Spring Book Cull

Parting is such sweet sorrow. Photo by author.

I read about ten books a months on average, paper books that I tend to keep. Because I reread too. Well, you do the math. 120 books a year times decades equals mountains of books, avalanches on the edges of their shelves, two deep, with a third layer up to the shelf above. I just keep cramming them in. Fiction, alphabetically by author. Nonfiction, by genre. No point in keeping books if you can’t find them when you want them, right? 

Last week, one of the floor-to-ceiling bookcases in my library pulled out of the wall. Death by an overloaded seven-foot monster did not appeal. I had to unpack it to screw it back in. And as long I was doing that…. Why not share the love?

That one bookcase filled 28 liquor boxes with books. 16 boxes I gave up for adoption to a good home (a local church fundraiser), 12 stayed. I culled 6 more from those 12 when reshelving by asking myself: Have I read this lovely in the last 20 years? Can I see myself reading it again? No? Bye bye. The first few books wrenched my heart but thereafter, the relief was orgasmic.

One bookcase down. Seven more to go. And that’s just the library. And just my books. Don’t ask me about my husband’s.

#bookjunkie #booklover #bookworm #readingismagic #reading #springcleaning #letgo #declutter #sharethelove