Sad day for any booknerd

Today, because of dire financial circumstances, I had to sell some of my books.

This is always just a little heartbreaking. I've carried some books with me across the country, through four years of constant moving. I've held onto books longer than jobs, relationships, schools, friendships, beliefs, and personal identities. It can be years since I've opened one, but having them with me brings a kind of comfort all its own.

Every book I keep usually has some kind of personal association with it, aside from the story. Amongst others, today I sold copies of The Know-It-All that my mother gave me and The Hippopotamus that I bought in China. It was a sad moment. I'm as much in favor of non-attachment as any other Buddhist-influenced atheist (if that makes any sense), but books are the one exception I make to that.

That said, here is a list of books I would not sell under any circumstances. I'd rather eat nothing but rice and beans for a month and take part in shady paid medical studies.

1.) Modern American Poetry, Modern British Poetry; Combined Edition, edited by Louis Untermeyer. Originally published in 1942. I inherited this from my maternal grandmother. It's a hefty volume at 1218 pages, but is such a great reference for poems published before WWII. It's one of two things I have that could be considered family heirlooms.

2.) Adios Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity, edited by Ophelia Edut. Published in 1998, when third wave feminism was seriously beginning to stretch its muscles, it contains essays by Lisa Jervis, Nomy Lamm, and Rebecca Walker. It was given to me by a teacher at my weird little alternative high school when I was fifteen. It was the first time I'd ever been introduced to transgender issues, fat acceptance, or the pro-sex movement. It was also the first time I'd really thought in depth about anorexia, disability, racism (grew up in the second whitest state in the Union, by the way), and sexual politics from a feminist point of view. Coming at that time in my life, its effect was enormous. Not to mention lasting.

3.) A Treasury Of Great Science Fiction, edited by Anthony Boucher. Originally published in 1959. As I recall, I bought this at a library sale in Williamstown, Vermont, with my first boyfriend. It's still got the poodle sticker the librarians stuck on the inside flap to show it was for sale. I was fourteen. This has short stories by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Phillip K. Dick in it, and an excellent novella by John Wyndham.

4.) The Complete Hothead Paisan by Diane DiMassa. Another relic of my burgeoning teenage feminism. While I disagree with some of it - namely, the semi-pointless violence - it manages to counter-balance itself. Yes, the title character is homicidal psychopathic lesbian. But the two supporting characters are both pacifists, and are trying to get her to evolve. Hothead is not shown to be in the right, and violence is repeatedly shown to solve nothing in the end.
If there is a main theme in the story's arc, I don't know what it is. I do know that reading the misadventures a crazed, mohawked dyke helped get me through some seriously crappy times when I was younger.

5.) Transmetropolitan, comic series by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson. Spider Jerusalem is my kind of hero; bald, ballsy, chaotic, and batshit insane. Oh yes, and he's a journalist. The character is based on Hunter S. Thompson, the setting is some distant point in a hedonistic future, and all of the stories are completely relevant. Patrick Stewart summed it up best in his intro to the fifth volume:

"I think, however, I can say this: I know this City, I have read The Word, I have listened to these politicians, I have smelt the stink of greed, I have thrown stuff at the TV, I have wondered what future there is for Truth and Beauty."

It's satiric science fiction at its best, basically: fiercely questioning the present through an exploration of a possible future.

6.) Truly Unusual Soups by Lu Lockwood. Second edition published in 1983. My sister gave this to me as a Christmas present my first year in college, when my entire repertoire of cooking was limited to three different kinds of soup. Highlights from Ms. Lockwood include "Jellied Cucumber Soup", "Mama's Fruit Soup", "Peanut Butter Soup", and my personal favorite: "Flaming Cheese Soup".

Thank you and goodnight.