Books, books, books and still more books
“So many books, so little time.” Frank Zappa
I agree.
I have so many books that my home is almost in dire need of more bookshelves. I have at least a dozen bookshelves, and still I need to make piles of them in most rooms. I keep on buying more and borrowing even more, and the piles never seem to diminish.
So, this year I have decided to make a concerted effort to reduce those piles and get to reading – and finishing – as many as possible. The delightful thing is, I will need to read, read, read for the next three to five years to make any impact on those ever growing heaps of books.
It has been suggested that I sell some of my books. That would be like plucking out my eyes. Not an option.
Oh – did I mention the boxes of books in the passage – and even more in the garage?
Sigh.
Just a small part of our library
I managed to make a dent on the Bookshelf of the Unread last year. I stopped buying books and going to the library. Then I realised I had a lot of books I no longer needed. So I started giving them away to good homes. Now, on the 8 bookshelves (6 shelves per) in our house, I can see 3 empty shelves.
Over a lifetime we collect books which pass their use by date. All my stuff on looking forward to the year 2000 had just become irrelevant. There were also lots of minor books on herbs and other gardening topics. I took a green bag full to the community garden, where they are likely to be more used.
Just resorting the shelves and comparing my and my wife’s books we came up with about a dozen duplications. So a minor trim is always possible.
I have decided to use the newly emptied shelves to point the way forward. I am putting onto them the books which I need to read next and organising them by projects. I suspect that if I read for the rest of my life I will still not get to the end. Hard choices need to be made.
Oh dear me, Ken. So disciplined. So organised.
I love the idea of the Bookshelf of the Unread.
I would also need a Bookshelf of the Unfinished, a Bookshelf of the Read Again and a Bookshelf of the Unreadable. Perhaps the latter could be the books to be disposed?
And I forgot to mention the Bookshelf of the Borrowed-And-Must-Be-Returned.
I think I must be deranged to be even considering buying an e-reader. My son has done that recently – and stopped receiving ALL promotional material from bookshops. See – it runs in the family… and my daughter needs more bookshelves, though, as an English teacher, she still has an excuse/reason/tax deductibility.