I’ve procrastinated long enough. It’s now time to tackle the books in our house. I counted 11 bookcases (not counting the 2 in Jim’s office and 3 that primarily have artifacts on them, not books) and 1,339 books at last count. Surely I can find quite a few to give away although it may be painful. The challenge is to decide what criteria to use for what to keep and what to give to friends, the Friends of the Library, or a friendly used book store. First I asked the friends:

  • A young adult quickly answered, “Give them all away, then re-buy any you really want for an e-reader.” I’m not quite ready for going cold turkey like that.
  • Another friend said “Only save books that have information you can’t get online.”
  • Several people commented that many people use what I consider obsolete books for “staging.” It can make a home more saleable or lend status to a coffee table – if you haven’t given it away.
  • One of my own criteria was to get rid of novels that I’ll never read again and college text books. (40 year old texts are of little value to my every day work.)

I decided to tackle the easiest book case first – to get me in training. It had 155 books – many of them novels. I chose 64 to give away. There; that wasn’t so hard. We’ll see what next week brings.

PS to the nosy: Click on the photo to enlarge and see the titles I’m giving away.

Update: Check out Breaking the Sentimental Attachment to Books on Josh Becker’s Becoming Minimalist blog for additional ideas.