Book dumping
I am getting rid of books! (Not prompted by steer's book clear-out, but this post is.) I'm having a clear-out of books that I am not likely to re-read, ever. This is another milestone for me in my journey away from what I will admit was a bit of a general hoarding habit. The first step on the journey was dumping books that I actively disliked. That was tough enough.
Actually it's not quite "not likely to re-read" - it's dumping books that fall outside these categories:
(a) Not yet read and want to
This category is growing alarmingly. The main trouble here is that I'm accreting books at roughly the same rate as I ever have, but I'm reading far, far fewer these days. Can't think why.
(b) Likely to re-read
Hard to be disciplined about, but once I've got in the mood it's easier. Helps to look at all the other ones I'm keeping and ask myself things like "Am I really going to re-read Volume 3 of The Diary of Virginia Woolf before I re-read the entire works of Dorothy L. Sayers?"
(c) Potentially useful reference compared to Wikipedia
The Wikipedia metric is very helpful and allows me to realise how useless a lot of things I'd been keeping for ages have now become. Oh, and it's alarming how many of my pop science books are turning in to "of historical interest only" status.
(d) Stuff that Every Good Household ought to have, even if I'm unlikely to re-read or refer to it again
Mostly classics. That's classics in my opinion. So the Sartre stays, despite my fervent hope that I never again have to read such depressing stuff. And Dickens is right out. Or would be if there was any in the house after my previous purge of stuff I actively loathe.
(e) Stuff I can't bear to part with
For some reason I can't bring myself to ditch Teach Yourself New Testament Greek, even though, if I'm honest, the chances of me ever wanting to learn any more New Testament Greek are slim, and the chances of me believing that this pedagogically antediluvian tome is the best way to do it are even slimmer.
Getting rid of the buggers is hard. There are far more than the local charity shop will take. That's not unreasonable - I'm probably getting rid of more books than their entire book display, I would guess.
Green Metropolis - a sort of green free eBay for books - would be a great idea. You list your books for free, people buy them for £3.75, you get £3, to include postage to whoever bought it. Except I'd have to go through typing all the barcodes in, which would be an awful lot of hassle. And then I'd have to get hold of envelopes and stamps and all that and make sure they got posted off in a timely way when someone wanted to buy them. Hmm - might do some, though.
The obvious thing is to list them here, but alas, typing in author/title for this lot would be even more bother than just the barcodes. Could easily cut-and-paste from any I do for Green Metropolis, though.
And I can't bring myself to simply take them to the tip ... sorry, Community Recycling and Amenity Centre.
Ah well, they can live in the garage for a bit, and any visitor in the next few months can expect, "Oh, do you want any books? Why not take a tour of our unwanted book display ... just through here ... lovely books, just we don't have room for them ..."
(I've also uncovered several borrowed books overdue for return, so some of you can expect a parcel and a sheepish thankyou note soon!)
Actually it's not quite "not likely to re-read" - it's dumping books that fall outside these categories:
(a) Not yet read and want to
This category is growing alarmingly. The main trouble here is that I'm accreting books at roughly the same rate as I ever have, but I'm reading far, far fewer these days. Can't think why.
(b) Likely to re-read
Hard to be disciplined about, but once I've got in the mood it's easier. Helps to look at all the other ones I'm keeping and ask myself things like "Am I really going to re-read Volume 3 of The Diary of Virginia Woolf before I re-read the entire works of Dorothy L. Sayers?"
(c) Potentially useful reference compared to Wikipedia
The Wikipedia metric is very helpful and allows me to realise how useless a lot of things I'd been keeping for ages have now become. Oh, and it's alarming how many of my pop science books are turning in to "of historical interest only" status.
(d) Stuff that Every Good Household ought to have, even if I'm unlikely to re-read or refer to it again
Mostly classics. That's classics in my opinion. So the Sartre stays, despite my fervent hope that I never again have to read such depressing stuff. And Dickens is right out. Or would be if there was any in the house after my previous purge of stuff I actively loathe.
(e) Stuff I can't bear to part with
For some reason I can't bring myself to ditch Teach Yourself New Testament Greek, even though, if I'm honest, the chances of me ever wanting to learn any more New Testament Greek are slim, and the chances of me believing that this pedagogically antediluvian tome is the best way to do it are even slimmer.
Getting rid of the buggers is hard. There are far more than the local charity shop will take. That's not unreasonable - I'm probably getting rid of more books than their entire book display, I would guess.
Green Metropolis - a sort of green free eBay for books - would be a great idea. You list your books for free, people buy them for £3.75, you get £3, to include postage to whoever bought it. Except I'd have to go through typing all the barcodes in, which would be an awful lot of hassle. And then I'd have to get hold of envelopes and stamps and all that and make sure they got posted off in a timely way when someone wanted to buy them. Hmm - might do some, though.
The obvious thing is to list them here, but alas, typing in author/title for this lot would be even more bother than just the barcodes. Could easily cut-and-paste from any I do for Green Metropolis, though.
And I can't bring myself to simply take them to the tip ... sorry, Community Recycling and Amenity Centre.
Ah well, they can live in the garage for a bit, and any visitor in the next few months can expect, "Oh, do you want any books? Why not take a tour of our unwanted book display ... just through here ... lovely books, just we don't have room for them ..."
(I've also uncovered several borrowed books overdue for return, so some of you can expect a parcel and a sheepish thankyou note soon!)