Purging Treasured Possessions

This is a photo of the books that are no longer with me and found their new home at Fluentspace – a great co-working space that has just started in Malaysia. No questions asked, no favours expected.

And these are books that I still feel very dear to my heart and it’s almost like giving my child away. I still remember the sections and passages that has completely altered my thought process and worldview: the knowledge imparted generously by these authors becoming part of who I am now and still acts like a guiding light for me.

Why I’ve decided to give them away? Well, the logical answer is that it’s one very long-overdued task on my to-do list – ever since I embraced the minimalist philosophy and my ideal is to own fewer physical objects in life.

I know I have to get rid of my books eventually, and books are the very things that have a very strong emotional attachment – making them the hardest thing for me to let go off. So in a way, it is really a bittersweet achievement and milestone for me to be able to cut my book count. And that I’m confident that I’d give all my books away.

However, if you insist of wanting the truest answer I had in my heart, honestly, I’ve no clue myself. Somehow I could think of a lot of reasons to rationalize my decisions: that Fluentspace make a great home for my treasured library where freelancer and some budding startup founders call it their office, or that I’d love to see more people gaining wisdom from them instead of leaving on my shelf to dust… but those aren’t coming from my heart.

The only best way I could describe my real reason is that… I’m finally reached a point in life where I can give back. That it’s within my present ability to actually do something that I believe in.

… or maybe I’m just getting a little crazy, and it’s one of those crazy traits I don’t particularly mind having.

(p/s: with all fairness, I’m now buying books in digital form on a Kindle. And now I believe that dead tree books as great social objects that is meant to be shared and passed around to others.)