Friday Report

[adair]

My total book removal for July is 59. Maybe I have gotten back into stride on the book front' I hope so. It is still no easier to let go of books I collected to read but have not yet, or books I read once or more and have kept on my shelves (or stacks) for a decade or two or three, but I have moved 59 on last month.

I also went through stacks book lists, including book catalogs from the 70s that I kept in case I wanted to look at them for descriptions of books I might want to buy or even look for in a library. I did toss some of them, I consider this a mental achievement, and hope I can keep coming to terms with my need to keep written material that I may never use, and also that I can't read every book in the world, and that I have waaay too many old interests that I need to keep in my mental background, because new ones do keep coming.

Excelsior

Comments

[tamsin]

Wow, that's impressive! Books are so hard! How did you manage to let so many go if you don't mind sharing?

[adair]

Thanks. I hope I can keep things moving. I worked on areas I sort of felt I could let more go. Knitting and sewing, and gardening all had a lot of large books with pictures on glossy paper - for looking at, but not that useful. And some of the knitting designs were very 80s, and I clearly will never spend time digging out clay soil to plant English-style mixed borders, so I gave them away. That was probably about 10-12 books. Then I had some Diana Paxon northern goddess fantasy - thick books - from the 80s and 90s - about 8 0r 9. I am past that as a reading need, so they left. Mostly I just looked through the stacks of books not on shelves and made quick decisions. These were many I bought for cheap in the Books to Prisoners work room - best used bookstore in town - and I got the thinking they looked interesting, but I was not attached to them. Some contemporary fiction, some history, some fantasy, some books that looked interesting but did not grip when I started to read them.

I need to make time to try reading more of the books from the work room. I have been less choosy about them, and a lot of the blurbs read well but don't appeal when I look a litter further. I accumulate books on spec, as it were, and then have to really make an effort to let them go. But there are those I am attached to .....

[tanaqui]

That's a really impressive total -- glad you're back in the groove and able to find things to move on. Well done!

I consider this a mental achievement, and hope I can keep coming to terms with my need to keep written material that I may never use

Oh, I know that feeling -- my sympathies! Does it help at all to remember that the internet now exists and may have better/more up-to-date resources than those old papers?

[adafrog]

Good for you!