Monday Musing

Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?

I wish. I really do.

I actually remember when I did keep every book I could get my hands on, but those days are long gone. Still, despite long ago running out of room to properly house all my books, I continue to invite at least ten new ones through my front door each and every month. The problem is that only two or three leave by that same door during any given month.

We have been in this home for ten years now and this is the first place I was able to add some built-in bookshelves to the floor plan before we moved in. I am able to keep about 800 books on the shelves and I have space to hide another 350 or 400 books on shelves I've added to a few spare closets. That's a lot of books, I admit. But I'm to the breaking point again and I really need to cull about 200 books via hospital donations, sales to used book stores, and the like so that I can buy myself a few more months' worth of new book space.

My "keepers" are a combination of the modern first editions I collect, a few sentimental favorites I have had for decades, books on Civil War and country music history, several complete runs of my favorite detective series (James Lee Burke, Elizabeth George, John Harvey, etc.), almost 100 books from the pen of Joyce Carol Oates, a bunch of Dickens published in the 1800s, a small collection of Modern Library editions from the 1940s and 1950s, over 100 uncorrected proofs, plus a lot of miscellaneous "stuff."

This is going to be a challenge - but all that potential free space is big enough a payoff to keep me motivated. I hope.

Thanks to Musing Mondays for the question.