the library that ate my apartment

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the library that ate my apartment

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Started 2 years ago by chacha1
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chacha1
Member

A couple of us thought it might be fun to discuss the Question of ABC (Are Books Clutter?) and the impact of books in a space. Here is my confession to start things off.

We have books in every room of our apartment except the bathrooms. And would probably have books in those if they were better ventilated.

There is a glass-fronted Chinese bookcase in the dining room. That's for art, jewelry, and nature-photography books.

There is an antique Chinese hall stand by the front door. It holds books on aquarium-keeping, the theatre, and plays as well as some adolescent journals that are probably best burnt.

There are two giant glass-fronted Chinese cases in the living room. Those hold classic science fiction, hard science, history, juvenile fiction (including Harry Potter!), leftovers from my thesis research, literature, and adventure fiction.

There is a large Mongolian chest in our den. It holds scrapbooks, travel books, and maps.

There are romance novels (Carla Kelly, Jill Mansell, Liz Carlyle, Patricia Veryan, Mary Jo Putney, Georgette Heyer ...) in the upper kitchen cabinets, as well as a small collection of cookbooks in the pantry.

There are Star Trek (OS) novels on the top shelf of my closet.

There are books on fitness, nutrition, exercise science, finance, and other topics related to DH's business in the home office.

There are craft, design, and architecture books in the hall closet.

And finally, there are three large Chinese rosewood glass-fronted bookcases in the bedroom. Those hold my collection of mystery fiction.

At worst, I have a problem. At best, they are nicely organized and confined.
:-) I would love to hear what you all think about this gentle madness!

Posted 2 years ago #
Kamakazi
Member

To be honest from talking to people it seems like even people who are very anti-clutter exclude books from the conversation. It is weird I have known people who purge seemingly monthly but keep books from elementary school (exageration yes, but not far from the truth). I think it is very important to realize that books are just the same as anything else you hold onto.

I personally used to keep all of my books, I had alot alot. About a year ago I started to realize it was a problem and started to really consider why I was keeping all of them. I think a lot of it came down to a few things, the first being books I had read and liked and thought i would read again when in actuality I rarely, rarely do. The second being books I hadn't read yet, which were a lot, or books I had tried to read and didn't finish for whatever reason and thought I would go back to when in actuality I rarely, rarely do. And the third reason was that I felt some sort of attachment to physically having books like it made me a better person which I feel is the whole problem with "stuff" to begin with.

So what I ended up doing was really going through my books and ended up taking a ton of books to the local library and donating them some of them were books I had read and wasn't going to revisit or books that I have tried to read but didn't finish and didn't want to finish*. I felt good about myself and somebody can get some good use out of them. Now whenever I read a book that I have it either gets put back on the shelf to "keep" or put into a box i keep in my closet to donate. Then I have started every few months looking over all of my books and re-evaluating if I still want to keep it.

*I feel like I should admit here that I kept my rather old copy of Count of Monte Cristo, I feel like it is something of my life's work to read the book on account of the fact that I have attempted it every few years for the last 6 or so and gotten about 1/2 way through and stopped, having been lost in all of the dialogue long before, I will finish one day, I will.

Posted 2 years ago #
chacha1
Member

I probably should have noted that since moving into this apartment I have donated hundreds of non-fiction titles to our local library, and hundreds of fiction titles to Goodwill.

I really do re-read a lot and my family is full of long-lived women, so I consider at least half the library to be part of my retirement plan. :-) But everything is on the table now, I'm feeling encumbered by the scale of the collection - and by the living space it requires us to maintain.

Posted 2 years ago #
Kamakazi
Member

How and where do you usually buy your books? Do you usually buy them new or at some sort of used venue? I only ask as a lead in to the question of how do you feel about e-readers? I made a thread around here somewhere about e-readers but decided not to get one mostly because I currently buy most of my books super cheap at used book sales. If you buy a lot of your books used, and you don't have a problem with digital, it might be something to look into. It really would help with the clutter, that is for sure.

Posted 2 years ago #
Kamakazi
Member

Oh, also. One of the things that helped me was culling through my author collections. Best example was I had pretty much every Robert Ludlum book ever written because I liked some of them and kept buying more to read. I would say I only actually liked about 1/2 of them so I went through and got rid of a bunch. I think I only kept them so long because I had the rest. The same goes for several other authors. Obviously this kind of falls apart if all of the books are in a series. I think the other author I kept all of the books for, out of about 10 that I had at the start, was Tolkien, and you will only pry those from my dead lifeless finger. ;)

Posted 2 years ago #
Zora
Member

My house is over-run with books and it's a constant battle to keep them down. I buy ebooks whenever possible and hope to convert many of my deadtree books to e when I get a round tuit.

I still recall fondly discovering ebooks in 2003 or so and realizing that I didn't NEED to keep disintegrating Victorian classics in paperback on my shelves. I downloaded many free ebooks to my virtual library and dragged several garbage bags full of books to donate to the library.

Posted 2 years ago #
chacha1
Member

The concept of an e-reader is attractive, but it does nothing to address the existing collection. I am holding out for Amazon to begin offering swaps - I send in a paperback for them to re-sell, and they give me credit to download the same title for Kindle.

And I don't really buy used books, except very occasionally an out-of-print copy of something for the permanent collection (as, recently, two nice first editions of Joan Aiken young-adult novels).

Zora, "overrun" is how I sometimes think of it - as when I open the cabinet to get out the olive oil and there are romance novels winking down at me!

Posted 2 years ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

I've noticed that even those who write uncluttering books exclude their own book collection from their decluttering attempts. It's so odd how sacred we hold books. I think that it has a lot to do with how our teachers instructed us to handle our text books, how to turn the pages, never write in them, etc. Our English teachers waxed poetically on the Dewey Decimal System and proper library etiquette before we were allowed to make the sacred pilgrimage to the library. The privilege would be swiftly taken away if the teacher or librarian felt anyone showed any disrespect to anything within the hallowed library.

ABC- Are books clutter? Love that.

Of course books can be clutter:
* Books you know you will never read again
* Reference books with outdated information (computer books are a good example)
* Atlases more than a couple of years old.
* Text books - unless you truely use them regularly
* Hobbies - (we should have a "your just not that into your hobby", thread
* Books you will never read again. Similar to books you *know* you will never read again, but this is the second, more honest sorting of your books.
* That musty smelling dictionary. Do you really need a dictionary? Unless your dictionary is valuable, it's just junk. Dictionary.com is far better than any $20 dictionary.
*Books that you think you will read again, someday, but how do you know that? What about all those books that will be written between now and someday. If the book is widely available, get rid of your copy. If you don't have a library card, get one and learn the pleasure of visiting your library on a regular basis.

Posted 2 years ago #
chacha1
Member

My library has a lousy fiction collection. I have tried to get rid of our unabridged dictionary but DH clutches it tightly. I am being very ruthless with my craft books and last year reduced design and architecture collections by half. I don't keep reference books (that's what Google is for!) or textbooks, but DH is another matter. Don't have an atlas.

Books, in and of themselves, are not clutter - but in the quantity I've described, they have most definitely become so. And hence, the thread!

And while I've reduced my collection greatly in recent years, I am not willing to make further wholesale reductions when the books remaining are all books I really want to read. So part of this year's Net Loss of Stuff endeavor is to read at least one "old" book for every new one that comes in, and for every new one that stays, I have to get rid of at least one.

I am well ahead of the game this week having culled out five beading books and four big fat jewelry books. :-)

Posted 2 years ago #
s
Member

I'm not great, but not bad, at minimizing my book collection. My mother was a librarian, so we seldom bought books when I was a kid, and I've stuck with that most of my life. Nowadays, I can surf the net and flip tv channels and waste so much time that I barely have time to read books.

About ebooks, though, I have "Kindle for PC" on my laptop, but I don't have an ebook reader. I thought I'd start with just a few books, but I find that if I'm going to sit in front of the computer, I'm not so likely to read the books as I am to check my favorite websites (like Unclutterer). Are you collecting ebooks but not reading them?

Posted 2 years ago #
Jenett
Member

I'm a librarian, so you can guess the fondness for books. I also live in a little tiny house (400 square feet) so bookshelf space is complicated.

My compromise is that I keep:
- Religious path books (most of which are not readily available to me if I don't buy them: libraries don't generally carry books on smaller religious paths to any depth, and many of them aren't available in electronic form either.) I don't buy everything in the field, but do buy things I'm likely to use or want to refer to more than once or twice.

- Books I want to read when I am miserably sick, insomniac, or otherwise can't wait to get them from the library. (Comfort reading, basically)

- Books I re-read regularly (every year or so), where getting them from the library is more of a pain than otherwise.

- Things that I don't use as often, but would be a real pain to replace financially or practically (my Riverside Chaucer, a half-shelf of books from medieval studies classes in college, a bunch of music theory books, etc.)

I average reading 20-30 books most months (a lot of them light fiction): buying e-books for those, even if they're out (and they aren't, always) would be way out of my budget. So most of them come from the library. I use my iTouch as an ebook reader when I don't want to cart around a lot of books, and am slowly acquiring stuff that I like to read in that format - lots of lighter reading, SF, etc.

I'm planning to do another weeding pass through my shelves this summer to get rid of the stuff I really haven't come back to rereading since my last move 2 years ago. On the other hand, there's some stuff I regret getting rid of in that move that I now want to go looking for copies of again. It all evens out somewhere in the middle.

Posted 2 years ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

chacha - I'm not picking on you, but I get the impression that you'd like to gain some of your space back. If I'm wrong, tell me to shut up :)

Let's start with the romance novels in the kitchen cabinets. I'm going to repeat that... romance novels in the kitchen cabinets. At the risk of sounding rude, all romance novels are the same book with just a few things changed up. It doesn't matter who the author is or how well they write, all romance novels are the same book. Take advantage of the used books store that give points for books brought in. These points can be redeemed for different books.

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

i have been brutal with the books since my decluttering began.
and it isn't over yet.

i have read a lot of books in my life....i love to read....if i had hung onto all of them, i'd need a library to house them.
i don't want to live like that.
i think it's yet another example of simply making the mental adjustment to letting most of them go.
and i agree....let the romance novels go to a new home! does anyone read those twice? :)

Posted 2 years ago #
jsights
Member

This used to be a HUGE problem for me. My ex-boyfriend had a massive collection of role playing rule books. he had, I think, 6 6-foot bookshelves full of them! Yes, that many do exist, believe it or not. Then a whole case full of trade paperback comics, 6 of hardcover books, 4 of paperbacks (laid flat and stacked to the top of each shelf), and a few other miscellaneous shelve around the house. Aside from the clutter and dust, moving that many books stinks! Then we broke up, and I took only the books I thought I would read again, or had some kind of meaning to me, and left the rest for him to deal with. This left me with a nice bookshelf, one of those that looks like it's leaning against the wall instead of the cheap particleboard ones from WalMart (nothing wrong with them, but the one I have now just looks nicer). This one has 3 sections, each wtih 4 shelves. It was full when I moved.

2 years later, I've gotten rid of more books, my new boyfriend moved in and brought some of his books, but there is still an empty shelf or 2 on that bookcase.

I used to want to have a huge library in my house, like you see in movies with filthy rich people where the shelve go up 2 stories and you have a rolling ladder to get to it all. But moving all those books several times changed my mind.

So yes, I think books can be clutter. Over time, I will probably get rid of more as I decide to spend the money to replace them with a digital edition. I love my Kindle. :)

Jen

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

jen, kindle is fast becoming part of our solution too.
i just want the words and ideas and images....i don't need an actual physical thing made of paper.

Posted 2 years ago #
chacha1
Member

Hey JJ, I don't think you are picking on me, but I must wholeheartedly disagree about the romance novels! It's been said that there are no new plots; every story is to some extent derivative, so if we demand a "new" plot we would never read fiction (or watch TV or movies) at all. The characters and setting, dialogue and circumstances are what determine a keeper for me. ... I know that particular collection is going to be very comforting when I am old and alone (as I am statistically likely to be).

Whereas I am not at all likely to cherish my big fat biography of Richard Feynman, so when I've read it, out it will go!

Reclaiming my space is part of Net Loss of Stuff. Ultimately, I don't mind having and keeping as many books as will fit in my various closed bookcases. But the next home probably won't have as much closet/cabinet space, so yeah, some of this stuff has to go.

And 90% of DH's stuff could go (he really doesn't re-read), but he's intractable. :-)

Trading in books is a waste of time for me. I don't go shopping in used bookstores any more. If I want a new book to read, I can afford to buy a new one so that the author gets paid, and if I'm getting rid of a novel I'd rather give it to Goodwill so someone who *can't* afford a new book can enjoy it.

I will probably get a Kindle at the end of the year for new "disposable" reading, but as noted above, it doesn't do a damn thing about the existing collection as I am unwilling to re-purchase things I already have neatly disposed about the apartment. None of this stuff is actually in my way.

Like Jenett, I read 20+ books a month, so a clean sweep is impracticable. And you can't convince me that the experience of "Leroy Neiman on Safari," or Philip Plisson's "The Sea," if you even COULD get them on an e-reader, is anything close to the experience of looking at the physical object.

Oh well, it was worth seeing if there were any kindred spirits out there! Hi, Jenett! ;-)

Posted 2 years ago #
jsights
Member

bandicoot, you said "i don't need an actual physical thing made of paper." The only problem I have here is my collection of Laurell K. Hamilton books, all first edition hardcovers, that are signed to me. I don't think I'll ever part with those.

Other paper books, though, I'd love to get rid of, and just have the digital copy. As so many people have said, I wish there was a way to trade in the paper copy for a half price digital copy. I should probably just start buying one a week. That would be affordable, and much less daunting than the mindset of "I have to replace them all." Same thing, different mindset. :)

Posted 2 years ago #
s
Member

@chacha1 - I can't believe you're dissing Richard Feynman!! But if you don't want to keep the book, then definitely pass it on. =)

Posted 2 years ago #
klutzgrrl
Member

ChaCha, I'm with you on romance novels. THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME. If it's only plot that defines a book, as you've mentioned, then there are about 12 books in existence. Patently, that is not true. Like any genre, the quality of writing in Romance varies, but they are small books with a short shelf-life so authors don't get to lavish the time on them that a mainstream novelist might.

It annoys the heck out of me that people will diss romance in the most offhand way but still watch something like CSI Miami. Even the once cleverly written House has a template that never changes. Oh the other week they gave the sideplot-generates-moment-of-insight moment to Wilson instead of House, just to change things up a bit.

There are some really excellent Romance writers - Samantha Hunter, for example, has a wonderful turn of phrase. Liz Fielding writes the most fabulous, warm and earthy heroines, while Kate Hardy's medicals beat the hell out of Gray's Anatomy.

There's always threads on forums with comments like "does anyone remember a novel where the heroine owned a ranch and ....." where people are trying to find a novel they'd loved. Some of these books have gotten me through really tough times.

If you don't personally like them, that's fine - I'm not a fan of gumshoe detectives myself.

Books take up too much space in my home, it's true, but so do my children. I love them both.

Posted 2 years ago #
nellieb
Member

I'm an eclectic, avid reader...with the vivid memory of obtaining my first public library card before I was 4 years old! I read almost every day. For most of my life, I considered books to be sacred, to be kept, and displayed. About 20 years ago, I looked at the literally thousands of books I owned and thought about all the times I've packed and moved them...and that I rarely re-read a book! Thus began my quest to lighten the book load!

The Internet has changed everything! I no longer keep many reference books because the information exists with a few clicks! I've kept a few childhood books, a few books in different categories (such as art, needlecrafts, and photography) that I enjoy browsing every now and then. I have a shelf dedicated to books I have not read...but understanding that if I have not read them within two years, they must leave my home.

Last year I realized that the library is the best way for me to read as much as I want. I go through the monthly published titles at http://www.fanasticfiction.com and then request books that look interesting through my local library. I have saved a small fortune by borrowing rather than buying. And every month, I continue to return to my bookcases and discover there are always a few more books I can donate, take to a nursing home, retired neighbor, swap with a friend or sell.

P.S. I love time travel romance stories, when well written, political intrigue, mystery, military, and devoured fantasy sci fi books before they had their own category name!

You can also see a photo of some of my organized bookcases (before and after weeding out books) at my blog, http://drawerbydrawer.wordpress.com/

Posted 2 years ago #

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