Almost Done

This title does not seem right. I don’t mean that I am almost done with my novel. I mean that I am almost out of the storage area, after which I can get back to my writing. I have been on a detour from what I really wanted to do to what I felt I had to do. I had to do my taxes and combine my storage areas into one unit. As I said before these units contained what is left of my friend’s life. His books, magazines, manuscripts, toys. He owned quite a book collection. By some estimates, it may have contained 32,000 books. Not all of these are in the storage unit. Some were donated to libraries, some were taken by friends for their own collections. Some were simply left behind for the new owner to dispose of. Some are now in my collection.

In the process of handling all these thousands of wonderful books, I feel like I have seen my friend’s life unfolding in front of me. Edward Bryant began his career in books as a science fiction fan, then an author. Hence, most of the books are science fiction, 60-70%. He attended a lot of conventions (I mean a lot) and he kept all the convention handbooks. He won a lot of awards (boxes). He rubbed elbows with people I have heard of but never read or met. They signed his books and left personal messages. I have a new appreciation for who he was. Maybe he thought I knew. His stories were published in all the great magazines of the day: Omni, Playboy, Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, to name a few. Even after his productivity slowed down with time, he kept collecting books. He switched to horror. Smaller percentages of the books are mystery, mainstream, biographies, fantasy, but still there are many of them, also signed and personalized. I can’t help but admire his collection but neither can I afford to keep or house it. Sadly. But I have enjoyed holding them in my hands, gazing through them, dreaming, seeing many authors I am familiar with.

When I have categorized and appropriately boxed all his books, I will have to go through them again to inventory them and slowly find them new homes. I won’t have to do it at such a rush. I can afford one storage unit better than two.

I’m excited to get back to my own books and life. To pick up where I left off. I’m working this week, so it’s next week I’m talking about. I have a couple of friends who are doing the heavy lifting this week, moving the boxes from one unit to another, packing them in. In the meantime, I may garden a little and will keep reading more of Lincoln’s own writing to study his voice.