Thursday, October 15, 2009

Booking Through Thursday: Weeding

This week's BTT questions about "weeding" your library are interesting because just this morning my husband and I were searching around for a few books he might take to a book sale his agency is participating in. And we couldn't find a single book to donate. You'd think that with all these books piled up everywhere – spilling off shelves and tables, out of cabinets and drawers – there'd be just one we'd want to get rid of, wouldn't you? But such is not the case, alas.

Well, actually I already donated a couple of books to the sale, earlier this month. But that's it – just two books. One was a duplicate of a Preston-Child thriller, and the other was a paperback copy of The Devil Wears Prada which I never finished reading and now have to admit I'm never gonna. Awful book. And yet it made such an entertaining movie. Go figure.

Anyway, back to the questions at hand. Do I weed? Do I pare? Do I donate or throw out? It's always tough for me to face these questions because this is a subject I have a lot of problems with. (Hello. My name is Joy and I'm a book hoarder.) I'm addicted to books – always have been. I love buying them and reading them and reading about them. I love handling them and just looking at them on the shelves. I love accumulating them, and I do that very well.

What I don't do so well is part with them. Once a book comes into my hands, it's usually mine for life. (Unless it's borrowed, of course – then I'm almost always pretty scrupulous about returning it because I know how upset I get when my own books are borrowed and not returned.) And since my hubby is also something of a book addict, we've managed to amass an enormous number of books over the years. We have boxes and boxes of books in storage because we don't have room for all of them in the apartment. I keep telling myself that one of these days we'll move into a place with a room big enough to house the entire collection.

Yes. Well, it's a nice fantasy anyway.

11 comments:

  1. I totally agree with you on The Devil Wears Prada. It is one of the very few movies that is better than the book!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi!
    I feel the same way about my books. I love just looking at them and touching them. Have a great day!

    Sherrie
    http://sherriesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/10/booking-through-thursday.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. I weed yearly and donate to the library book sale...and I couldn't finish The Devil Wears Prada either!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I usually give to the library sale or do a giveaway on my blog. Interesting about The Devil Wears Prada. I didn't read it but liked the movie.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I weed yet my book number remains constant. THat's becos I keep adding too!

    Booking Through Weeding

    ReplyDelete
  6. No weeding in this garden, http://zetor-mogsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/booking-through-thursday.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. We went through the same thing - my husband's company was having a book sale for United Way and I discovered that I'm much better at buying books than donating them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I get rid of the ones that I absolutely don’t like, the ones that I rate as “Toss” in reviews. I tend to keep books that are of literary artistry. I end up keeping a lot of them!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Once you release a few books it gets easier.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's very selfish but I actually hate lending books for that reason - they often don't get returned. I'd rather buy a copy for someone.

    ReplyDelete
  11. we have 3 floors all with books and once the children leave there'll be even more space - whether I'll ever get around to re-reading the ones I might like to is another matter!

    ReplyDelete

Welcome and thanks for leaving me a comment. I love to hear from visitors.

Also, please note that while I appreciate the thought, I don't play the blog awards game. I think you all deserve awards! But you might think about becoming a follower of my blog -- that would really be the best award.