Failing to get rid of stuff

[johan]

Two and a half years ago I cancelled my old Locus subscription. I started reading Locus while I was working as an editor at Target Games, when that now defunct company was still publishing fiction, and I felt a need to keep up with what was being published and reviews of the same. This was before the Web, remember.

Well, I became hooked and kept subscribing, despite it being rather expensive, with postage and all. Eventually, two and a half years ago, I realized I just kept stacking the issues, not even opening them any more. Still great interviews, gossip, obits and everything, but life's short and simply didn't have time. So I cancelled the subscription.

Then a month ago the Alvar Appeltofft Foundation received a donation consisting of four volumes of Locuses, two of which were issues I didn't have. Someone was trying to give me a choice here: Get rid of the old volumes I had, 1989-2002, or get two I didn't have: 2003-2004. I mulled it over a bit. Obviously, by now I realized I don't read old mags. They gather dust, that's all. So I decided that by now I've learnt the lesson that whenever faced with the choice of getting rid of something you don't use and will never use or acquiring more of the stuff, you should get rid of it.

Donate the old volumes, and hope they will find a more interested owner. I sat down to leaf through them to see that I hadn't missed any issues. The first thing I did was to open the 1990 issue with the Confiction con report and obituaries of Don Wollheim. I read the obits, and realized that this is fan history and sf history. I cannot find these texts anywhere else. And jlms popped in her head through the door and said that she preferred we kept them.

So instead of getting rid of dust-gathering stuff, I bought the 2003-2004 volumes from SAAM. Well, magazines don't take up so much shelf space, to be honest. But I wonder whether this was the right decision.

Comments

[dominicflandry.livejournal.com]

You can always get rid of them later.
It's much harder to collect them again if you suddenly realize getting rid of them was the wrong decision.

[jophan.livejournal.com]

This is true. But it's true for many things I don't need to have. But in this particular case, I think hanging on to the stuff was the right choice.

[awahlbom.livejournal.com]

As you may know, I am very familiar with that problem. I still haven't found a good solution, apart from small, controlled fires.

[jophan.livejournal.com]

Yep. But I don't, honest to ghod, have a problem getting rid of old hardware, or magazines like Råd&Rön; stuff there's no reason to hang on to. But this is stuff I can't find anywhere else, and I pretend to take a serious interest in SF, so I think keeping them was the right decision. Ideally they ought to be scanned and OCR'd of course.

OCR

[mainfisch.livejournal.com]

The latter would be something like burning the stuff and storing the ashes.... :-p

[mrhedgehog.livejournal.com]

If you have room for them, it's was the right decision. Interested in 88 and 89?

[jophan.livejournal.com]

1988 and Jan-Apr, June 1989. Yes, I would be that. I think there was one issue sometime during the 90s that I never got, but considering I subscribed through your little setup, you wouldn't have it either...

How much do you want for them?