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After the recent squawk & flap about Marie Kondo gently suggesting decluttering one's books and sharing that she personally only keeps thirty herself and the internet misplaced its excrement, there was an excellent tweet that showed up about the whole kerfuffle. I'm very guilty of this myself - I have always regarded my bookshelves as my outward self, and would no sooner part with a book I liked than chop off a finger. As you can imagine, between books I read and liked, books I'm meaning to read, and books I have just to show what kind of person I am, I have a lot of books.
But as much as I love books, value reading and authorship, and derive immense pleasure from mornings and/or afternoons spent absorbed in a book, there's no reason to keep a lot of them. I decided to be a little more ruthless and, not aiming for KonMarie levels of 30 Books Only, took a more careful and honest look at my shelves. Have I ever read it, and if not, am I likely to ever read it? If I have read it, am I likely to read it again? Is it a duplicate? Asking these questions culled at least another 50% of the books from the one bookcase I used it on. I am definitely getting to the end of book purging, but these are certainly helpful questions to continue asking and, since I'm obviously a voracious reader and will acquire more books, they're helpful questions to continue asking myself.
Also, when I say I removed X boxes of books, I mean the white "banker's boxes" you can buy in 10-packs at places like Staples or Orifice Depot. (not an autocorrect - that's what I actually call it) They're a bit pricey, but they're sturdy, classier than liquor boxes, and can be easily broken down to store flat and reassembled when needed again. Up to now I have purged probably 14-16 boxes, but haven't kept a strict count. This go-round I have eight, which rather than take to Chamblin, I am probably going to offer them to my local Friends of the Library for their book sale. It'll help raise money for them and increase the chances of these books moving on to new homes where they will hopefully make new people happy again. Besides, I still have close to a hundred bucks in store credit at Chamblin. The only books I'm considering offering to sell them are some antique editions that I won't ever read because I'm afraid of damaging them, and the only antique or vintage books I collect are cookbooks. If I avoid reading a book because I'm afraid of spilling coffee on it, or damaging the paper with oils from my skin, I think I should try to help that book go to a collector who'll appreciate it and get myself a sturdy little Penguin paperback that can handle some abuse.
All this stuff is stacked up in my studio right now, which is my "staging area" for all cleanup operations. The studio can easily be cleared of cats and have the doors shut, so it's an ideal place for things you need out of the way. I've also got bags of clothes from yet another round of closet and bureau purging, and a box of jewelry. And to think, this is just informal cleanup I'm doing as I think of it. I haven't even gotten to the scheduled "room a week" cleanup that starts Tuesday.
Speaking of cats! Last night around midnight, Feisal saw something out the rec room door that he really needed to go murder, so he literally busted the screen door out. This woke Fox & I up, but Fox said he'd taken care of it so I went back to sleep, assuming that Feisal was still in the house. So you can imagine my consternation at around 3:30 am when I woke to hear a plaintive meowing coming from ... outside my window? It was Feisal - on the roof of the water softener shed, meowing to come inside. My screen is fucked up anyway (because Feisal pushed it out, of course ...) so I popped it out and let him inside. Stupid, stupid, stupid cat! At least he's all right, and Fox can put the screen door back in its track, but we have got to find something to keep these stupid "safety" screens in place. Despite all that, Fitbit says I got 7:56 minutes of sleep so that's not too bad. You can even see on my dashboard the magenta bits where he busted the door down, and then later where he wanted back in.
So that's it for the time being. I have a three mile jog to do today, and may stream some digital art tonight but otherwise today is blissfully quiet. Now that I can tell what I actually have, I can update my TBR shelf on GoodReads, and once my run and shower are done I just want to read and relax for a while.
But as much as I love books, value reading and authorship, and derive immense pleasure from mornings and/or afternoons spent absorbed in a book, there's no reason to keep a lot of them. I decided to be a little more ruthless and, not aiming for KonMarie levels of 30 Books Only, took a more careful and honest look at my shelves. Have I ever read it, and if not, am I likely to ever read it? If I have read it, am I likely to read it again? Is it a duplicate? Asking these questions culled at least another 50% of the books from the one bookcase I used it on. I am definitely getting to the end of book purging, but these are certainly helpful questions to continue asking and, since I'm obviously a voracious reader and will acquire more books, they're helpful questions to continue asking myself.
Also, when I say I removed X boxes of books, I mean the white "banker's boxes" you can buy in 10-packs at places like Staples or Orifice Depot. (not an autocorrect - that's what I actually call it) They're a bit pricey, but they're sturdy, classier than liquor boxes, and can be easily broken down to store flat and reassembled when needed again. Up to now I have purged probably 14-16 boxes, but haven't kept a strict count. This go-round I have eight, which rather than take to Chamblin, I am probably going to offer them to my local Friends of the Library for their book sale. It'll help raise money for them and increase the chances of these books moving on to new homes where they will hopefully make new people happy again. Besides, I still have close to a hundred bucks in store credit at Chamblin. The only books I'm considering offering to sell them are some antique editions that I won't ever read because I'm afraid of damaging them, and the only antique or vintage books I collect are cookbooks. If I avoid reading a book because I'm afraid of spilling coffee on it, or damaging the paper with oils from my skin, I think I should try to help that book go to a collector who'll appreciate it and get myself a sturdy little Penguin paperback that can handle some abuse.
All this stuff is stacked up in my studio right now, which is my "staging area" for all cleanup operations. The studio can easily be cleared of cats and have the doors shut, so it's an ideal place for things you need out of the way. I've also got bags of clothes from yet another round of closet and bureau purging, and a box of jewelry. And to think, this is just informal cleanup I'm doing as I think of it. I haven't even gotten to the scheduled "room a week" cleanup that starts Tuesday.
Speaking of cats! Last night around midnight, Feisal saw something out the rec room door that he really needed to go murder, so he literally busted the screen door out. This woke Fox & I up, but Fox said he'd taken care of it so I went back to sleep, assuming that Feisal was still in the house. So you can imagine my consternation at around 3:30 am when I woke to hear a plaintive meowing coming from ... outside my window? It was Feisal - on the roof of the water softener shed, meowing to come inside. My screen is fucked up anyway (because Feisal pushed it out, of course ...) so I popped it out and let him inside. Stupid, stupid, stupid cat! At least he's all right, and Fox can put the screen door back in its track, but we have got to find something to keep these stupid "safety" screens in place. Despite all that, Fitbit says I got 7:56 minutes of sleep so that's not too bad. You can even see on my dashboard the magenta bits where he busted the door down, and then later where he wanted back in.
So that's it for the time being. I have a three mile jog to do today, and may stream some digital art tonight but otherwise today is blissfully quiet. Now that I can tell what I actually have, I can update my TBR shelf on GoodReads, and once my run and shower are done I just want to read and relax for a while.
