Collecting Or Collections.
By Rummuser. Filed in Nostalgia, People, Writing |Tags: Blogging, Collecting, Library, Recipes, Tanjore Paintings
This post is the Loose Consortium Bloggers’ Friday post when Ashok, Conrad, Grannymar, Magpie11, Marianna, Maria, Gaelikaa, Helen, Judy the latest addition, and I write one post each on the same topic. Please visit the other blogs too to have different views on this fascinating subject.
I am a compulsive buyer of books and can thus qualify for possessing a library conisisting of over 300 books. This after having got rid of over 200 books just six months ago! I have read almost all of them and those that are yet to be fully read are normally where I sit to read on my easy chair, or near my bed where I read before sleeping every afternoon and night. The subjects that you will find in my eclectic collection will be, History, Philosophy, Economics, Religion, and many other odd subjects. While most visitors will find it difficult to locate a particular book that they know I have, it will be no problem for me and within a couple of minutes I can locate any book in my, rather, haphazardly arranged library.
Usually, reviews in magazines and newspapers or references from friends will trigger off a hunt for a book and I normally buy online from an Indian bookseller who is highly competitive in his pricing and offers free delivery by courier to one’s doorstep.
The other tangible things that I collect are Recipes. I have them in the form of books, print-outs, handwritten notes, typed notes, pages removed from magazines and books etc. These are in reasonably good order and I can easily locate what I want without spending too much time searching for any particular recipe.
Before illness felled Urmeela, she was an avid collector of curios, wooden carvings of all kinds and Tanjore mirror paintings. Apart from her own works, these are treasured and stored away. Some are used as wall decoration, but most of them are simply wrapped and stored away. A couple of years ago, on an impulse, Urmeela took down all her collection and chose only those that she thought would be right for Ranjan, to be stored and had a bonfire with the rest of the stuff including many of her own paintings. A kind of spring cleaning as it were.
Old memories of people, events and places collected over a rather eventful life are the intangible collections that I cherish too. Many things trigger them and with modern access to all kinds of information and thanks to google, I can revisit many of them. Some times it gets to be quite maudlin and I do not often indulge in such reveries. It is however quite rich and at least for me, worth visiting every now and then.
From June of last year, I have started a new collection and that is priceless. I have made a collection of friends via my blog and many other blogs, and though except for a couple of them, I have not met any, I feel as though they have been my friends for long. Blogging enables people to be more open than they normally would be on face to face situations and perhaps that is why, the friendships made in the blog-world are more informal and shall we say, interesting!
For all my Blog Friends in general and my fellow Loose Consortium Bloggers in particular, this is to wish you a very Happy Diwali. By the time this gets published, I would be out of Pune for two nights and shall return only on Sunday evening. My comments on the other LCB posts will have to wait till either late Sunday night or Monday morning my time. Please however leave your comments for me to peruse on my return. I shall be eagerly looking forward to them.
Friday, October 16th 2009 at 21:39 |
I shan’t wait for your return! What a delight as always. I am totally unsurprised by your book collection and I bet if we dusted off your brain we’d find a vast library of ideas and impressions running through miles of shelves!
Thank God or Rama or somebody that I’ve gotten to know you!
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:49
Yes Conrad, my brain cetainly needs to be dusted off. It has been collecting too much of it in these parts. Quite whether you will get what you look for is a moot point however!
Friday, October 16th 2009 at 21:39 |
I collect Creches (natvities). Whenever I go to a foreign country, that is the one thing that I look for. I have quite a collection now. I only bring them out once a year, but I love them!
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:46
That is very interesting. How do you store them?
Friday, October 16th 2009 at 21:48 |
That was a very interesting Ramanaji. Happy Diwali and I hope you have a great weekend.
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:45
Thank you. Yes I did.
Friday, October 16th 2009 at 22:18 |
Happy Diwali Ramana, and I hope you have a well deserved break this weekend.
I won’t let Elly read this or she will be on the next plane to peruse your books!
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:45
I had a great break and returned somewhat tired but exhilarated. Thank you Grannymar. For Elly, mecasa tucasa.
Friday, October 16th 2009 at 22:42 |
Another book lover! Great! Over 300 books, wow! I didn’t have 300+, though I did decide to give them away. I realized that once I read the book, except for a few, I never read it again. It seemed that others might enjoy so I donated them. You have a really great post! I do enjoy your humor inserts!
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:44
Thank you Judy. Welcome to my blog.
Saturday, October 17th 2009 at 00:50 |
I’m a book lover too. We live in a 1000-square foot apartment and at one point I had over 800 books. That was a bit ridiculous so I gave most of them away. We’re now down to a couple hundred. As more come in I donate others to the Friends of the Library bookstore. They sell them at a nominal price to raise funds for more books for the library. It’s a nice way to share my passion.
I also agree with you about blogging.
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:44
That is a wonderful way to manage your passion and your problem with space. I am trying too!
Saturday, October 17th 2009 at 00:54 |
Rummy, now I see where you get all of those great photos you send to me from that great “humor” library at the top. That picture of you in the top photo is much better than that photo of you in your up -and- coming halloween costume. Very good post, Rummy!
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:43
What Halloween costume? What are you up to now?
Saturday, October 17th 2009 at 01:31 |
Ok….i have just read one paragraph of this post, the first line of the second paragraph and 11 words of the second line of the second paragraph. Because by the 11th word, both my eyeballs popped out and fell off the sockets and rolled away and a frantic search is on, under a huge cupboard to get them back. I am now typing this comment from a black void and I hope this comment comes through.
Were those Physics and Chemistry books from school, or Org Behavior from your IIM days, and did you give it off to a student or book lover? I assume it wasn’t fiction/non-fiction? If it was you did you not give them off to a library or to a book lover? If you answered no to all of that, PLEASE call me the next time you ever think of such a thing again!
Ok, I have to give my bit about collections now before I get my eyesight back and read the rest of the post –
My grandfather – dad’s dad – was a voracious reader and had Readers Digest shipped (shipped, literally – early 1900s) every month all the way from USA. I still have about 30% of his collection (70% gone due to grandfather getting a new un-evolved &#^%@@ DIL in 70′s who apparantly saw the collection as nothing more than’raddhi’) But the 30% gave me pleasure in my childhood and youth that cannot be described in this comment box. The power of raddhi, I tell you! So RD – One of my most cherished collections!
Oh goody – they found my eyeballs, ok gotta read the rest of your post now! :p
Rummuser Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 19:52
Sundar, whatever book that you want from my collection is yours for the asking. Just come over. You must ask your mom about our uncle who was an avid RD collector too. He bound them at the end of every year and neatly arranged them in his library, which contained only these volumes and his reference books on astrology.
Saturday, October 17th 2009 at 02:57 |
When I sold my house I gave my book collection to the Friends of the Library. I think I had about 300 then. I kept a few favorites and have added more since I moved, but as space is more limited I now give away every book I know I will never read again.
Rummuser Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 19:50
I can understand that. Space will put a spoke in our wheels of book collections.
Saturday, October 17th 2009 at 13:35 |
Jenny and I are both big book collectors, we have more books than anything else by far. For every book we buy, we try to throw one out but it doesn’t always work. We still need plenty of very large bookshelves to accomodate the huge battalions of printed material.
Rummuser Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 19:50
Storage is the only problem that prevents me from going totally berserk with my book collection. If I had another room to make a den for myself, I would build book shelves all around and then some!
Sunday, October 18th 2009 at 02:18 |
I was 10 kilometers from your Pune & wanted to call & visit, when the sole of my shoe was coming off & I walked around Calcutta trying to find glue. No glue but were repairmen (if you knew what to look for) that sewed soles back for $2. ($1 for Indians)
I still have your phone number & will call when there’s a time that neither of us will be asleep.
Rummuser Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 19:40
I look forward to the phone call BHB.
Sunday, October 18th 2009 at 04:13 |
Ramanaji,
I am impressed with your post. You have covered another topic of interest. Book collection. I love collecting books. But I do not have collection like yours. Very little. One day when my collection reaches 300, I will remember you. Books are great companions. Your post reminds me of a Scottish gentleman. When I had been to his house, and whenever he spoke about a country and his visit to that country, he quickly brought a map of that place without any delay from his collection of maps. It was amazing listening to him, and the way he showed the map and explained about his travel. I could see the same way, you picking up your book. Great hobby. I wish you a happy Diwali.
Sometimes Tambram in me works as well.
Rummuser Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 19:39
Nice to have you commenting again. Thank you and happy Diwali to you too.
Funny you talk about your experience with the Scottish gentleman. I do similar things when some visitor raises a topic and I just get a relevant book or atlas and show what there is in it.
I had a great teacher who told me that you need not remember everything. You just need to know where to access the information. This was in pre google days, and I picked up that habit quite well.
Sunday, October 18th 2009 at 06:30 |
Happy Diwali, Ramana!
Ahhh, books…funny you should mention them. I’ve been looking at my collection with the intention of lightening the load. Every time I think, “No, I may just re-read that.”
Rummuser Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 19:36
Thank you. I am very familiar with that reaction there.
Monday, October 19th 2009 at 17:05 |
Ramana, I value the many friends that I have been making since I began blogging. I count you as one of these. You have some thoughtful views since you are so well-read and I appreciate the workings of your amazing mind.
What an eclectic assortment of ideas you share here. Must be coming from the eclectic assortment of books you read and wonderful experiences you’ve shared with Urmeela.
Rummuser Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 19:40
Thank you Robyn. I am glad that you have found my blog interesting.
Thursday, October 22nd 2009 at 20:06 |
You touched my heart with your memories of your wife’s collection. My late husband, John, collected teddy bears. This was a most unusual thing for a Master Sergeant in the Marine Corp to collect, but John did three tours in Vietnam. This left him with Post-Traumatic problems that haunted him until his death. When his depression got really bad, we would go “bear-hunting”. So the collection grew, spilled over to my classroom when we lacked space in the house, and when he passed away, our daughter Kristi took them. She gave them to the Police Force to give to small children in need.
I know what you mean about collecting friends on blogs. I am so appreciative of the opportunity to know you and the others in our consortium. It is truly an honor.
Rummuser Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 15:29
Maria, that is a very poignant story about your late husband. Thank you for sharing that with us here.