(Editor’s note: We are now on our fifth adjuster with State Farm Insurance, we just received a note back that they didn’t “believe the number of books in our house.” It was only one of many items that they questioned under the “personal bucket.” It seems as if they are trying to give us less than the policy limits. We have also contacted the state insurance commission. Below is the personal note I wrote to State Farm.)
Every room of our house had books. There were three large built-in bookshelves in the living room. A large built-in bookshelf filled the wall next to my desk. There were books in every bedroom, also neatly organized in built-in bookshelves.
When I was growing up there was not a library in the town and the schools had few books. My mom in an effort to help, purchased Readers Digest Condensed books, which was my source of novels – until I went to college and discovered the large library.
When I moved to New York City, I initially worked at Scribner’s Book Store and started collecting books, taking them with me from apartment to apartment. My first home in in New Jersey, also gave my books their first home. The books moved with me to Los Angeles in 1991 and the books on the shelves grew.
When I had children, every night before bed I would read stories, we went from picture books to chapter books and finally Harry Potter. When I no longer read to them before they went to bed, I read. I saved many of the kids’ books.
Now State Farm Insurance is questioning the number and wants me to account for them. Please provide receipts, they say. The house burned. There are no books, there are no receipts.
I started making a list of books for State Farm.
I had a classical library which includes Shakespeare, Sophocles, Odyssey, Illiad, Nietzsche.
I had American Classics, such as Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden), Harper Lee (to Kill a Mockingbird), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night). Stephen Crane (Red Badge of Courage) Melville (Moby Dick), Hemmingway (The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, for Whom the Bell Tolls) Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer), Truman Capote (in Cold Blood, Breakfast at Tiffney), William Faulkner (Sound and the Fury, As I lay Dying) Edith Wharton (Ethan Fromme), Steinbeck, Willa Cather.
Basically, I had at least one book of every famous American Author.
I also several books written by Charles Dickens (Great Expectations and a Tale of Two Cities), Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment, the Brothers Karamazov), Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina), Emile Zola (L’Assommoir, Therese Raquin) and Marcel Proust (Remembrance of Things Past) Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers).
I had books that were no longer in print. I had a large collection of Native American Books, since I grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
My first husband, a comic, died and I had all of his comedy books from George Burns to David Berry, to Lenny Bruce became mine.
I also performed and took acting classes, I probably had 50 different plays.
Confederacy of Dunces and the Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse, Thurber and Perleman books were among the comedies I owned.
Every Christmas, my kids and I would pick out a book to read on Christmas Eve, all of those books are gone as are the “picture books” they liked when they were little. I one day hoped to read and then give them to my grandchildren.
I had mysteries from Agatha Christi to Sue Crafton to Dashiel Hammett to Library of America Famous Women mystery Writers.
Self-help books, books on writing and professional books. And cookbooks, every year it seemed I found a new gorgeous book filled with recipes.
My three kids went to college and we have many texts that they decided to keep. I bought from Village Books, Diesel Books and Collections.
State Farm Insurance is among the cruelest of everything I’ve suffered from the Palisades fire. As I was asked to remember and list the books, all those memories of books that I had specifically purchased and kept and that were meant for my kids and grandkids were gone.
Each book I remembered only led to another book, and all are gone.
You pick up a book and read it because you’re in a specific state of mind, when you need wisdom, or need a laugh or need to be “taken away.”
I can never replace those books and for State Farm to ask me to put a price on my memories, my books and something that was part of me and who I’ve become– it would be like asking what is an eye worth? How much do you want for a limb?
I had a collection of Shakespeare’s comedies and one of his dramas. Maybe the agents from State Farm should read “The Merchant of Venice.” The quote is apropos, “the pound of flesh, which I demand of him, is dearly bought; ‘tis mine and I will have it. If you deny me, fie your law.”
The entire home burns. Thirty years of collecting possessions and saving books burns. For 30 years we pay insurance. State Farm’s response “give us the pound of flesh.”
Beautifully expressed. Our books, our antiques, our crafts and arts – all had great value and are irreplaceable. After paying to insure our homes and all they contained, it is truly cruel to require us to list and value things we have had for many, many years and were a part of our individual histories.
Great article about books. Author?
Oh Sue this made me cry. I’m so very sorry.
We lived on Fiske Street, in a house that no longer exists. We, like you, had thousands of books that we had collected, read, re-read, and loved. They are gone, but the “Little Library” that we put up years ago, and kept stocked with books for neighbors, friends and strangers was untouched by the fire. A brave little miracle, a tribute to the power of the Book!
After the Malibu fire in 1993, we calculated the length of all our book shelves. Then we described the various types of books and the number of feet for each type. Hope this helps.
I sympathize with you because I had similar issues with State Farm. We lived in our house for 51+years and periodically increased the policy limit on contents at the urging of our agent. When our house and its contents was reduced to ashes we were asked to produce an inventory of everything in our house specifying date of purchase, original cost, and replacement cost. Not an easy thing to do! Then State Farm calculated depreciation on most items. They came up with a value approximately half of our policy limit. Just recently State Farm agreed to pay us 65% of our policy limit on contents with the option of submitting receipts for items we replace over the next two years. People should know that the policy limit on contents is the maximum the insurance company will pay. It is not an amount to be paid if everything is destroyed.
Over the years I remember leaving numerous books on your doorstep, your passion for literature is insatiable. Did your collection contain volumes on herpetology? If not, may I suggest “Snake Farm” an ongoing study with chapters being added every daily….
It’s heartbreaking to think that the adjuster’s parents may not have offered them the same warmth and traditions we shared with our children. I read a book to each of my kids every night until they could read on their own. Then, I lovingly turned a blind eye to the flashlight glowing under their covers—I understood the magic a book can bring to a child’s world.
As an adult, I tried switching to a Kindle, but quickly returned to physical books. There’s simply nothing like the feeling of holding a book in your hands and getting lost in its pages.
On that fateful day, as we scrambled to leave with our pets and important papers, a book called for me to return. On impulse, I went back in to the house and took it off its shelf—thinking I was being silly—not knowing it would be the last time we would ever be in our home. That book holds generations of memories: my father read it to me and my sisters every Christmas Eve, and now my husband reads it to our children each Christmas Eve. It has now become the most valuable book in the world to me.
Meanwhile, State Farm seems determined to take their pound of flesh. It is agonizing work making “the list.” I look forward to sharing my Amazon book purchases over the past few years with the illiterate of State Farm. Maybe they can do the math to extrapolate 5 family members over 30 years, doubtful.
This is an AMAZING account which I PRAY will put a heart in the body of this 5th adjuster. I would send this letter to the Insurance Commissioner and CC everyone from Governor Newsom on down. PLEASE do another story on their response as this ATROCITY of humankind needs to go viral!!! After all, humankind means being BOTH . . . “Human” and “kind!!!”
Jill,
I wrote it–
Sue
I’m so sorry you’re going through this and that your claim to your own household belongings is being questioned. I’m facing a similar struggle with State Farm—they’re demanding detailed justification for every single item we lost, just to determine what, if anything, they’ll cover, despite us faithfully paying premiums for over 60 years.
The irony is maddening: they’re asking for receipts to prove ownership—for items lost in a wildfire! We lived in our home for six decades, and now, as we try to gather the emotional pieces of our lives, they’re making us recount every single item we owned. It’s re-traumatizing—forcing us to relive what we’ve lost, piece by piece, all over again. A couple months ago we were told they would give us 65% without itemization–we finally received that this past weekend. Unfortunately we are not their top priority.
Like a Bad Neighbor, State Farm ain’t there.