Books in boxes

A book never looks more alluring, more essential, than when it is about to get packed away in a box.

Sven Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies

I seem to recall writing once before about the appeal of books in boxes, though I believe my focus on that occasion was on taking books out of boxes, not putting them into boxes.

Sven Birkerts

I read the above line by Sven Birkerts while I was still heavily engaged in the act of putting books into boxes. I have since moved from my three-bedroom Ohio house to a two-bedroom Florida condo, which unlike the spacious house has virtually no room for books.

About half of my books in boxes went to the auctioneer (trothauctions.com),who soon will have some tempting bargains to offer collectors and dealers. Fine first editions of Lonesome Dove, The Killer Angels, Death Wish and The Queen's Gambit among many others will soon be up for grabs. Mostly what I've kept are reading copies and personal treasures, and most of these are now stilled boxed in a storage unit.

If there's anything more alluring than books in a box it is books in a closed and sealed box. Except for labels like "nonfiction, mostly unread" and "fiction, read, A-C," these boxes are each a mystery. What exactly is inside? When will I be able to open it? When will I be able to read those books, or at least look at them again?

I have focused up to now on just one if the adjectives Birkerts uses to describe books in boxes: alluring. But his other adjective, essential, seems apt as well. When I was busy for days putting books into boxes, some to sell and some to keep, almost every book I picked up seemed essential somehow, even when I couldn't put my finger on why. How can I part with this book when I haven't read it yet? Or, how can I hide this book away in a box when I haven't read it yet. This book is too good to put in a box. That book I had forgotten about, but now I want read it immediately. And so it went.

In one sense books are easy to pack away in boxes. Find the right box — not too big and not too small — and books will fill it up neatly and quickly. I discovered that most liquor boxes worked perfectly, and I found myself — someone who never drinks liquor —visiting a liquor store once or twice a week seeking empty boxes. Even then I couldn't find enough. Yes, packing books into boxes was easy peasy, yet at the same time it was one of the most difficult tasks I've faced in my life.