I have to apologize for not having any regular content today, no LOTR coverage, no short story segment, not even a recycled diary entry. I can only say that I am tired, tired from going across the street to participate in early voting(which is not a far journey but entails a lot more standing and waiting than my legs will usually allow) and mentally tired from thinking of what I'll have to do in the next few days to get supplies to last me until the end of the month, and depressed from so many melancholy anniversaries. Also my Ozempic is late, though my pharmacy has continued to assure me that it is due "in 1-2 days" for the last week. I may be able to put together some kind of post later today, but for right now -- nu-uh.
In the world of simply downloading whatever music you want into a device, the CD certainly comes across as unwieldy and old fashioned. You would have to buy an entire album, sometimes, just to get the one song you wanted. Their selection was limited by how many people wanted a copy, unlike a simple music file, which needs no material embodiment. And the space CDs took up! But I remember when, not so long ago, they seemed the slickest item in the land, so much better than those bulky, easily scratched LP records. I never bought very many CDs, but the ones I have still hang around persistently, and I doubt that I'll ever sell all of them. There is something comforting in their grip on physical presence. Anyway, I'm going to begin putting them up here, but only as pictures.
And as you see, I've discovered how to change the font size. I am a cautious old dinosaur.
This, of course, is not the end of
the Niche of Time, although it is the conclusion of my Biographical List of
Books for now. Posting will probably slow down, but there will always be new
things that I remember for the Shadow Library, and of course there is no reason
for Items from the Wish List to ever stop, as there is always something new
being added that takes my fancy.
Actual listings for physical books
that I acquire will be few and far between. After all, the Inventory was built
up, like a stalactite, slowly and steadily over the course of years and may not
be expected to grow very fast, especially now that my funds and opportunities
are severely limited.
And what a strange and oddly assorted
mix it appears, with books ranging from “Rabbit and Skunk and the Scary Rock”
up to the collected works of William Shakespeare. There are books here (mainly
in the Shadow Library but some still on my shelves) that I would not have
wasted my time and money on if I knew then what I know now. But you cannot live
your life backward, and maybe even the worst of them have taught me some kind
of lesson, if only as a cautionary tale.
It has been a very compelling endeavor
so far. It began months ago when I decided to write up a list of my books, then
decided to expand that list with comments, then to include pictures of the
books (or near enough), and finally to dedicate a blog to the results. It grew
into an informal memoir, and a meditation on the growth of Fantasy literature,
and especially of Tolkien and the augmenting respect shown him over the
decades. Fantasy has gone from a quaint little slum to a respectable
neighborhood to a development overgrown with McMansions and suburban
fabrications. But there are still classy areas to be visited.
I found it a most interesting quest,
at that. Sometimes I have uncovered images for more than two dozen editions of
a book, every one you could possibly desire (some quite beautiful) except, of
course, for the podgy, quirky little edition I wound up with. But in the end,
there were few that totally evaded my search (so great has the stretch of the
internet become); where they have done so I have dutifully noted it.
My collection (such as it is) has been
made by the whims of time, opportunity, and financial resources. Many today
will not understand how we suffered at the caprices of the trade in the days
before Amazon, especially if you were poor and lived in a small town. Used-book
stores, discount catalogs, garage sales, outright gifts, and even the revolving
displays in convenience stores have all played their part. Sometimes a volume
has been eagerly sought, other times bought in a desperate bid for
entertainment. I cannot tell you on how many occasions, wishing for some other
fantasy novel, I have settled for getting a Piers Anthony. Some of my books have
been read many times; others still await my attention or that moment when I
finally decide that they can go at last and seek another reader.
For that is inevitably the fate of a book, if it’s not simply worn to rags. The day will come when all my library will be dispersed, some to go to my family, some to be sold again, but never more to be in this gathering. Even here the assemblage will shrink and grow, some going into the Shadow Library, and with any luck some shelves making room to accommodate new fellows. But for now, in this Niche of Time, they stand commemorated. And who knows how long that this may last?
