Is It OK To Throw A Book Away?

 

  I saw an article recently titled "Is it OK to Throw a Book Away." The subtitle hinted yes. The article detailed the author's struggle to downsize her personal library. She used to give her unwanted books to the sale at the public library until she learned all the unsold books from the sale went to the dump. The same thing happens at Goodwill. They call it "refreshing the stock".

  The woman who wrote the article never does find a good solution. If she does throw books away she doesn't admit it.  I recently threw away a guidebook to the Burgundy region of France. It was published in the 1990s. I once wanted to go to Burgandy, but I don't anymore. I set the book face up in a trash can at the grocery store. Perhaps some young student will find it. It could be life changing. No guilt was felt on my part.

  In the article the woman suggested putting books in one those little free libraries you see around neighborhoods. I've done that. Someone must be looking for Calculus for Dummies. Another book I've thrown away is On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The book is about some friends traveling around the US in the late forties in search of enlightenment. These men and women were members of the beat generation.

  Kerouac claims he invented the term "beat," which he said was short for beatific. He sought spiritual awakening. He studied Buddhism but his path included alcohol, drugs, and sex. Might as well get some kicks along the way. Kerouac's muse was a younger man named Neal Cassady. Cassady lost his mother at an early age and grew up on the streets of Denver chasing after his alcoholic father. He spent his formative years in reform schools for car theft. Every time he was released, he stole another car. Reform school gave him stability.

  Though he was a gifted writer, Cassady never published anything himself.  One day he sent Kerouac a long stream-of-consciousness style letter about his wild and crazy adventures. Kerouac was a published novelist but was trying to up his style and used this letter to kick start On the Road. Kerouac had kept notes of his travels with Cassady and other friends in the late 40's and in April, 1951 he started typing what would become On the Road. He didn't want to be interrupted so he taped sheets of tracing paper together to form a 120 foot scroll, and over the next three weeks cranked out On the Road. There's a myth that he was high on Benzedrine the whole three weeks. The truth is that his drug of choice was caffeine, supplied by his wife.

  When Kerouac showed up at his editor's office with the ungainly scroll, he was sent home to cut it into pages like a normal manuscript. Then he was told to tone down the pornographic parts and change everybody's names. Publishers hate getting sued. It took six years before Viking Books was ready to publish the book. Kerouac was fortunate to get a good initial review from an influential critic at the New York Times. This was followed by many reviews that tore the book to pieces. But Kerouac was on his way. He went from being a nobody to being well famous and well off.

 He could now afford to spend his time writing more books while drinking himself to death. He died at age 47 of internal bleeding caused by cirrhosis. His muse Neal Cassady continued his itinerant ways. He collapsed one cold night in Mexico while walking home from a party clad in his usual jeans and tee shirt. He was in a coma when found next morning. Since he was a foreigner and drugs were involved, the Mexican coroner simply wrote on the autopsy, "general congestion in all systems". Cassady was 41.

  Viking published the original scroll (in book form) in 2007 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of On the Road. This is the edition I bought and read. For better or worse, the pornography no longer shocks. The characters' real names are used. None of them is in a position to sue. The book is considered a classic. It had some very interesting parts and I shouldn't look down on Kerouac. In my youth I toyed with becoming a hippie, but opted for a life close to a flush toilet. And so I placed my copy in the bin at the grocery store. Face down though. Wouldn't want to corrupt the youth of Roseau County.

The open road