"I don't want to read it. I would just like to have it." Sometimes books are souvenirs, whether I have read them or not.
I used to tell myself that my oldest book was a stiff-covered pocket-sized collection of poems. I am confident that I bought it before I was 12 years old. But we have gone through some book divestments. At one time, we had 800 books in the house. Whether it was moving or just simplifying, we asked if we had read a book in the last year. It could have been 5 years or 10. I know that some of my stat books and other grad school books rarely got touched. So, we gave them away to local libraries or friends who wanted them.
But Lynn said the quoted sentence above the other day and that got me thinking. What is my oldest book? The question reminds me of questions that arose in my course for teachers that tried to review the books each member of the class had read. Each person was to make a list of all the books they had ever read. Questions arose.
"If I read a graphic novel or a book of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, should I list that?" Answer: it is up to you. If you feel you read it, list it.
Searching for the oldest book we have brings up questions. Am I looking for the book that has been in existence for the longest time or the book I have had in my possession the longest? It isn't really important but when I think of the bound copy of my dissertation or a Bible I have had for a long time or high school yearbooks, I think of books that have been shelved companions. We have Luther's Small Catechism from Lynn's 4th grade in Lutheran school. We have the book "Total Fitness" by Morehouse and I know we owned that before grad school, which makes it a possession since 1963.
Now, I am wondering what is our oldest possession? We have at least one kitchen knife that was a wedding present for Lynn's grandmother's wedding. I wouldn't be surprised if Lynn has jewelry that goes back more than one generation from us. Our rings are about 60 years old. Some of our tools: hammers, pliers, wrenches are more than one generation old. I have Lynn's letter to me, written in 1960, mounted on the wall.
