Decluttering books

[serene]

Not books about decluttering, that is -- doing the decluttering thing
on my bookcases.



First of all, I should say that while I'm good at tossing unneeded/unwanted
books, I'm even better at buying MORE books at the remainder tables[1].

And then stonebender had a party during which he offered HIS
book clutter for people to haul away. And my other partners and I hauled away
a shelf's worth, which would have been fine, but there wasn't a shelf's worth
of space for them, so my science-fiction shelf (yes, there's only one --
I'm a bad geek) is now two books deep.

So.

Creative thinker that I am, I decided to declutter some other shelves to
make room for more science fiction books.

First, I took all my scribbled-in writing notebooks -- years' worth -- off
the shelves and filled a banker's box with them.

Then, I had a brilliant idea for decluttering the fiction. I was doing a
twenty-minute bus ride twice a day, so I had time to read. I decided to pick out

the books that looked most likely to be crap (I only keep fiction I've
already read if it's really good) and read them on the bus. The minute one turned
out to be crap, I would leave it on the bus, thereby decluttering and giving
someone else a shot at the book.

The very first day, there was a hitch in the plan. The book I took to
read on the bus was SO bad that I wanted to declutter it immediately, so I left it on
the bus. Unfortunately, that left me with no book for the bus ride home, so
I had to go buy a book at the Goodwill at lunch time. Fortunately, that one
turned out to be pretty good -- not great, but good.

One day, I pulled out a book that I was pretty sure I wouldn't like,
mostly because I have an anti-Oprah-Bookclub bias, but it turned out to be the book I've
read this year that I was most reluctant to put down. I found myself wondering
when I would have a moment to read some more. I skipped lunch to read it. It was
well written and disturbing, and though the ending was slightly
dissatisfying, I liked it a whole lot.

I think I've set free about a dozen books so far. Soon, I'll be able to
consolidate the fiction shelves and make room for all the paperback science fiction we
took on. Plus, I've ended up reading a few good books, and at least one that was
passably amusing (and I think loracs will like it).

[1] This one time, at band camp, I stupidly bragged to a glorious, important, and
oh-so-much-cooler-than-I writer that I'd bagged one of her books for
ninety-nine cents. Way to go, Serene.

Comments

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I started out with a prejudice against Oprah books, on general principle, but have actually found them to be consistently good, unlike most of the imitators.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I was skeptical about Fall on Your Knees" (http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0743237188) for that reason (Oprah-endorsed), but I loved it (http://cassidyrose.livejournal.com/544120.html).

[velochicdunord.livejournal.com]

Any tips on helping a book hoarder learn to let some books go?

It's not me (I acquire, but have learned to purge, er release back to the world, regularly) It's someone else.

I don't want to hurt or insult zie, but it would help zie greatly if I could help zie understand zie's attachment to books as a definition of zie's personality and also zie's attachment to "souvenirs".
I think zie is confusing zie's attachment to people with zie's attachment ot souviners or representations of people.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I have always been a book hoarder. More recently I have had some success with :
identifying books I don't like and don't want to read again, and sending them to a big book sale for our town Symphony
identifying books that are available at our library (and I guess aren't likely to become unavailable) - if I don't love it, just want to make sure I can read it occasionally, I can get it from the library
merging fiction collections with partners
on moving the whole collection to new shelving, spending time thinking about how I acquired each book, how I felt about it at the time and about the person who gave it to me, recognizing that the memory was separate from liking the book now (sometimes writing about the memories) and sometimes giving myself permission to let go of those feelings such as obligation to my mother to like a book she liked

For someone who wanted to understand me and wasn't really trying to ridicule me or talk me out of my need to keep books (the distinction is important), I'd talk about how often I re-read the books I love (in some cases several times a year), how having complete sets is satisfying and more convenient than the library, how I felt at university where I first encountered other people who would get to know me through my bookshelves and find common ground, the way I love sharing the books that matter with people who enter my life (partners, children, others), seeing the books that I've chosen to buy since I began to spend my own money on books and feeling proud of my accomplishments and my taste.

[karenthecroccy.livejournal.com]

Back Roads wasn't a bad read. I picked it up off the remainder table at Barnes and NOble a few years ago. It was a buck :)

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

Heh, I think that's kind of cool -- probably a lot of people on the bus could use things to read. A couple months ago I got on a bus that had a stack of art magazines on the back seat, and took one of them.