Granted, I'm running out of exile candidates, but I do still have two more closets (that house at least 400 books between the two of them) to get through, so more are bound to go.
In the process, I've reorganized my bookshelves to the degree that the 800 books, or so, on the shelves are all there because they have attained a certain status in my mind. They are there for specific reasons. I have my shelves grouped into small sections but the bulk of the books are titles filed alphabetically by author - regardless of whether the books are fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays, or anything else. Then I have those smaller sections such as: autographed books, Modern Library volumes from the forties and fifties, Library of America collection, books on books, author biographies, novels using famous authors as characters, baseball books, books about long walks or trips, books on classic country music artists, and books of all types relating to the American Civil War.
So I've been pretty busy. But it's been worth the hours I've burned doing it so far and I feel that the shelves are finally coming under some semblance of control. And, boy, have I found a bunch of books I can't wait to read, books that have been out of sight for so long that I almost forgot that I even had them.
This has actually been fun...I'm shocked to say that.
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Congrats on all the effort. I give away books too, but still have to do some more reorganizing...
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I would never have even considered giving away so many books. Desperation makes me pretty charitable nowadays. :-)
DeleteI've developed an aversion to clutter in my old age. When we moved ten years ago, I donated about 30 boxes of books to our local library. I regret getting rid of some of them, but most I don't miss. I, like you, have a core library of older books with nice bindings, classics, books that hold sentimental value. Those I will keep. But new books, paperbacks - they go as soon as I read them. I don't re-read, so there's not point keeping them, as I used to do. Unfortunately, I take the to The Book Trader, a used book store that gives me store credit - to use to get more books!
ReplyDeleteI'm a new reader of your blog and am enjoying it very much.
Hi, Joan. Thanks for the reply and welcome aboard Book Chase. I hope you'll stay with us and feel free to offer your input at any time...even if you totally disagree with something I said because I do love to talk books.
DeleteLike you, I do have an account with a local bookstore but I try not to bring books there very often for exactly the reason you mentioned...they soon give birth to more books and I'm right back where I started. :-)
I use my local library system a lot more than I used to a few years ago for exactly that reason, with maybe a third of my reading coming from that source. If I read a book that is so good or useful that I want to own a copy, then I buy that single book...the others are just here on to audition for a permanent role.
The section of "long walks and trips" sounds like a neat one. I am about to have to divide my shelves as well and wondering just how granule to get with my sections and collections. It's proving harder than I thought it'd be, though it's a fun problem to be chewing on.
ReplyDeleteI love those cross country backpacking sagas, Trav, and have several of them where the walker takes the time to document his experiences in great detail. Some of them are amazing. I also like long road trips, too...I think it all started when I read Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley."
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