On 9/21/2013 9:02 PM, Shrdlu wrote:
Every now and then, I've ended up with items that were autographed by an author (in the case of a PERL shirt, by *three* authors), and I often find homes for them rather than just tossing them out.
I have been quite touched by the response I got to this (all off list), and it's quite amazing to see how many lives Evi touched. For the sake of provenance (always important for keepsakes and antiques), I bought this book new in 1995, either at a LISA conference in Monterey (most likely), or possibly at the USENIX conference later that year. Evi was charming, and having a good time signing, and it was a privilege to chat with her briefly about encouraging the young people entrusted to her charge (and to mine as well, since many of our college hires worked for me before moving on to other things).
When I opened it, I remembered why. It was signed by Evi, in purple ink (of course)...
We laughed about liking purple, and I was amused to see the 3rd Edition was purple. I gave that one away, several years ago (I retired in Feb 2006), but kept this one out of sentiment. It acquired even more meaning with this year's sad events.
I'll give this a few days to percolate out. If I hear from no one by Wednesday, it'll just go to recycle (it's softcover).
I'm holding off deciding on who until the weekend is over. I'm not sure that I was prepared for the response, and I'd like to make sure that it has the chance to be seen by people who don't read their email on the weekend. For those that are wondering how I could let go of books, here's a brief explanation. I've helped recently with a couple of estate sales, and one of the hardest things for family members is the enormous amount of just *stuff* left to sort through. Technical books have a very short shelf life, and I had a LOT of them. How useful is a reference on Windows 2k? How about references for Visual Studio (when my sole Microsoft Windows machine doesn't even have office on it, much less programming tools)? I've been separating things into several piles. - I still use (or read) these (and they stay on a shelf). - I can sell/donate them; Amazon buys some, Hastings does too, and the local used bookstore gives credit. Others go to the library for their twice yearly book sale. Old stuff goes in the paper recycle. - I cannot bear to give some books up, and yet I will never look at them again. Thieves World is one of those. My original K&R C book is another. I'm just packing all those up in boxes (plastic, not cardboard) that can be sealed, with a label that says "If I'm unable to object, these should be donated or recycled." I love my Kindle. There are plenty of things that I read, and have no real interest in reading a second time, and it's nice to not have them take up the space. Everything changes. Everything. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
