Books Galore...No More

After many years of hemming and hawing on the issue, I've finally decided to take the bull by the horns and pare down my book collection. As a writer, avid reader, and generally insane bibliophile, this is extremely difficult and time-consuming proposition.

As I've posted about before, several times, I am very attached to my books. Whittling them down to a volume that fits comfortably on my bookshelves is no easy task, but I've decided that the books I own fall into several general categories: old favorites, life-changers, classics/meaningful-to-own volumes, research material, authors I know personally, yet-to-be-read, and miscellaneous. (Truthfully, there's another category that takes up a ton of space itself--copies of my own books! Nothing to be done about that one, so I'm focusing on what I can work with.)

Currently I'm concentrating on the stacks of "yet-to-be-read" and "miscellaneous." Apparently, one of my vices in the last decade has been to purchase books on a whim, and never get around to reading them. I stopped my reckless bookstore visits over a year ago, just to save money, but it's been hard for me to admit that there are books I've owned for years that I will probably never really read. I keep thinking, "Someday...." Yet in many cases that day never seems to come around.

I want my bookshelves to be a reflection of who I am as a person; I want their contents to hold significance to me, and to represent what I care about and value. (Which is why there will always be a swath of partially-read black history volumes around, among other things...) But to have a bunch of books hanging around, entirely unread, doesn't fit in that picture. Especially when a large part of why I hold onto them is simply the regret that I spent money on them that now feels like it has gone to waste, and I need to make up for that "someday."

My decision: Let go of my attachment to each book's intrinsic value, and adhere only to it's emotional value to me. If I don't really care, it must go!

How do you deal with parting with beloved personal artifacts, when the time has come to let go?