The movers took one look at the venerable bookcase that had held my motley book collection and proclaimed: “It’ll never survive this move.”

So we set out in search of a new bookcase, a sturdy piece of furniture that would hold the books that populate my office. We found a number of establishments that had suitable bookcases and had no problem finding one that fit our needs and budget. But it made me wonder: Ten years hence or 20 years hence, will furniture and office-supply stores still be stocking bookcases? The book, after all, is becoming obsolete, as electronic wonders arrive that enable you to hold in the palm of your hand all the reading matter I now pack into bookcases. Pretty soon, bookcases may be as rare as wood cook stoves — available only in antique barns.

I had already performed triage on my book collection, which included many volumes I had owned for decades but never opened. To me, it has always seemed like sacrilege to throw away a book.

But as I grow older, I look at my things with an eye toward my descendants: Which of them will be meaningful to them and which of them will end up in the landfill? I finally convinced myself that any book I haven’t read in the past 20 years is unlikely to be read at all.

My 1980s-vintage set of Encyclopedia Britannica was jettisoned a decade ago as I cleared the decks for retirement from my newspaper job. The information in it was growing stale, it took up a lot of shelf space, and more recent information was readily available on the Internet. I donated it to a Boys’ and Girls’ Club in Alabama and felt good about it. But I retained the “Annals of America” volumes that contain so many original documents constituting the raw materials of history. They have retained their value over the decades, and are now packed and ready to be displayed in my new bookcase.

I also kept my three-volume set of Webster’s Third New International. It’s gawky to hold in my arthritic hands, but it contains words I can’t find in my online dictionaries, and it includes dictionaries of commonly used words in several foreign languages.

After that, the triage became more difficult. Dumas Malone’s highly acclaimed volumes on the life of Thomas Jefferson survived with ease. After 30 years, I still haven’t read them all (Malone was a better historian than writer), but I use them occasionally for reference and wouldn’t part with them.

My bookcase was stocked with numerous books by local authors, many of which I have never had the time to read. But many of them have gracious personal notes from the authors to me, and they’ve gone to the new house. Some day I hope to read them all.

Among these “local” authors is a guy named Winston Groom, creator of the memorable Forest Gump. Winston lives in Point Clear, across Mobile Bay from my old home, and although we never met, I occasionally edited the work he did for the Mobile Press-Register, and he has read some of my work in the Alabama press.

Winston asked his publisher to send me a copy of his newest book, “Kearney’s March,” set during the period of the Mexican-American War. It’s one of the books I’ve taken with me to Maggie Valley, N.C., to read while I recuperate from my recent move.

“Forest Gump” was Winston’s breakout novel, but he is more than a novelist. He has put his storytelling prowess to work on historical events, bringing them to life in vivid fashion. A decade ago, I received an advance copy of “Shrouds of Glory,” the account of the events that led to the destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Nashville.

A descendant of Confederate soldiers, Winston gives a sympathetic but even-handed account of the bungles and probable debaucheries that led to the defeat of Gen. John Bell Hood. His description of the magnificent Rebel charge at Franklin, Tenn., is superlative. Hood’s forces technically won the battle against the outnumbered Yankees, but the casualties they sustained set them up for an inglorious rout at Nashville, where they faced the Union Army of the Cumberland under Gen. George Thomas . “Shrouds of Glory” is now tattered and unsightly, but I still take it out and read it for background on the War Between the States. I expect “Kearney’s March” to be similarly useful in understanding the American conquest of the West in the war with Mexico.

I also brought along a work of fiction by one of those local authors who penned a warm note to me. The book is “Southern Conflict,” by M.S. Cole, published by Alabaster Book Publishing of Kernersville, N.C.

Cole writes about the conflict between Southern textile mills and their workers with a facility that indicates that she has been there. The names of her characters — Shorty, Hoss, Peedab among others — could have been lifted from the payroll of a ’50s era textile mill, and she describes the environment and processes with the precision of a mill worker who went on to become a writer.

When you write as much as I do, it’s easy to neglect your reading. I usually try to catch up on mine during our annual sojourn in Maggie Valley. I look forward during the coming week to following Gen. Stephen Watts Kearney from Independence, Mo., to Sutter’s Fort, Calif., with Winston Groom as my tour guide.

And I look forward to meeting all the mill folk of Cole’s novel, though I feel as though I already know them.

Then I have to go home, unpack my books, and help Miss Peggy set the new home in order.

Readers may write Gene Owens at 104 Belspring Lane, Anderson SC 29621, or email him at WadesDixieco@AOL.com.