Deselection 2022.2

 Thomas Hardy, Return of the Native. NY: Harper & Row, 1966.

Hardy was a poet, but, like most poets, he liked to eat. Since poetry doesn't sell very well -- or make much, even if it does sell, he also wrote fiction, to keep the larder stocked. Originally published in 1878, structured as a classical tragedy, set in Wessex, and peopled by minor gentry, upon brief perusal it is, in almost all ways, dull beyond description and not, according to its introductory text, worth the effort.

Elaine Harger, Which Side Are You On? Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016.

A discussion of seven different questions of social responsibility taken up by libraries between 1990 and 2015. Riveting, and essential to understanding why librarians are often passed over for management positions even in libraries.

SH Butcher and A Lang, The Odyssey of Homer. NY: Modern Library, undated.

Translated into prose, it is simply not the way I want to read or remember this story.

Charles Dickens, Hard Times. NY Fawcett, 1966.

This was a fun story, and having read it, I have no need of the mass-market paperback.

Avi, Perloo the Bold. NY: Scholastic, 1998.

Childrens' books is a category marked for reduction in my new space. Now that I have shelves and they're out of boxes, there's no one around to enjoy them but me.

Juan Jose Millas, From the Shadows. NY: Bellevue, 2019.

Hiding in a family's closet and cleaning up their life? Too creepy to share shelf with Stephen King.

 

John Bellairs, Eyes of the Killer Robot. NY: Puffin, 1998.

This fine children's mystery is another casualty of its class as non-core collection. 

Kay Redfield Jamison, Unquiet Mind. NY: Knopf, 1996.

Another of my ex's books that she chose to pack with mine. If she didn't want it...

 

Since it's mid-December as I type, let's call this complete for the year. It doesn't really seem like I'm making progress on clearing the shelves, though. Maybe next year.