Thinning the herd

[pbray]

The Great Book Cull of 2010 continues, with more paperbacks boxed up for donation tonight. Every book needs to be gone through first, since my habit of using random bits of paper as bookmarks means that there are all sorts of treasures in there, from credit card receipts from the days when they printed the entire number on the slip, to an old student loan coupon which had my social security number and current address on it.

I've started the cull with romance and general fiction. Most of the romances are Regencies, and it's a catalog of loss as I look at all the publishers and lines that no longer exist, and the receipts from bookstores that closed long ago. I laughed as I realized that yes, I own four Regencies that bear the title A LONDON SEASON (mine, by the way, was a Zebra Regency 1997 release.)

Moving on to cull the F&SF will be harder, but it's time. Do I keep sentimental favorites like the Star Trek episode novelizations by James Blish? If I haven't read a book in more than 10 years, is it time to let it go? Or do I keep the ones I remember enjoying? My goal is to cut down my book collection by at least half--if there's zero chance that I'm going to reread it, then it needs to go.

Comments

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I also sometimes do the Nancy Pearl rule (read up to either your age or 50 pages, whatever is less) - if it doesn't grab you, dont read it (and in this case, it goes for donation, no matter how good memories you have of it.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Boy, the Blish novelizations of TOS were how I was introduced to his writing. And no matter what Harlan Ellison thinks, I thought the short story Blish wrote for City on the Edge of Forever was great.

[jemck.livejournal.com]

I may have to adopt the Nancy Pearl rule - new to me and useful, thanks.

We've reached maximum possible bookcases unless we build another room onto the house and once a year or so I do the 'read once, won't read again' cull - and still we end up with more books than we can shelve...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I tend to hang on to books that once meant a lot to me, even if I don;t think I'll reread them. Sometimes, that affection wanes and the books eventually go, sometimes it stays. So I still have all the Blish ST books, but not many of the later ST novels.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

There's a triage in process--
-- Books I loved so much that I must keep even if I'll never reread them
-- Books that I love that I'm keeping because I may reread them
-- Books that I like that I want to keep because I may reread and/or lend them

Then, for donations:
-- Books that I disliked
-- Books that bored me so I never finished reading
-- Books that once appealed to me but now no longer hold my interest

The ST novelizations will likely fall into the "important part of my childhood so must keep" category. I

[pbray.livejournal.com]

The majority of my collection is in plastic storage bins, rather than in bookcases, because I simply ran out of space.

I've done periodic cullings through the years, getting rid of one or two hundred books at a time, but nothing on the scale of what I'm trying to do now.

And don't get me started on the research books....

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I hit max bookcases a while back, probably at the time I crossed the 5K books total and it hurt too much to think about how many I owned.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Same here-- I'd never heard of Blish before those novelizations, which inspired me to then go out and buy his original fiction.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It's time to free range these guys and let them find new homes.

[(Anonymous)]

My guest room is full of books and I have company coming for the holidays. I have no idea of how I will part with my treasures. It's killing me that I need to get rid of bags and bags of books.

As soon as I get rid of one book, I'll get this desperate urge to read it!!! Maybe I'll break down and actually buy a kindle. Or maybe not...............

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid of that urge to re-read something I just gave away.

My issue with kindles is that when you buy a book, it's only licensed to be used on a kindle device, so if 5 years from now my kindle breaks and I want to replace it with the new shiny, I'm not legally allowed to move my books to the new device. Whereas with physical books they are mine and I'm not tied to any platform to read them.