A VERY PECULIAR FEELING (and a pleasant one at that)

by Terry 20 Replies latest jw friends

  • Terry
    Terry

    I work at a bookstore that buys books for cash directly from the public.

    We get maybe eighty or ninety people a day lugging in horrendously filthy boxes filled with roach droppings, mold, ancient dust and, oh yes, books.

    Among these books there is the occasional "find".

    But, mostly (and disappointingly) it is 97% garbage.

    Today a fellow brought in three boxes full of typical dusty and unkempt books to sell his aunt was "getting rid of" that he thought he'd convert into easy cash.

    I took his i.d. and phone number and then looked at the boxes.

    THEY WERE ALL JEHOVAH'S WITNESS BOOKS! Bound volumes going back to the 50's, all the booklets, books, concordance, interlinear, bibles, etc. you can think of.

    I had a very PECULIAR feeling!

    At first I wanted the bound volumes. Why, I don't know. It _____somehow___seemed like I should want them. Then, I thought about it harder and realised it was all garbage and none of it was worth keeping!!

    That was a VERY PLEASANT FEELING.

    I offered NOTHING (nada) (zip) (zero) for the JW books and a token amount for a few civilian magazines and strength and health magazines.

    I told the fellow this:

    "I'm sorry I can't offer you anything on these religious books. They have no retail value at all. We base our price on the retail value, you see. We sell at half that.

    He was disappointed, but, took the news and the offer.

    What I did next was more satisfying than you could ever imagine. It was like the most wonderful catharsis I've ever felt! I DUMPED ALL THE BOOKS IN THE "RECYCLE" BIN (i.e. the dumpster outside the store).

    I feel like I struck a blow for freedom somehow.

    Boy it felt great!

    Free at last; free at last...thank godamighty free at last!

  • the_classicist
    the_classicist
    We get maybe eighty or ninety people a day lugging in horrendously filthy boxes filled with roach droppings, mold, ancient dust and, oh yes, books.

    I saw the sexiest used book recently, it was completely in Latin. There were only 2 downsides: 1) It was on "Moral Theology" and 2) It had greed smelly stuff on it. Besides that it was beautiful.

    Congratulation on your liberation. (you could've recycled them though)

  • Euphemism
    Euphemism

    From a decultification perspective, I say, way to go! From a financial perspective, however, I should point out that some of those could have probably been sold on eBay.

  • Whiskeyjack
    Whiskeyjack

    Terry,

    Shame on you! Think of the great bonfire you could have made with all those books.

    W.

  • skyman
    skyman

    It would of been fun to burn them at an aspostafestival.

  • Sparkplug
    Sparkplug

    Terry,

    So that I stop going nuts wondering...Does the copyright date make it any more of value. I have these really old books someone gave me. 1907, 1928, 1901...

  • Quentin
    Quentin

    Now that was priceless.....

  • jillbedford
    jillbedford

    I think you should make choices with your head, instead of your heart. You could have gotten some big bucks on E-bay for these items........

  • TooOpinionated
    TooOpinionated

    Congratulations, Terry!

    It's quite an accomplishment, and you are rightfully proud of yourself. It's such a feeling of empowerment when you can get past the old programmings.

    One day this past December, I saw my husband go upstairs with a box of trashbags. He kept bringing down full ones, and I couldn't imagine what he was doing. Finally I asked him, and I will always remember that triumphant look on his face when he said he was getting rid of all of our literature. We had inherited alot of old books, too. Anyway, since we are big on recycling, I questioned the bags and he answered that this was one time we weren't going to follow the rules. He wasn't taking a chance that someone else would find the books in the recycle hopper and take them home, and perhaps join the cult. (I was actually one of those that found magazines in a laundromat in college, and never forgot. I eventually joined because of those magazines, so we know it can happen.)

    Of course, at that time we didn't know that there would be a market for them on Ebay as I hadn't joined this site yet to find that out, but I really don't think we would have done it. We needed to show that we had strength over them in every way. It was strange realizing what a hold they had over us. We were the type that just couldn't throw away even an extra magazine. Sheesh!

    Afterward, we ere actually dancing around the house like teenagers because the whole atmosphere in the house changed. It was like a big dark cloud had blown away. It sounds wierd, but it was like we were finally cleansed. People noticed that we smiled a whole lot more, too. It was a watershed moment for us. For you, too, it sounds.

    Once again, congratulations!

  • greendawn
    greendawn

    These books may be charmed somehow, with subliminal figures and writings. I threw out all the JW books (1970's and 1980's)I had a few years after disassociating when I realised the extend to which they were deceiving and manipulating people through those publications.

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