A review by milandeep
I Murdered My Library by Linda Grant

4.0

In this essay that looks at the love of books and the absurdity of keeping too many books, Linda Grant reflects on her journey as a reader - collecting books, stealing books, hoarding books, and then finally getting rid of most of them. She says "I would be ashamed of a book whose spine was not broken." You cannot live without books but they also become a burden if you want to move to another place. You like the convenience of a Kindle but you feel something is always lacking. This is a dilemma which is faced by most of the bibliophiles. You start with a handful of books, one shelf at a time and the shelves keep multiplying as if the 'books are breeding.' What happens though if you finally run out of space?

Grant tries to cover a lot ground in this short essay from decline of the book to the rise of technology, the disappearance of the bookstores to the proliferation of ebooks, her reading and writing habits, and how she stores her books. Giving away or reselling books is not as easy as it looks, most of the books given away are pulped. In the end, it is up to us readers to decide what is the value of a book to us. While getting rid of her books, the author says, "I threw one box in the recycling bin. I’m going to hell, a hell in which eternity is a Kindle with a dead battery."