Letting go.

My wife and I have begun the long process of thinking about downsizing our apartment. Our kids have flown the coop, and more likely than not, will return to their New York City bedrooms no more than twice or three times a year. Ergo, we no longer need the three bedrooms we bought 16 years ago.

Last weekend, we looked at two fairly appropriate apartments. Each was some hundreds of square feet smaller than our current space, but compensated for that diminished size with either a view of the not-so-distant East River, or a high-floored quietude that's preferable to the second-floor aerie we now occupy.

The trouble with either of these smaller abodes is mine. It's what to do with the over 3,000 books I have in my personal library.

Yesterday, I read a "New York Times'" article entitled "Amazon Kindle Voyage, a High-End E-Reader That Beats Hardcovers."

OK, that's it, I said to myself. It's time to abandon my two-hardcover-a-week habit. It's time to make the leap. Further, it's time to visit the Strand which is down the block from where I'm currently doing my copywriter time. Could you pick up my books--could you empty my apartment for me?

I fantasized for a few hours about moving into a new place and moving away from material possessions. Maybe it's time to get rid of everything. The half-dozen or so expensive suits I will finally admit that I'll never slim down enough to again fit into. Maybe I get rid of everything and leave myself with four pairs of jeans and a couple of dozen of shirts, shoes, etc. The bare minimum.

Maybe I embrace my inner Henry David Thoreau and keep only that which can fit in a small overnight bag.

Then I saw a book on the Koch brothers that I just had to buy. They seem to be running our country and plastering their names all over New York's once chaste cultural institutions and I know nothing about them other than their radical right views and their early support of the virulently horrid John Birch Society.

This morning I saw a book review by one of my favorite authors, Samuel Hynes. Another book I have to have.

Could I buy the new Kindle. And not anymore buy hardcovers.

Could I clean, rid, purge?

Become an aesthete--eschewing all encumbrances.

Nah.