It's been a long time since I last posted an essay on my blog (I
have published mostly poetry over the past couple of months), so
for today's story I would like to talk about books. Specifically, a
book unhaul. Or rather,
the book unhaul that I did, because
I only did one so far.
I had a phase a while ago when I enjoyed watching videos about
books on Youtube (or Booktube, how they so lovingly call it). I had
developed a weird curiosity to see and admire other people's book
shelves, what kind of books they read, what kind of books they add
to their home libraries, what kind of books they unhaul. And I have
to say, I was really drawn to the book unhaul videos, I watched
lots of them, because it was interesting to me to know why people
let go of books. And, as I discovered after watching a few dozens
of such videos, the biggest reason why Booktubers do book unhauls
is to make room for other books, new releases, on their
bookshelves. In a way, it felt like being a frequent Zara
shopper.
So I did a book unhaul myself to see what's the deal with this
concept of the book unhaul, how it feels to do one, and I would
like to share the experience of my first book unhaul with you
today. Originally, these books had been purchased at various
Canadian bookstores, among them independent bookstores, or discount
stores, or thrift stores.
I used to own a cottage in the Canadian Cottage Country which
I sold recently. At the time of closing and on my last visit to the
cottage to pick up my last personal items from there, I decided to
leave a little surprise for the new owners of the cottage. I did a
proverbial book unhaul and left a few of my books at the cottage,
for the new owners to enjoy. Those were books that I had read in
the recent years before selling my cottage, and I figured that I
wouldn't read these books again anytime soon. So here it is, my
first (and the only one so far) book unhaul, books that now belong
to another family, in another home library. I also should mention
that most of these books are part of that passing on to the new
owners of my old cottage, but a few of them were gifted to some of
my friends as well.
So without further ado, let me share my book unhaul, and I
will say a few words about each of these books, as we go along.
Harry and Meghan. The Royal Wedding Album by Angela Peel.
The title is pretty self-explanatory, it's the wedding album of the
royal couple Harry and Meghan, from their wedding in May 2018.
Gorgeous photographs from their wedding. I bought this book at a
discount store in 2019, and read it the same year.
Diana versus Charles. Royal Blood Feud by James Whitaker, a
British journalist and writer who writes about the British
monarchy. This book is an account of Charles and Diana's difficult
marriage. I bought this book in a thrift store in 2015, and read it
in 2020 during the global pandemic, when I picked up my reading,
like so many other people, during the lockdowns.
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| Photo credit: Victoria West |
Diana. A Celebration, written by late Princess Diana's
brother, Charles Spencer. I bought this book in a thrift store in
2016, read it in 2020 during the pandemic.
Invitation to a Royal Wedding by Trevor Hall (a British
author who writes about the British royal family). This is a
wedding album of Prince Andrew's and Sarah Ferguson's wedding from
1986. I bought this book in a thrift store in 2016, read it in 2020
during the pandemic.
Kate. The Future Queen by Katie Nicholl (a British
journalist), a biography of Princess of Wales. The book discusses
Kate's childhood, her school and university years, how she met
William, their relationship, the royal wedding from 2011, the birth
of their first child Prince George in 2013 (the book was published
in 2013). I bought this book at a discount store sometime in 2019,
and read in the summer of 2020 while on vacation at my cottage.
That summer, the only place were I could go on vacation was my
cottage, because travel was restricted due to the pandemic. And I
read a lot of books that summer at the cottage and throughout the
entire year, some of them being featured here today.
83 Minutes. The Doctor, the Damage, and the Shocking Death of
Michale Jackson by Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne. The title
of the book is self-explanatory, it's an account of the tragic
circumstances of Michael Jackson's death in 2009. The popstar's
doctor Conrad Murray was held responsible for the faulty treatment
of the singer which led to his death. 83 minutes refers to the time
lapse since the doctor Conrad Murray found the singer breathless in
his bedroom till the patient was brought to the hospital in an
(unsuccessful) attempt to revive him. I bought this book in a
discount store sometime in 2019, and read it in 2020 during my
summer vacation at the cottage.
Birthday Girl. Spunk and Sass for Your Special Day, a gift
book from Hallmark. A fun book celebrating girlfriends in your
life, I read it in 2019.
The Darwin Award. Survival of the Fittest by Wendy
Northcutt. This humour book is absolutely hilarious, made me laugh
out loud. I read it in 2019, during my summer vacation at the
cottage. The internet access used to be intermitent at my cottage
at best, so instead of social media, I was spending my time there
reading.
Canadian Political Babble. A Cynic's Dictionary of Political
Jargon by David Olive, another humour book, just as hilarious
as the one above, about different misshaps by various Canadian
political leaders from today and yesterday, from different
political parties and affiliations. I read this book in 2019,
during my summer vacation at the cottage.
A
Chicken Soup for the Soul mini-book about cats,
Life Lessons from the Cat, edited by Amy Newmark. I bought
and read it in 2020. Such mini-books from
Chicken Soup for
the Soul series usually have 10-11 stories, and are about
100 pages (or less) long. The other 6 mini-books in the
Chicken Soup for the Soul series that follow in this
story were also edited by Amy Newmark.
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| Photo credit: Victoria West |
Another
Chicken Soup for the Soul mini-book,
Divine Messengers, this time about miraculous experiences. I
bought and read it in 2020.
And another mini-book one from the same series about miracles in
our lives,
Have a Little Faith. Just like the previous two
books, I bought and read this one in 2020.
Then, a few more such mini-books in the
Chicken Soup for
the Soul series, which I bought from a discount store in
2021 and read the same year. Two of these mini-books are dedicated
to faith, one to love, and one to thanksgiving and gratitude.
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| Photo credit: Victoria West |
And two more books from
Chicken Soup for the Soul
series, this time full-size, one dedicated to girlfriends, one to
sisters. I bought both of them from an independent bookstore
sometime in 2015, and read both of them in 2020, during the
pandemic, when I was devouring books.
Loose Girl. A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen. I bought
this book from an independent bookstore in 2016, but read it in
2020 during the pandemic. It's a memoir of the author's complicated
relationship with men and her desire for male attention, since she
was a teenage girl till she married and started a family of her own
as an adult woman. It was a good read. I first tried to read this
book in 2016, the year when I purchased it, but somehow it didn't
get to me. Then I returned to it in 2020, and this time I found it
more compelling and I actually read it.
101 Things You Should Do Before Your Kids Leave Home by
David Bordon and Tom Winters. It's a book for parents and children
and many diiferent wonderful things that they can do together as a
family, such as picnics, hiking, road trips, etc. I bought this
book from a discount store sometime in 2019, and read it in 2020
during the pandemic.
A book-album dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor, published by
People magazine. This is another book that I read in
2020 during the lockdowns, purchased from a local discount store
(must have also been 2019 when I bought it, to my best
recollection).
Hillary. An American Life, published by
Time
magazine in 2014, a book about Hillary Clinton's political life.
Like a few other books in this story, I bought this book from a
discount store sometime in 2019 and read it in 2020 during the
Covid lockdowns.
The Gutsy Girl by Kate White, a personal development book
for women, but written in a very funny way. I bought this book from
a local discount store in 2021, and read it the same year.
sTORY TELLING by Tory Spelling, an autobiography of the
Beverly Hills 90210 actress, which is also the first book
that she ever published. I bought this book at a thrift store in
2020, and read it during a summer weekend at my cottage the same
year.
Not Quite the Classics by Colin Mochrie, a Canadian actor.
This is a humour book, a collection of short stories. In the summer
of 2021 I was spending my summer vacation at the cottage, and I
bought this book at a local thrift store in the cottage country,
and I read it right then, during that very vacation.
Prince's Virgin in Venice by Trish Morey is another book (a
Harlequin romance novel) that I found in a thrift store in the
cottage country during my summer vacation from 2021, on the same
shopping trip when I also got the Colin Mochrie book that I was
mentioning earlier. I read this romance novel during that same
vacation.
And last but not least, another Harlequin romance novel,
Bedded
by the Boss by Miranda Lee (an Australian writer). I found this
little romance book at a garage sale in my neighborhood in 2016,
and it was only in 2021 that I got to actually read it.
These are all the books that I unhauled. But after this
experience, I realized that unhauling books is not really for me. I
did not get that relieving feeling that Booktobers boast about
after each of their massive unhaul. Letting go of these books felt
for me afterwards as letting go of a part of me, and not as
discarding something that I no longer needed or appreciated. So
most likely, I will not do another book unhaul, but rather keep my
personal library the way it is, and let it grow organically. To me,
books do not lose their value over time. But maybe that's because
my relationship with books is different than what I see among
booktobers, and one day I will write another essay about my
relationship with books and how I grew up surrounded by books, and
I'll go deeper into this topic in that essay. For now, I will leave
it here.
Thank you for reading today's story and I hope you enjoyed
it.
Wishing you all a great remainder of the week!
