Saturday, January 14, 2012
Where books go to die...
At the back of the storage room in the library where I work, there's the big green bin where books go to die. Sometimes people try to donate books too damaged to sell; not sure what they're thinking when they donate half a book, or three torn books from an encyclopedia set. Sometimes library books are too worn out or damaged to go for sale as well. All of these books go in to the recycling bin. It makes me sad, and strangely sentimental – I see all these books that were either loved too much or not enough, and they are going to be made into something else. It makes me sad to see a good book in there – it might be made into something depressing, like a Watchtower magazine, or a Twilight reprint. 
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I used to get sad at seeing "green bin" books. But now I look at them as a stack of future art. It took me years to get to this point. I was a real book Nazi, determined to never deface or destroy. Then one day, as I sat at Sunday service, observing the congregation, I saw several of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, highlighters in hand, defacing that Holiest of Holy books.
ReplyDeleteAnd that was the day I said, "Honey, you need to relax. Take that old book and make it into something beautiful. Give it a reason to live forever." And since then, I have been experimenting with altering books! And now you have shown me that I am doing good! Because the more books I alter, the more I am saving from Watchtower, Twilight Sequel reincarnation!
It's the everyday heroes that make the real difference! ;-)