Yes, I did it… as much as the voice inside me shouted: SACRILEGE!
Words that were printed almost 3 lifetimes of mine ago… tossed out with the weekly trash.
For years I’ve had my own “no book should every be thrown away” philosophy.
And it was based on… umm… nothing more that a vague “it doesn’t feel right” kind of notion.
And, look… I’m not out there, flamethrower in hand, burning piles of books deemed to be “not in the public’s best interest.”
But…
Sometimes there’s a good reason the trashcan is the most sensible place for books
I’ve thrown out books before. Even much newer ones. Because they were SO bad that no other human being should be subjected to the torture of reading them. (Maybe I’ll talk about those in another email sometime.)
And it’s not like I’m throwing away the very last copy in the world.
I’m kinda getting to the point of thinking about printed books in a similar way to things I print out myself for convenient reading; both are just words printed on paper pages.
Throwing them away doesn’t remove the ideas from the world. Just the copy I have that’s no longer needed.
And, before I get the hate mail — which I do rather enjoy — I’ve only ever thrown away 0.01% of the books I’ve ever owned. The others I still have. Or have given away.
Here’s why this particular one met its maker by my ruthless hand:
- It was in extremely poor condition — beyond repair in fact.
- Missing front and back covers. Plus many pages from front and back.
- Silverfish had been dining out in style.
- There are plenty more copies of it in the world. And some excellent digital facsimiles.
It also has a very small interested audience. The book was about Scottish Martyrs — not everyone’s favorite bedtime reading!
So, even if it was intact… it would be very hard finding a new home for it.
Yes, I had a twinge of “am I doing the right thing?” as I dropped it into the abyss of our trash can.
But two days later? No.
I’m only thinking about it because I’m writing this email.
And it’s just the way it is. Because — even for some very old things that seem too old to throw away — they’re just worn out and no good anymore.
Everything eventually reaches its end of life
Like in our businesses.
Sometimes it’s things like the logo we threw together in Canva when we were starting out. But now it’s just a bit crap and doesn’t represent our brand well.
Or it’s the copy we wrote for our website. And now that we’ve been writing for clients for a while… when we look at our own website we just cringe.
So… out it goes. And we install the newer model: Client Head-Turner 2.0.
Sometimes its time to get something new. Because the old has done its day.
But what hasn’t done its day is the need for a quality website for your freelancing business. One that’s easy to manage and grows with you.
I use and recommend Systeme for this. Free forever. You can try it out by clicking my affiliate link here.
And if your website looks and feels like it’s 123 years old…
Definitely click the link above.
Chris “book killer” Milham
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Chris Milham