News from the book wars
Jul. 4th, 2011 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pbrayMade more progress this weekend on Operation Book Cull, after having two great insights--
First, I realized that I could speed up the sorting by using the same tactics I use in going through my closet--separating things into definite keepers, definite donations and the all important third category of maybes. The maybe pile gets a temporary reprieve and then is reevaluated during the next cleanup cycle. Adding a maybe stack to the culling options has sped things up. I'm still culling more books than I keep, but no longer taking minutes weighing each margin call.
The second realization was simple math-- if I read 100 books a year for the rest of my life, I'll never manage to reread all the books that I currently own. So holding on to thousands of books forever makes no sense, especially when I plan to keep buying (and reading) new ones. Not that I'm going crazed, mind you, I imagine I'll still have over a thousand books when I'm all done, maybe two. But the days of an infinitely expanding collection that I'd stopped counting when I hit five thousand books are over.
First, I realized that I could speed up the sorting by using the same tactics I use in going through my closet--separating things into definite keepers, definite donations and the all important third category of maybes. The maybe pile gets a temporary reprieve and then is reevaluated during the next cleanup cycle. Adding a maybe stack to the culling options has sped things up. I'm still culling more books than I keep, but no longer taking minutes weighing each margin call.
The second realization was simple math-- if I read 100 books a year for the rest of my life, I'll never manage to reread all the books that I currently own. So holding on to thousands of books forever makes no sense, especially when I plan to keep buying (and reading) new ones. Not that I'm going crazed, mind you, I imagine I'll still have over a thousand books when I'm all done, maybe two. But the days of an infinitely expanding collection that I'd stopped counting when I hit five thousand books are over.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-06 10:28 pm (UTC)Well, that and it's good to keep the number of books down to a small number that can be kept upstairs, away from potential flooding. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-07 11:28 am (UTC)Yeah, I took about 1K books up to Ithaca in the spring (mostly romance titles from the basement), and plan another run in the next few weeks with sci-fi, mysteries, etc. The goal is to get all the keepers upstairs, out of the basement. And to be able to actually find books.