For a nomadic generation, the question of how to look after – or get rid of – a personal library is a recurring anxiety
Not many of us are this well equipped … a mobile library. Photograph: Stefano Archetti / Rex Features
How do you maintain a library when you've got no room for your books? No, this isn't the start of a JL Carr novel; it's a genuine conundrum faced by bookish 20 and 30somethings across the UK. With relentlessly rising rents, and record numbers of young people having to move back in with their parents, it's become clear that we are a nomadic generation.
As a student in Leeds I moved house three times in four years; in London it was seven times in three years. My experience was driven by the problems facing everyone renting in the capital; dodgy landlords, relocation for work, rent hikes, unemployment, a triple infestation of cockroaches, mice and pigeons. We've all been there. Regularly having to load your possessions into laundry bags and crisp boxes takes a toll on your finances and energy, but the effect on our book collection is rarely considered.
Maintaining a collection of beloved books in a damp flat with no shelves, which you'll probably have to move out of in six months' time, is a challenge. Prioritising which books to keep and which to jettison becomes increasingly difficult. Do you hold on to the books you know you'll reread or do you keep the to-be-read pile intact? I have a copy of A Literature of Their Own by Elaine Showalter which, invariably, is forced on some unsuspecting friend right before every house move and then reclaimed the next day. A few of them have attempted to speed-read this fairly dense feminist literary history in the 48 hours I usually let it out of my sight but most have now learnt not to take it out of the bag.
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As a student in Leeds I moved house three times in four years; in London it was seven times in three years. My experience was driven by the problems facing everyone renting in the capital; dodgy landlords, relocation for work, rent hikes, unemployment, a triple infestation of cockroaches, mice and pigeons. We've all been there. Regularly having to load your possessions into laundry bags and crisp boxes takes a toll on your finances and energy, but the effect on our book collection is rarely considered.
Maintaining a collection of beloved books in a damp flat with no shelves, which you'll probably have to move out of in six months' time, is a challenge. Prioritising which books to keep and which to jettison becomes increasingly difficult. Do you hold on to the books you know you'll reread or do you keep the to-be-read pile intact? I have a copy of A Literature of Their Own by Elaine Showalter which, invariably, is forced on some unsuspecting friend right before every house move and then reclaimed the next day. A few of them have attempted to speed-read this fairly dense feminist literary history in the 48 hours I usually let it out of my sight but most have now learnt not to take it out of the bag.
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