the equivalent of 8.2 gallons of book-water!

Thing #226: High School English Books

I studied Cry, The Beloved Country in high school, but it was also assigned reading for a college class. It has James Earl Jones on the cover; this must be a movie tie-in edition!

Jane Eyre was my summer reading assignment prior to senior year. I procrastinated on reading it, and I procrastinated on writing the paper, to the degree that I was still writing my paper the morning of the first day of school, when I was supposed to be standing in line to get a parking space. I finished the paper, but that whole year I had to park down by the gym, which was approximately nine miles from anywhere. One day, at the end of the year, my friend Paul had a prearranged excused absence, so I borrowed his parking spot for the day. The campus security guard wrote me a $20 parking ticket, and they wouldn't let me graduate until I paid it, even though that is obviously ridiculous, because nobody else was going to park in that space on that day. I remember all these events vividly, yet I remember nothing about Jane Eyre.

I did not reread either of these books. As is the case with most of my English books, these copies are full of notes and highlighting. I don't particularly want to keep marked-up copies of books, anyway, so these were simply recycled.

This last set of eight English books weighed only three pounds, so now we've eliminated 44 total books, weighing 39.9 pounds.

Thing #225: 8th Grade English Books

Pretty sure I read these two in 8th grade.

The Pearl is fantastic and I feel sorry for my 8th grade self, because he probably didn't appreciate it. I would have kept this copy, but that same 8th grade self left a flipbook drawing in the margin. A stick figure dies at the end and that's where the red pen kicks in. (Any parallels to the narrative are probably coincidental.)

To Be a Slave is a collection of non-fictional first-hand accounts of American slavery. Not an easy read.

Thing #224: 7th Grade English Books

As far as I can remember, I read both Homesick and Waiting for the Rain for my 7th grade English class. I reread each before recycling.

I recalled almost nothing about either novel, so rereading them was about as good as reading them. Homesick was surprisingly affecting, whereas Waiting for the Rain was a bit slower read: it felt more like something that junior high kids are assigned to read for English class. Apartheid is bad.

Thing #223: Societal Books

I read Moby-Dick for my junior English class in high school, though I may have skimmed through some of the narrator's extended descriptions of whale anatomy.

I read Utopia for a freshman intro course in college, though I may have skipped some or all of the pages.

I didn't plan to read either of these in the near future, and they're both in fine shape, so I gave them to my sister to bolster her literature collection.

Thing #221: Jesus Books

Jesus (on the right) is a book I don't mind giving away, because I ended up with it at a white elephant Christmas gift exchange. How sacrilegious! I never read it, which might be sacrilegious, too. Apparently the book is a semi-fictional retelling of the life of Jesus, which could also be considered sacrilegious.

The Original Jesus is a book I acquired for a college class. I probably would have kept it, except that I needed another Jesus book to complete this thematic pair. This project makes me do sacrilegious strange things.

I also threw in a few recently-acquired books that don't count for this project, but in terms of the ones that count, that's six new books gone and another 6.2 pounds off the shelf. Running total is 36 books and 36.9 pounds, if my non-accountant non-accounting is correct.

Thing #220: Baseball Strategy Books

Moneyball is a tough one to get rid of; I've read it multiple times over the last few years. But I'm giving away books in pairs, and I have one last baseball-themed book that I want to keep, so I decided to just let this one go. If I want to read it again someday, I'll check out a copy from the library. Possibly even this copy that I just donated to them!

The Cheater's Guide to Baseball was also a good one, but the library definitely has a copy already, because I saw it in the catalog. Incidentally, I'm fairly certain that these donations go toward book sales that fund library operations, rather than directly to the library shelves.

Thing #219: Do-It-Yourself Books

I'm still trying out different ways of unloading books, and today I discovered that my local library accepts donations. I hauled a bag of books over there, and it was remarkably easy to drop them off at the front desk. I even got a fill-in-your-own tax receipt! I hereby recommend this method of donating books.

I don't plan to first-time buy a home any time soon, so 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask doesn't need to take up any valuable real estate (hahaha) on my shelf.

Accounting for Non-Accountants is a book perfect for me, a non-accountant. Or it would be, except it turns out I don't want to be a (paradoxical) non-accountant who does accounting. I want to be a non-accountant who hires a CPA if necessary. Apparently there are some subjects I just don't care to learn about.

Thing #216: College Dictionary

I actually did get this for college.

This last set of books, including this dictionary, weighed in at 10.8 pounds. That means I've now dropped 30 books, weighing about 30.7 pounds total. (This and the World Literature book really boosted the average.)

I have plenty more books from my scholastic years, so those will be coming up next. The adventure continues!

Thing #215: World Literature Book

The World of Literature gets its own post because it is gigantic: over 2,200 pages of literature from -- you guessed it -- all over the world.

I took the World Literature class over January Term, which means I was pretty much just reading this book full time for a month. I don't have a transcript handy, so let's go ahead and assume I got an A in that class.

Fun fact: same professor as the Expository Writing class I took the year prior.

Thing #214: Autobiographical Books

In My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy, Nancy Cartwright talks about becoming one of the most famous cartoon voices of all time. I'll bet the audiobook version is fun.

In 50/50, Dean Karnazes talks about running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. Yep, he did that.

Couple of interesting people, though I didn't particularly love either book.

While I'm at it, I might as well mention that Karnazes's Ultramarathon Man is probably my favorite running book, and one I'm definitely keeping.

Thing #213: Humorous Advice Books

I like Dave Barry a great deal, but Money Secrets is not one of my favorites. I reread it just to be sure, then donated it.

Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man was okay, at least according to my memory. I did not reread it before donating it.

Thing #212: Classic Metered Literature Books

The Aeneid of Virgil is something I studied in a high school English class. I remember not enjoying it.

Macbeth is also something I studied in a high school English class, but this particular edition I picked up during the college era. It originally belonged to a friend's sister; I think they were going to throw it away and I decided to take it, instead. Now I don't want it.

Both of these were marked up with notes and such, so I just recycled them.

Thing #211: Expository Writing Books

These two don't relate to each other except that I acquired each of them for the same freshman writing class in college.

The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is something I am glad to get rid of, because I do not intend to write any more academic research papers.

Several papers I wrote for the class were about national security issues, and Preventive Defense was a book I bought to give myself some context on a subject I didn't know much about. I probably needed something more modern than the library had available, and I remember this being a helpful resource. This was all just before 9/11, by the way.

This concludes the set of ten books that I sold to a local used book store... for $1.50 cash. I'm rich!

The pile weighed 9.8 pounds. Looks like I can carry about ten pounds of books in a backpack while riding a bicycle. These are helpful things to know.

Anyway, that brings us to a total of 22 books, weighing 19.9 pounds. Just wait until I get rid of some of these big old textbooks!

Thing #210: Sportswriting Collection Books

The book pairings are going to be getting less and less thematic, I think, but each of these are collections of essays by different authors. About sports. Also, the covers have a very similar look, don't they?

Baseball Between the Numbers still had a receipt in it as a bookmark, so I must not have read all the way through it. It's a collection of Baseball Prospectus essays which attempt to investigate conventional wisdom in baseball through data analysis. I have a certain interest in modern baseball statistics and analysis, and I remember this being one of the very first books that advanced that interest.

The Best American Sports Writing 2000 was a gift. It's the kind of book I enjoy but will likely read only once in my life. Those are the easiest kinds of books to get rid of.

Thing #209: Guy Books

Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys is a truly funny book that I've read several times over the years.

The Book of Guys was also pretty good reading, though I think I've only read it once.

Getting rid of good books is hard. Why am I doing this again?