I'm purging my books and I've thought of some questions to ask myself so I end up with a collection of true favorites and very special books that I love and actually read. (Read here) By asking myself those five simple questions, I can determine for every book whether it should stay or go. At least in theory.
Over the past few weeks, my
books have been a big focus of the decluttering process. My questionnaire is
helping me a lot with letting go of books I know deep down I'll
never read. But I still have a really hard time letting go of
books that I think I might read at some point. And
books that I SHOULD read but know I won't. But
it is getting easier with every book I let go. And I love my
bookcases slowly clearing and actually being able to see all those
books that I really really love and am happy to own.
So far I have gotten rid
of around 80-100 books. Many of those came from my TBR shelf, which
used to hold over 200 books. They have all gone to a charity
bookstore right down the street. Yay! And I've already stacked up
another 130 (!!!) books that I'm ready to let go. Most of those are mystery/suspense/chick-lit/YA that I've read already
and know I won't reread. They will be going to a woman's outreach
clinic which is coincidentally also right around the corner from my
apartment.
I've realized it's just
ridiculous to hold on to more unread books than I could ever read in several
years. I read an average of around 60 books a year, so that'll be my
limit for the TBR-shelf. Maybe if I have few enough books, so that I
could theoretically read them all within one year, I'll be more
inclined to read them at all. Right now my TBR is so
overwhelming that I'll rather just pick up a new book than try to
decide on one from that shelf. Let's fix that.
Do you
have trouble keeping your library in check? How do you decide which
books to keep and which to pass on?
Read
you soon,
Lisa
I keep only books that I know I will love to reread. It's hard to give up books that I loved but know I won't revisit, so I give them to friends as gifts :)
ReplyDeleteExactly, it's so hard to let go of the good ones. But that is a good tip and now that I've gotten a lot of the "junk" out of the way, this is probably what I'll be doing a lot from now on. I just picked out Bill Bryson's A short history of everyday life (I think that's the English title). Beautiful hardcover, just read it once, my friend will be getting it for his birthday ;)
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