I just finished paring down my book collection to the absolute essentials. I'm donating anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of a ton of books to my local library. *
On the one hand, I feel like I'm letting old friends go. I'm a bibliophile at heart, and my books feel like nest featherings to me. On the other hand, going from six bulging bookshelves to a scant two feels liberating. My Norton Shakespeare made the cut (I want to be BURIED with that book) and Harry Potter did too, but my stolen collection of Gideon Bibles** did not. I kept Dimitri's Computer Science Textbooks but am ridding myself of my Faulkner collection. My leather-bound books stay, but my coffee table art books go.
Why? I need to make room in the second bedroom for my desk so that the loft can accommodate the new office furniture Dimitri bought. And, too, I guess because I am ready to get rid of them. I'm keeping the possible internment-worthy books, but I don't see much need in keeping books I haven't cracked in years. If I want to visit them, I can go to the library. They'll come to better use there, anyway.
The sucky part is that the Library does not offer a pickup service, and so I have to haul my library to the Library one truckful at a time. I shake my fist in the air at you, Library
*sniff*
*No, I'm not exaggerating.
**Quiet, you.
Posted by Jen at January 13, 2005 5:18 PM