Physical media in limbo

I finally got around to unpacking my books this weekend (or rather, most of my books). In my ongoing efforts at uncluttering, I managed to cull quite a few that I came across, mostly old textbooks from my undergrad that I’ll never look at again. I imagine the rest of my stuff is largely paperback fiction, which when I see it will likely go to the book exchange because I’ll be replacing anything worth having around in e-book format. That’ll cut down on a lot of heavy stuff which will lighten my load substantially. While I have come to love the e-book and the reader I have now (I think I’ve read more this year so far than I have the last few years), I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of physical books entirely. I think that what I have on my bookshelf really does say a little about me, and a few of them aren’t available. What I will do is keep only those books that are really ‘me’, and hopefully question more intelligently if they are, in fact, ‘me’.

The hard thing is the dang music. I’m having a hard time with it, and I was reminded again of the hard time I have by a recent post in a blog I read, where our author had created a special shelf to contain all her physical media–books, DVDs, and TV series. I love shelves like that, and I have had a few in my life, across varying places I’ve lived. I adored my little shelf of CDs back in the day before it got all unruly. I used to keep everything alphabetized and scrupulously organized like some kind of ghost of Rob Gordon. I even went so far as to ensure the CDs were all aligned correctly in their jewel cases. My friends mocked me mercilessly for this. But you know, I got a real joy hit out of that wall of music.

I also loved my video cabinet, although it never looked as good, with all the movies I’d recorded off TV or laserdisc (once upon a time, I could actually rent these and a player and copy away, which I did). Those days are long gone, and I don’t even have a reliable VHS player anymore at all. But I have a decent DVD collection, and a blu-ray collection that seems to be growing at about a disc a month or so.

Thing is, when it comes to DVDs and music, I’ve started to move more and more toward digital. I have all of my music in iTunes (although most of it needs to be re-ripped to a decent, lossless bit rate) and the movies are making their way over at a glacial, but steady, rate. That means currently there’s no jewel cases in my space (all the CDs are still packed) and the DVDs are only pseudo-organized. That’s okay from a strictly usability standpoint. That is, everything I want to listen to is easily either on my iPod or streamed through the Apple TV on the big stereo. Any movie or TV I want to see is findable and watchable.

But see, I miss that media wall. And it isn’t just aesthetics and showing off my collection of stuff. Part of it is a feeling that I can’t place that sorta gives me joy to look at it, interact with it, browse it, and know it’s there. Part of it is that as I’ve culled and digitized, I realized that I’ve lost some of my attention.

See, I’ve now gotten into the habit of one-off songs, play lists, and genius mixes. Don’t get me wrong, I love them and their instant nature and ability to make a good mix, but as Rob Gordon would tell you, the making of a mix tape is an art form, and I say, not to be left to the Apple Genius alone. Remember cassette tapes? I do. If a song came on, you couldn’t easily ‘skip’ it. At the very least, it required waiting for the imperfect gap-finding technology to register as the tape spooled back and forth. I think it was that little inconvenience that contributed in a way to actually listening to a work. If it was a pain to get there, it was often better to just sit back and enjoy the painless, time consuming ride. Thing is, that ride was often just great.

Last month, I listened to Def Leppard’s Hysteria CD from front to back for the first time in ages. It was so awesome. I miss listening like that–front to back. “This is the CD I am listening to”, not whatever random thing the computer creates. I’ve taken to doing that more since I realized how much I missed it. To that end, having the CDs out makes some sense. I have perfect quality at home, and I don’t need to re-rip them (iPods and the headphones don’t need lossless really–they can’t exploit it well enough, and even if they could, I’m rarely listening in a place where it matters). And I could get all those jewel cases out of their many boxes and back up on the shelf. I think I’ll do that.

Again, I’m reminded that decluttering isn’t all about getting rid of everything. That’s the ‘me’ equivalent of tossing out the baby with the bath water. A place feels like home to me if I have some of my stuff around, It’s more about keeping the stuff that’s really ‘me’. I should perhaps apply the same philosophy I have to books to CDs and DVDs. Maybe I’ll rip the CDs that aren’t that important and then get rid of them and only keep those I truly want to slot and listen to from time to time and put them on a shelf again. Not a bad idea. Hmm…

Maybe I’ll be building a shelf this weekend.