By Toby Hudson (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
Not that I would be throwing these books away or anything. They’ll be traded in or donated, but weeding them—as a book lover and, even more, as a writer—feels wrong. Someone worked on this, I think. Someone spent countless hours in research, plot and character developed, in draft after draft after draft…
…and now someone else will enjoy them. And I won’t die crushed under a pile of novels. Everybody wins! I’m keeping only those that I know I’ll read again, and that leaves out a lot of wonderful books. I’ve heard of folks being even more thorough and getting rid of those that are easily findable in a library or in the public domain, but I can’t quite go that far. So, what do you all think? When you have to let some books go, how do you decide what stays and what goes?
When it’s time to weed out books, I tend to go by whether I have any attachment to that particular book, if I’ve re-read it recently or need it for research. If it’s no to any of those criteria, it gets listed on Amazon.
That’s some sound criteria!
I say keep only those books with really sweet covers! Good luck, I don’t envy you, but maybe you can get a couple new ones and start the process again??
Haha! Haven’t you ever heard not to judge a book by its cover?
I’ll grant you, though, some covers are too pretty to part with. I certainly did get some new ones and a ton of store credit at the used bookstore!
I can’t bear to part with characters I love. So when getting rid of books, if the characters aren’t memorable, they go. Lately that pile has been less and less because I’ve read so many great books. Now when I look at my shelf, I can smile at every binding and remember each character I adore!
True; the more you read, the more selective you have to be. It’s hard getting rid of books that were really good, but in order not to be overwhelmed by books with no place to put them, I had to keep only the very best.
It is SO hard to get rid of books. I follow the same rule you do about only keeping ones I know I’ll read again. Even if it may not be any time soon, but so many books are like good friends. . . . So I just can’t let go.
I must not have enough books, because it has never occurred to me to get rid of any. *sigh* I need to read more.
Well, maybe it means you’ve read a lot of really great books and know you’ll want to read them again!