Books.

[beachlass]

So.... books.

I've made an executive decision that in our house we actually have enough bookshelves. There's pretty much one in every room, including the upstairs hall, and some are floor to ceiling and take up the entire wall. And I have two floor to ceiling bookshelves in my office at work, so my work related books live there. I've always done some trading in/out with my local used bookstores, so that has helped, and I've reduced the collection by boxes each time I've moved (about every 3 years for the last 20).

But I still have trouble letting go of them. Especially if it was a book I liked. My credentials as a book hoarder are pretty solid.

And then there was the day that someone shared Peter Walsh's rule of thumb for books (I think the shelving advice is his too)

For every FOUR books you keep, get rid of ONE

What is this madness!?!?! How can I possibly get rid of that many!?!

But it stuck with me, like a burr, and eventually I tried it with my cookbooks. I am astonished that it worked. And I have on occasion tackled the other bookshelves with this rule - although I'm more of a Keep Five, Release One kind of a girl.

I've also given myself permission not to be The Archivist. And to sometimes give books away, rather than lending them out.

It gets easier, is the main thing I've learned. And I've also acquired an e-reader, which is helping quite a bit.

Here's one blog entry, that gives some advice on the voice saying "But I'm going to read/re-read it!"

And another, where they think in terms of categories of books to go.

And my final thought:

Books are an identifier for me. To walk into my house is to visually understand that I am a reader. To come in, and start reading the spines of the books tells someone quite a lot about my identity. There's an expansive and eclectic assortment of fiction mixed in with graphic novels, every book by Malcolm Gladwell and knitting magazines, gardening books, mystery paperbacks and shelves and shelves of children's books. Letting go of a book involves letting go of the idea of my self that is attached to the book. And that can be hard, personal, reflective self-work.

Comments

[beachlass]

Yeah. I think the discipline of trying to get rid of a certain fraction of my books helped me focus on making the choices. For instance, the last two cookbooks I bought were gluten free/quinoa books, and after some wrestling with myself, I decided that if I was buying more gluten/wheat free books, surely I could let go of at least one of the vintage (wheat) flour cookbooks. That just sit on the shelf, a collectable I never even open, because it's nowhere near the most interesting of my old cookbooks.

But yeah. The choices can involved some self-reflection for me, on more than just the book at hand. (Like - Am I really committing to changing my habits around wheat?)