Giving up World Book...

I'm trying to purge clutter in my home this year, and that means it is time to let go of some of the absurd number of books on our shelves. I didn't want to do the usual: scan the shelves for something I had hated reading, toss that lone book in the donation pile, and then let myself get distracted by some wonderful discovery on the same shelf. I wanted real results--feet of empty shelf, not fractions of an inch.

So I did what I'd been thinking about doing for a couple of years now. I packed up the entire set of World Book Encyclopedias--it took three boxes--for donation.

I have to admit to feeling a lot of guilt. Encyclopedias were sacred when I was a child. They were the top item on any school report bibliography. They were the place I turned to when I saw something on television or ran across a name in a book that I wanted to know more about. Were there really bears in India living side by side with tigers like in The Jungle Book? Look it up! Did the English queen in Braveheart really hate her husband like she did in the movie? Look it up! Need to know the life cycle of the frog? The name of the 8th president? The year South Dakota became a state? The World Book always knew, and was always happy to give me the answer.

But I'm not writing school reports anymore. I needed to be honest with myself. The world has changed. Now I turn to Google to ask those questions and satisfy my curiosity. I couldn't remember the last time I'd actually pulled out a volume of the encyclopedia to research something. My children are now grown and launched in their own lives, smart phones charged and ready to find every answer they need. The World Book, once the center of my universe of questions, was now just a tiny speck of light in the vast information galaxy of the 21st century. A very dusty speck of light.

So I dutifully asked myself the brutal decluttering questions that would decide the fate of the world--I mean World Book...
1. Have I used it in the past year? No.
2. Do I have access to other items that would satisfy the needs this item addresses? Yes.
3. Am I likely to need it in the near future? No.

I had to be honest. As honest as the World Book had been to me when I sought answers. I needed to let all 25 volumes (3 years of Year Books in addition to the 22 actual encyclopedia volumes) go.

So the next time a donation truck comes to my street, those three heavy cartons will be out on the curb. I wonder what the charity will do with them? Will they even accept such a donation? I have cheery visions of disadvantaged children in their over-crowded apartment poring delightedly over the fascinating Reptile article and illustrations, or carefully copying dates from a bio on President Garfield for a school report. But realistically, most poor families have no desire for twenty year old books, nor the space to hold them. They'll just save up for an I-pad or a laptop for their children. I even admit that's the more practical thing to do. I want to believe my World Books will find a home where they will enrich lives, but they may be headed for a dumpster, unwanted dinosaurs in the Information Age. Such guilt. Such anxiety. But not enough of either to drag those books back to the bookshelves.

Farewell, 1995 edition of the World Book! You served us well! I wish you the best!