Should I get rid of my books?

We had each sold off all our books at some earlier point in our lives and had both regretted doing so. We also were moving around too much (9 moves in 5 years between us). So this has been a good compromise.

Keep things you CAN'T easily replace. Keep things you will want to dip into regularly.

i remember reading somehwere that the oblivio guy only owned like ten books and used the library for the rest. even if not true (not everything he writes is non-fictional, i think?), i've always been impressed by that.

I do not have the fetishizing soul of the true book collector. Instead, I have a fetish for simplicity and the ascetic's desire for lack of encumbrances. I hate sentimentality and the way it seeps into objects. But -ahem- I Love Books.

My lifelong compromise has been to keep somewhere between 200 and 500 books at any one time. Presently, I own about 350. These change. Of these, I own perhaps 40 or so volumes that I bought more than 25 years ago. I tend to hang onto the best of the best, and the hardest to replace.

I regret a modest few of the books I have sold, few enough to number on one hand. After a liftime of discipline, I see that individual volumes are much more replaceable and faceless than not. I can't afford the genuine rarities, the $100 and up books, those venerable volumes that have so much character you think of them as people, not books.

So, I guess it's all up to you and how you're built. If you are a lover of this book and that book, each with its individual covers, illustrations, stains and foxing, then you'll want to keep them - all of them - just like friends or pets. Look into your heart.

Now, I get a thrill by selling/giving back something I liked because I'm hoping that someone else will run across it and get the same enjoyment out of it. I've had enough HFS! moments in used book stores that it's time for me to let someone else have a chance.

This has been my dream for DECADES. Since I was a child I wanted a library. :-)

There are also those who sit in front of their bookcases with a glass of wine, adjusting spines or nudging books in and out of rows for aesthetic pleasure. Perhaps this book is more biography than travel memoir? Better move it. Should Richard Brautigan have his own section on top of the fiction bookcase? Yep, he should. Dude's earned it.

You're never going to get rid of your books if you're in the second camp.

I've actually gotten rid of hundreds (maybe as many as a thousand) of books over the last several years, so I haven't been saving every last scrap. In particular, I had a pretty large poetry collection (with a fair number of small print runs), most of which I've gotten rid of now (since I've mostly lost interest). But then I get down to a collection of Whitman's poems, and on the one hand, I don't think I'm going to want to re-read them any time soon, but on the other hand, there's a good chance I will want to re-read some of them at some point. To some extent, being a librarian has made me less sentimental about books (which I consider a good thing).

if i were to suddenly take a job at a relatively small college their library might not have some of the books i rarely have reason to consult but would find myself in need of at pressing times. at least, you know, in theory. rockist scientist, please refute me so i can encourage myself to sell books!

Compare and contrast with people who give us their books sometimes. My eyes very obviously light up at the sight of good books, I tell the donors that I know how hard it is to part with good books, I assure them that I will get a good price for them, and I do.

Sigh. It is the major thing I will miss about leaving my little shop. Only two weeks to go!

And most other things.

(hm - will this work?)

Books Do Furnish a Room