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Smiling Shelves

The Great Library Purge of 2013

11/8/2013

4 Comments

 
My home library has been in a state of, well, unusability for several months. I'll post pictures of this whole process at some point, but last weekend, I was finally able to spend some time making it friendly and library-ish again. As part of this process, I decided it was time to go through my bookshelves. Surely there are books I no longer need to own. I am a great spontaneous buyer of used books. If it looks slightly interesting and it costs less than $3, I'll probably end up taking it home. Those are the sorts of books, however, that accumulate dust on my shelves for years because that initial urge to own has never translated into a subsequent urge to read. And Sunday night, I was finally in the mood to cull these books from my shelves.
Or at least I thought I was. After an hour or so spent carefully examining each book on my shelves, weighing how likely it was I would ever read it, here is what ended up in the giveaway boxes:
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Seventeen books. And nothing that was all that difficult to give up - a couple of old textbooks that somehow made it onto my shelf instead of a box in the basement, and several books I've read or tried to that I just didn't like. Nothing earth-shattering here. Seventeen books, leaving seventeen holes on my bookshelves to fill. That doesn't even begin to cover the 49 books I acquired from our public library book sale a couple of weeks ago, let alone the piles in the corner of the bedroom that have accumulated over the past several months. I have discovered that I am absolutely no good at giving books away - but extremely good at adding to my collection. This may be problematic someday. . .
In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that there are a few more than 17 holes on my shelves. I also have two (small) boxes of books that I pulled off my shelves that I'm not completely ready to part with yet but may be on their way out. Hopefully, these books will end up in a Little Free Library in my front yard someday. Or they may somehow find their way back onto my bookshelves if I decide that I really just can't bear to see them go. What is it about books, even ones we've never read, that make them so hard to let go of?

Does anyone else have trouble getting rid of books or giving them away?
4 Comments
Joyful Reader link
11/8/2013 03:07:21 am

We sound a lot alike. I buy books in the same fashion. There are many on my shelves that I haven't read but there are many that I have. My husband does not quite understand my love of reading books. Waste of time... But I mentioned donating some of the books that I have read to the High School library. HE of all people encouraged me to keep them. "you might use them in homeschooling our grandchildren"... WHAT? I was so excited I could hardly stand it! He is going to have to build me some bookshelves in the basement so that I can better organize. After the holidays I am going to encourage him in that area. Then I can pull everything together. Right now I am just happy they aren't stacked up on top of the books that are on my bookshelves in the living room.

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
11/10/2013 09:34:34 am

I hope you get those bookshelves! My husband has promised that he will build me bookshelves someday, too. Since I'm currently out of bookshelf space. . .again. Enjoy your sorting and organizing!

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fiddlrts link
11/11/2013 07:20:32 am

Our library is a disaster too. For me, it's even harder to cull, because I have been limiting myself to hardback classics for the most part over the last several years. I have very few I can bear to part with. Even if life is too short for me to get to them all.

I'm surprised to see an MLA handbook on the chopping block. Although I suppose I am more of a Chicago kind of guy anyway. I use the handbooks pretty regularly for editing questions, which does make me a grammar snob...

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Julie @ Smiling Shelves link
11/11/2013 01:31:39 pm

I'm slowly resigning myself to the fact that I will never read all of the books I own, especially since I keep adding to the pile. That doesn't mean I'm necessarily willing to give them away, though. There's always hope! I bet your library looks beautiful with all of those hardcover classics.

I'm hoping the MLA handbook has outlived its usefulness, since I finished my Master's in May. And I more often referred to the handbook online, rather than using the book anyway. Grammar snobs unite!

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    My name is Julie, and I own a lot of books. As in, they are stacked on the floor because I've run out of room on the shelves. And those shelves? There are so many books on them that they smile -- not sag; smile. This blog will cover book reviews and all manner of other bookish things.

    You can contact me at julie@smilingshelves.com.

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