In what may very well be my last season of burning wood (after 30 odd years or so), I am also trying to clean house... and have found - in some respects - that my tactics need be ruthless and brutal.
I was left quite a number of books by relatives on their deaths. I have 'housed' these books in boxes for twenty and more years... anticipating I might actually read some of them. In the meanwhile, some have fallen prey to mold and must. Most have no resale value anymore, if they ever did. A scant few have been set aside in the hope I might make a dime from them at auction or otherwise.
My stove is a venerable antique. Some years ago, I modified it internally for improved combustion efficiency. The piece de resistance was an added catalytic combustor... which I know (for a fact) helped clean up the exhaust. But the other mods I made helped considerably as well, and with a hot fire, I see little or no smoke outdoors from the chimney... and I have dutifully removed the catalyst for the duration.
To get to the point, I have been burning the occasional book. Some may be shocked, but the alternatives appear to be to drop them off at a used book store in the dark of night... or landfill them... the former likely presaging the latter in many cases.
I have not been keeping careful records, but today I noted that a 1900 cloth bound edition of Wuthering Heights produced a nice soul soothing fire, while a Grainger catalog from the mid '80's limped in a distant second.
And, in this shoulder season, I have been warm. It takes a split or two of 'honest' firewood to support the book burning, but - as noted - some tomes offer a warmth of their own, while others seem to need a crutch.
I wonder if others have reviews of books which burnt well and books which did not? Favorites?
(Hoping - even though it is true to life - there is some humor to be found in this.)
Peter B.
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I was left quite a number of books by relatives on their deaths. I have 'housed' these books in boxes for twenty and more years... anticipating I might actually read some of them. In the meanwhile, some have fallen prey to mold and must. Most have no resale value anymore, if they ever did. A scant few have been set aside in the hope I might make a dime from them at auction or otherwise.
My stove is a venerable antique. Some years ago, I modified it internally for improved combustion efficiency. The piece de resistance was an added catalytic combustor... which I know (for a fact) helped clean up the exhaust. But the other mods I made helped considerably as well, and with a hot fire, I see little or no smoke outdoors from the chimney... and I have dutifully removed the catalyst for the duration.
To get to the point, I have been burning the occasional book. Some may be shocked, but the alternatives appear to be to drop them off at a used book store in the dark of night... or landfill them... the former likely presaging the latter in many cases.
I have not been keeping careful records, but today I noted that a 1900 cloth bound edition of Wuthering Heights produced a nice soul soothing fire, while a Grainger catalog from the mid '80's limped in a distant second.
And, in this shoulder season, I have been warm. It takes a split or two of 'honest' firewood to support the book burning, but - as noted - some tomes offer a warmth of their own, while others seem to need a crutch.
I wonder if others have reviews of books which burnt well and books which did not? Favorites?
(Hoping - even though it is true to life - there is some humor to be found in this.)
Peter B.
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