The Yurt's revenge (or, More on the Yurt Game)

I was speaking to a group of people about the Yurt Game the other day, and they all immediately launched into a game of Desert Island Books, as if that what the Yurt Game must have been about.

While it was interesting listening to them talk about What Three Books they would like to have with them if they could only ever have access to those books for the entire time they were stranded, that wasn't the point of the Yurt Game.

In the Yurt Game, you're not cut off from any and all other reading material.  There's no reason to suppose you'll never read any other books for the entire time you are in the yurt.

No, the point of the Yurt Game is to consider the ownership of physical books.

If space is at a premium, and nothing can warrant a place in your home unless it is important or meaningful to you in that physical form, what books do you keep?

Forget about what you want to read.  What books are important to you as artefacts?  Or as books you never want to be without?  You feel you must be able to go back to them at any time, and be able to dip in and out of them at your leisure.  You feel you must be able to hold them in your hands and know that they are real and solid and with you. Or you just feel your home would not be complete without these books sitting on your shelves?

I have to admit, in the two years since I wrote the original post on the Yurt Game, I've come to a point in my life where I'm not sure I'd really want or care about anything other than a couple of sets of dictionaries, two or three cookbooks, an atlas and a couple of books I have that outline the rules of various games and sports.

Oh, there are a few books I'd definitely keep for sentimental value - like the books my grandmother bought me as a child - and a couple that I've re-read a few times and may keep just because I'm likely to read them again...

But, all told, I'm not sure how many books I currently own would have a place in my yurt.  And yet I have soooooo many boooooks!

I packed them all up recently because I was cleaning out a room and thought I might be moving house shortly.  Now I have to put them back, I'm wondering why I have so many.

But, do I have the guts to part with them?  Ah, that's the question.