Disposal

The general idea on books these days is one book in, one book out, although there is a bit of flexibility in the upstairs study. Books are allowed on the floor there.

So when Sacks on awakenings was sent downstairs, with the book and the film together needing near a couple of inches shelf space, something had to give. And the something selected was my 1947 printing of Bertrand Russell's history of western philosophy, a copy bought second hand some years after my fathers' copy had been retired. Russell was something of a hero to people like my parents, part of that wave of relatively ordinary people who were, for the first time, able to go to university. My father even went so far as to challenge the great man at a public lecture, possibly in the US, at which the great man was most amused to find that he had been challenged by a dentist. At least, that is what my memory tells me.

And the history is famous enough to get its own Wikipedia entry at reference 3, an entry which explains that it was mostly bad philosophy, but quite entertaining enough to become a best seller, best seller enough to secure the Russell finances for life. Over the years, I have maybe read about half of it.

Notwithstanding, it had not made this particular cut, and has now received honourable burial in the outdoor compost heap, behind the copper beech screen towards the bottom of the garden. Somehow, I don't like the idea of family treasures sculling around charity shops, even those without book plates or other identification. Illustrated above for the record: a reminder that even in those hard pressed years after the second world war, standards of book production were a lot higher than they are now.

The brown stuff hanging down below it is a new-to-me sort of packaging which contained one of my Christmas presents, a bottle of the 2016 Rolly Gassmann Gewürztraminer which I first came across on the expedition noticed at reference 1 and followed up with the performance noticed at reference 2. It will do nicely for New Year's Day lunch.

The packaging seems to be made of some sort of stiffened or coated brown paper, fluffed up with some kind of stamping or cutting, with a rather odd feel to it. But it serves very well as a sort of ecological bubble wrap. It has now been put away to do service, in due course, entertaining an infant.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/trolley-hunt-2.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/wine-hunt.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_Western_Philosophy.