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Thread: Book Lovers May Identify with This

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    Senior Member HappyHiker's Avatar
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    Book Lovers May Identify with This

    Okay, like many of you, I love books. And because I work with the Friends of the Library, I help sort donated books weekly. Which means I get first crack at buying wonderful books for a very nominal cost. So I bring home books weekly--to add to the collection of the many I already have.

    But I want to re-decorate my office/guest room. And to paint, I need to move a bookcase filled to the brim with--you guessed it--books. Lots of wonderful, albeit dusty, books living in the rattan bookcase that's impossible to dust.

    So over the last two days, I went through that bookcase, book by book. Made three stacks: keep, donate, discard. Worked really hard to keep the "keep" pile small.

    Long story short, today I lugged, with help of DH, six large bags of books to the library. I donated them from whence they came. Full circle.

    And that wonderful rattan bookcase--that major dust collector--is going to be donated to a local organization that helps addicts not be addicts any more. Maybe I won't be sneezing so much anymore with the dust collector gone?

    The books I'm keeping will be moved downstairs to the living room, to the book cases that I also purged. I've reduced my book collection by two-thirds. I feel much, much lighter.

    I love books, but there are new books coming in all the time. Going to do my best not to re-populate my shelves...

    Did I read this observation here??: "Books are not trophies." That helped me a lot. Don't have prove I'm smart or cool just because I have a lot of books.
    peaceful, easy feeling

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    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I can identify with the clean-out of books which I did in a big move. I have two bookcases with favourite books and my Great Courses CD's collection.

    I finally realized that I have a library 5 minutes away, access to interlibrary loans and friends with books to loan. That realization has helped me keep the book volumes down to a reasonable number.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HappyHiker View Post
    Did I read this observation here??: "Books are not trophies." That helped me a lot. Don't have prove I'm smart or cool just because I have a lot of books.
    Great point. I went to a friend's house once for a party and her husband had built bookcases, floor to ceiling, in every room. And every shelf was wall-to-wall books! All I could think of was, what happens when they have to move?? What a pain to move all those books!! And I remember thinking just what you are suggesting: "Boy, this guy really wants us to think he's smart!"
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Ebooks have made it possible for me to have books without filling more bookshelves.

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    Simpleton Alan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JaneV2.0 View Post
    Ebooks have made it possible for me to have books without filling more bookshelves.
    Same here, our physical book library is down to maybe a hundred or so, although the e-book library numbers in the thousands.
    "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein

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    Senior Member HappyHiker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alan View Post
    Same here, our physical book library is down to maybe a hundred or so, although the e-book library numbers in the thousands.
    Wonderful, Alan. That's my goal, too. Still have to pare them down by about 200...but I've made happy progress...had to laugh at myself--I discovered I have about 10 books on how to write and publish but yet I've not worked on my book-in-progress for several months...maybe I should get rid of those books and get busy!
    peaceful, easy feeling

  7. #7
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    With our last few moves I downsized books to:

    About 5-6 photo albums
    2 yearbooks
    One book written by my great uncle filled with family history
    3-4 thin paperbacks with family history and photos from other branches of my ancestors

    And I think that’s all the books in our entire house.

    However - my kindle app has hundreds.

    I have dust and mold (and more) allergies, so ebooks are perfect for me. I’ve actually had asthma flares in the past from borrowed books where prior readers had cats.

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    Senior Member rosarugosa's Avatar
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    I culled 100 books last year and posted about that here. I would estimate that we still have at least 400 books in our little house. It's kind of funny that DH & I are currently making bookcases in carpentry class. However, I plan to store items other than books on them, and that is if we even keep them. I'm more interested in acquiring the skills than the bookcases.

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    I used to read voraciously - back when I had the time. I'm only now starting to make more time for reading. Was recently gifted with a new Paperwhite kindle and love it. (Had an original Fire tablet that is no longer updated by amazon so...) I've culled my share of books, but dh seems to be filling in my empty spaces with more of his books. Sigh.
    To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
    Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
    In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown

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    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    I have a small but important collection of illustrated children’s books, important to ME. I think I have 300, or is it 600? One of those numbers is right. They reside in custom built book cabinets on our third floor which is also DH’s den/tv room. This is an “art” collection not reading matter.

    We have another, oh, 100 -150 ish books that I could jettison any time with no thought, but most are DH’s. I purposely did not buy reading books from the time I was 25 because I wanted libraries to store my collection. I did make a few exceptions, of course, but those number about a dozen.

    I am already thinking how to winnow my art book collection. I set an arbitrary number of 10% to move with us to Hermann, assuming we do that. So I will have to skim off the cream and find a home for the rest. I may take the best 100 of the art books though, we shall see, they are skinny picture books for the most part so do not take up much room.

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