The Library that Ate my Apartment thread seemed to be getting a bit too crowded and a little tangential. I have been living (and moving) with many books for the last ten years, and I have found a few things to be helpful both in discarding and knowing how to keep them.
-This might sound too obvious at first, but you should consider why you bought or kept the book in the first place. I realized that I kept many books because I knew I would want to reference them later. There was a chapter, a fact, a bibliography, or a picture I knew was worth keeping. Now is the time to use that information. Copy or scan it, finish that short story, do what you wanted to do and be done with it. If it's for scholarly purposes, remember to copy the source.
-Scan the book. I only recommend this for particular books where there is not a serious legal issue with duplication. A few of my old picture books have been converted entirely to digital memory, and a few others were only worth saving a few pictures from. I have about a foot more of shelf space now and for nothing more than the few bits of memory on my hard drives.
-But remember: Bookshelves are wall. Pretty simple. They don't make a huge footprint and only really rob you of the wall space you were probably going to wast anyway. Instead of a poster or mirror, you have a few rows of books which is probably completely unique in that no other shelf on the planet has that exact combination of spines vertically displayed. Our interests, experiences, and our passions are what make up a great part of ourselves, and that is not something you should be trying to discard unnecessarily. That might sound completely anathema to the purpose of this website, but that's why books, square, flat, easily stored, and perfectly composed, are often not considered clutter. Bookstores and libraries do look less hectic than any other kind of store (except for bookshelf stores, I suppose. Seriously, there's one in San Francisco.)
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Posted 2 years ago #
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Agreed. My book shelf if part of the decor. It is 38" wide x 45" tall, divided down the middle, six shelves, made of teak wood. Five of the sections holds books, with a little bit of room for a pair of binoculars because the books shelf is close to the window that overlooks the garden. The books are neatly arranged, mostly by subject matter, but I break that orderliness sometimes in favor of visual order. The other section holds a basket that is a catch-all. It holds things like my current notebook, a few hobby magazines, or other throwaway publications, notes and books for my current garden project, etc. When the stuff in the basket gets near the top means I must go through it and either read, put away or discard. The basket is my symbol of how far I've come in conquering clutter. I used to have books scattered all over the place and 3 dusty baskets filled with stuff.
I have mentioned before that my bookcase has books in it that I will never open again, but I keep them because the shelves look good. In less than an hour, I will be going to our city library's book sale. So hopefully, I can bring in some new things and get rid of the unwanted stuff.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Just for the record -- that The Library that Ate my Apartment thread can be found here: http://unclutterer.com/discuss/topic/the-library-that-ate-my-apartment
As I wrote in that thread, for me it was a huge step to release the books I had not yet read, because the part where you admit that you own a book for 3 years and have never felt like reading it was the hardest. So for people who have a lot of books they haven't read yet (because they were presents, or they felt they should buy them to display them), it could be a good purge idea to think about whether they will, realistically, ever read these books. If not, they are useless and they can go.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Scottland - I recently woke up to the scanning option thanks to the excellent color scanners in my place of employment. In a week I cleared out about 10 big art books by scanning the few pages I wanted to refer to for design ideas - or just because the images were too beautiful to never see again.
Also ... this was a recent *facepalm* for me but I'm going to download Kindle for PC. Didn't want to buy a standalone Kindle device as I don't want Yet Another Gadget, but see no reason why my future "disposable" reading shouldn't be done on my laptop.
Also ... am looking into Amazon Fulfillment, where you ship them a carton of books and they sell and ship it all for you. I have a feeling I can clear a great deal of material this way, but only things A) I know I won't want a hard copy of again and/or B) I know I can get an e-copy of for Kindle PC should I ever be compelled to read it again!
Re: bookcases as "wall" - yes, exactly. DH and I carefully shopped for glass-fronted bookcases to fit our Oriental design idiom. Mostly from China, mostly deep enough that the books are not RightThereInYourFace and other items can be displayed along with them, like framed photos or small art objects from our travels. Despite the FIVE large cabinets storing books in our LR/DR/Den, the space does not look at all cluttered; three have glass, and two are antiques with painted doors. They look pretty darn nice, IMO. :-)
Posted 2 years ago # -
Funny to see this thread - I was thinking about my books this morning. My train of thought was, "If my apartment caught fire, which books would I really replace?" The answer - not many.
chacha, you said "I know I can get an e-copy of for Kindle PC should I ever be compelled to read it again!" SHOULD I EVER BE COMPLELLED. That hit home for me, thank you for saying that. It made me realize that the books I don't need a paper copy of, but want to replace on the Kindle...I've been thinking, I'll buy one a week and get rid of them. But I haven't read most of them in several years, so I could just get rid of the ones available on Kindle NOW, and buy them on Kindle "should I ever be compelled to read it again!" That will be almost another whole shelf of books I can get rid of!
I also have a collection of books from 1 author where all the books are signed, personally, to me. I'm going to scan the signed page, that way if something ever happens, I have at least a copy of that. Because I'm not sure I'd replace them if they were destroyed. I know they wouldn't all get signed again...there are too many!
Jen
Posted 2 years ago # -
jsights, are we twins?? :-) I'm also mentally budgeting a Kindle "replacement" schedule. I'm going to check availability *before* I get rid of some of my books, but once I know they are on Kindle, they are going out. If I MUST read them again I know I can get them.
I had to get over the buying-it-twice objection. Right at this moment, the space has more value to me than the physical books - especially if I know I can get the content again.
Stuff that's out of print, though, or otherwise irreplaceable ... must stay.
Posted 2 years ago # -
chacha, I do have an (evil?) doppleganger out there somewhere...people fairly regularly call me up and say, "were you at X place today? Because I saw you there" when I was on the other side of town. LOL
I'm with you on the buy-it-twice. It's not AS important right now, since I just finished the move, and I don't really need the shelf space for anything else, but it will be good to have fewer books the next time I move. And the out of print stuff...If I'll read it again, it has to stay.
Jen
Posted 2 years ago # -
I think that's a great point, that the <i>ability</i> to replace is more important than the actual replacement. I'll definitely keep that in mind as I keep moving more books to my ebook reader.
My two sticking points have been things that are hard to replace - poetry (though I'm getting pickier even with the stuff that's out of print) and academic books (often prohibitively expensive to replace even if they are available digitally). I'm still going through them, but I'm a little more hesitant when I know I can't replace them easily.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Just an update to my earlier entry ... I looked into Amazon Fulfillment and the fees are too high to be practical for the stuff - mostly paperback - I am thinking of purging. Oh wellz!
And I have to say, the whole scanning thing is really rocking my world. It wasn't really an option till I got into my current job, so it's no wonder I didn't think of it; but I have made so much breathing room in my art-book collection! - and am looking forward to trading these big things in for something better suited to my current pursuits.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Scottland, Juliajayne, I absolutely agree- the bookcase in my living space and the books contained within it are both art and decor, to me. I like to take out a beautiful book, hold it in my hands, turn the pages and totally enjoy that experience.
As far as saving anything non-living/material from a house fire, I'd only grab my computer/external hd- (holds all my photos and music) and possibly some jewelry if i had the time. Old family photos are not replaceable. I'd be sad to lose what I have, but most of it is replaceable. Thankfully I've never experienced that type of loss, I imagine it could be devastating.Posted 2 years ago # -
Purging the Library is an incredible experience! I just purged a collection that's been, well, collecting for more than half of my life, and I feel really great about it. http://theslobblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/bookshelf-cleanse-a-revelation/
I hope I'm not stepping on Scottland's toes, but I wanted to post my tips, too.
(Or. Um. My thought process, actually.)MY THOUGHTS BEFORE THE PURGE:
1. I’m a book-lover! I need books!
2. Empty bookshelves are a sign of an empty head!
3. There are too many books here that I should read, for intelligence/culturing purposes.
4. What if I want to re-read some of these?ANSWERS I WISH I'D GIVEN MYSELF YEARS AGO:
1. Book-lovers read books. They don’t necessarily need to own books.
2. Who the hell put that stupid idea into your head?
3. Maybe you “should” read them. But do you want to read them? Are you actually going to do so in the near future?
4. Really? You’re going to re-read these? When are you going to have time to re-read all of these books?I purged 86 books (maybe even more; I've added a few that were laying about)!
I DECIDED TO KEEP:
1. Books to which I frequently refer.
2. Books that I frequently re-read (i.e.: I re-read the Harry Potter series annually).
3. Books that I will re-read this summer (the ones that were already on my booklist) and that will probably be sold/donated afterward.
4. Childhood books that I do re-read from time to time/will refer to as writing models (I’m interested in writing Children’s/YA novels)/would like to share with my younger relatives but know that they can no longer easily be found in bookstores because they’re 15+ years old.I might have differed from Scottland's approach a little as I'm not sure I followed this: "Our interests, experiences, and our passions are what make up a great part of ourselves, and that is not something you should be trying to discard unnecessarily," but overall, it was a really great experience for me.
Book clutter was probably my biggest issue because reading is so important to me and for so many years I felt like I COULD NOT get rid of my books. Physically COULD NOT get rid of them. When I finally realized that I didn't need to keep all of these books, and that I could use the library rather than purchasing, I think my Uncluttering Train finally started rolling. If I could part with what I thought was MOST important, I could tackle other areas.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Well done with the purge. I wish I had had this forum to brag in when I purged 400+ books from my collection all at once, a few years back. :-) Can I brag that I've purged at least 100 in the last year?
It's just amazing how something that was once essential, a treasure, can become merely clutter down the line when our values change.
And yes, getting that moment of clarity re: No, actually, I *don't* want to read (or re-read) this one - so liberating. I think I used to feel I was a bad person if I didn't read a book I'd bought. The things we do to ourselves.
Posted 1 year ago #
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