The Book Purge

The book purge. 

My love affair with books probably started around the age of nine. Nancy Drew was my gateway into the world of books. Regular trips to the library with my Dad were a regular part of my childhood. Each time I move to a new community acquiring my library card is high on my to do list. 

As the years have gone by I have collected hundreds of books. Often times I've picked them up for a fraction of their cost, but even so I really wonder how much I have spent on books over the years?  Even if you only purchase a handful each year, multiply that by years and years, and what you end up with is your own bookmobile sized library at your home. 

Last night I made a major purge of my books. What I had realized was just like my CD and DVD collection, I had so many books that I didn't even know what I had. Basically my books sat on a shelf waiting to be packed again, and moved by someone of Herculean strength because of their sheer weight. 

I plan on donating them to the library because I know often times they sell them to other bibliophiles at their yearly book sale to help raise funds. The sad thing is that before our last move I donated a huge amount of books to the Frisco library, and a large amount of children's books to my retired teacher's organization. Apparently, that only made a dent in my collection. 

Along with the book purge I also did a CD purge. Now I understand that just like eight track tapes I'm still holding on to a dying technology, but they too had basically sat on a shelf  collecting dust. With the addition of Alexa to the family soon I'm sure our music listening habits will be changing. 

It's interesting, though, how what starts out as one or two, over time can become a hundred. I think from now on I'm going to check my books out from the library, or if I do buy a new one let another one go. I did try using a Kindle several years back, but I missed the feel of a real book, and I never really had a clear sense of much was left to read to get to the end.  

Purging through the too much stuff we own is feeling pretty cathartic, and I'm quite pleased at how the house is turning out.