I had to leave my house for Hurricane Irma and there is a decent chance I will not have much of a house to come back to.
I had limited space to bring books I wanted to save, so I had some decisions to make. I made my selections based mostly on sentimental value. Others were chosen because of how much I like them and their rarity in bookstores (at least in small towns like where I live).
I will first post pics of my bookshelves from before and then pics of what I saved. Feel free to ask why I made particular choices or ridicule me, whatever.
Also feel free to post which of your books you would save in such a situation.
Bookshelves 1/4
Sebastian Johnson
2/4
Andrew Garcia
3/4
Joshua Allen
I'm sorry you might not find much of your house when you get back but at least in this picture I don't see anything of value. Most of them look like used copies, which were probably cheap and not so difficult to find again. It sucks, though, but definitely not a big loss.
Cameron Cooper
Sorry for the brief delay. Had to help ready another room in the building where I'm riding out the storm for another family coming in.
4/4
Carter Morales
Yeah like I said, mostly sentimental value. Only one or two may have any real monetary value.
Saved 1/7
There are more pics of saved than bookshelves because of closeups to see titles and whatnot.
Cameron Phillips
Saved 2/7
Also two won't be pictured: Herman Hesse's Beneath the Wheel which happened to be a book I am currently (re)reading and Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks.
Jeremiah White
Yeah, I'd totally take with me books I could find again easily but are special for me somehow.
Why did you save Kosinki's Painted Bird? I've been meaning to read it for years. The rest looks like a nice selection, seems like the ones you value the most are good books too.
Oliver Lopez
>Middlemarch.
Good, when I saw it in the first pics I thought I would save that one.
William Anderson
irma is looking to be another huge letdown that the media hyped up for ratings so you should be fine, m8
Landon Williams
Oh and the other part that sucks is I live about an hour and a half from the closest place you could even really call a small city (Tampa), so the selections in bookstores around here isn't the best. It is more difficult to find a lot of those books than you'd think and I try to avoid purchasing online. Plus rebuilding my collection (again, lost most of my books just over two yeara ago) will just be a huge pain in the ass, and expensive when you add it all up.
Saved 3/7
Isaiah Gutierrez
Awesome book, given to me by a very good friend who I hardly ever see since I moved to where I currently live.
Saved 4/7
Jose Collins
Yeah except where I live is almost directly on the water and prone to minor flooding from even just a decent thunderstorm so this could be bad. We went through a direct hit from a hurricane 13 years ago here and it was devastating to the whole area.
Saved 5/7
Closeup to see title/author better
Jayden Howard
This thread is making me rethink my habit of buying physical copies
For storms there's little inherent risk in overblowing the danger of a natural disaster but a TON of risk in underestimating it since you're opening yourself to accusations of misleading people.
If it doesn't come to pass, you can always say "it was better to be safe and warn everyone of the worst possible scenario"
Camden Jenkins
Why don't you bury them desu?
Benjamin Mitchell
godspeed user
Nathan Rivera
Florida has a high water table. Unless you're burying them in something completely watertight they'll get waterlogged in flooding
Carson Sanders
Sorry to hear that OP. Hopefully, your home and books will be safe when you get back. Sorry to hear that you had to evacuate, stay safe.
Aaron Myers
Keep Joseph Campbell
It's a good read.
Kayden Adams
If nothing else, this has vetted your collection and it is stronger because of it.
Juan Ramirez
Table of contents from the volume Six Modern American Plays or whatever it was.
Saved 6/7
Cooper Moore
Contents page from the volume that looks like a little pamphlet.
Saved 7/7
Jack Bailey
Haha
What the other user said. Where I live you hit water if you dig more than three feet. Plus we get rain almost everyday this time of year anyway, so the ground is pretty well saturated.
This was one that very nearly made the cut, but decided to leave it behind because it is an easily replaceable volume with absolutely no sentimental value attached to that particular copy.
Xavier Bell
Hope your home doesn't get rekt OP
Hunter Carter
Latest advisory still has it coming ashore almost directly over my town, but it also still hasnt really started taking the northern turn its expected to so we'll see. Thanks though.
Liam Taylor
I come from a very small city as well, no bookstores but a couple of Salvation Army-type shops, very rarely I'd get lucky and find some of the classics or other interesting works there, but mostly it's Danielle Steel, thrillers, Tolkien, and other trash. My tip to you is checking private listings which is super easy today because of the increased digitisation, meaning that these days even grandmas who are about to croak are online, or maybe they're having their grandsons help them, either way you can make incredible finds if you keep an eye out for such sellers. On another note I like your taste in books. Pic related is what I've brought with me while spending a semester abroad (in Germany obviously). The three books left of Dante as well as Dewey in the middle are newer acquisitions, otherwise I focused on bringing books that would keep me busy for the semester either by studying them or rereading them (I unapologetically love bandanna mememan's essays). I might be biased as you seem to have more German lit than is the norm around here, but I say you did well. And my prayers go to you and the books you left behind as well.
Carson Carter
>be american >live in regions regularly hit by natural disasters, when there is ample space to move to a place without life-threatening natural disasters good logic there pham
Kayden Ortiz
Never have gotten around to reading any Wallace, probably will give him a try someday.
Hesse and Kafka are easily among my favorite writers (I do include Kafka's works in the category of "German lit"). I've probably read more by them than anybody else besides maybe Steinbeck (and maybe Vonnegut, read almost every single thing he wrote between my mid teens to early 20s).
Haha you right. Worst part is I actually did move away from here for almost a decade after high school and then came back. Trust me when I say I had to, though.