Into the Dumpster
How to pitch a book (with both hands)
With the new 3rd edition of Hiking Snohomish County hot off the press and trundling on a truck somewhere in the Dakotas by now (or maybe Montana?), I deemed it time to be rid of the second edition leftovers. The problem is I had hundreds of them in the shed, unsold, out of date, obsolete, unloved and otherwise worthless. The surplus books had become way too dated to sell or even to give away, the information therein much less useful and reliable than it once was. I also needed the space.
Looking at options, it was clear that my darling little hiking books were destined for the dumpster. Or should I say, the really big bin (behind the recycling company’s building) that may look like a dumpster but is actually meant for recycling mixed paper. I paid my ten dollars, pressed the boxes against my belt and reached in with both hands, almost developing a rhythm—grab-grab-chuck-chuck.
It does feel a little weird to toss hundreds of books into such a cold dark place. Maybe they’ll be pulverized, pulped and rolled into new paper for new books, reincarnated somewhere somehow for somebody. I can hope anyway. I snapped this pic and skedaddled.
