If anyone had said this to me for most of the past 20 years, I would’ve said:
There is no such thing as too many books!
Sally of the past
While I’d love to keep believing this (and I do believe there’s no such thing as too many books in the world in general), one can indeed have too many books in one’s house…more specifically, in one’s tiny house.
[Side note: I’m not ever gonna be one to say, “Just covert all your books to e-books! No big deal.” I personally hate (or perhaps just have never gotten accustomed to) reading on an e-reader. And, more importantly, I have always believed there’s some vital aesthetic and psychological aspects of reading actual books that can’t be experienced through an e-reader. All that being said, we are getting rid of some of the books for which we own digital copies. There is, after all, only so much space.]
I currently have about 8 or 9 full-size bookcases full of books in my house, plus a few smaller shelves-full and the big piles on mine and Jason’s nightstands. And that’s a dramatic reduction from the 15 or 16 I had not that long ago. Each of the last 3 or 4 times I’ve moved, I’ve had over 50 cases of books! Like, the bankers box size! Just ask a core group of 5 or 6 amazing friends who have helped move those boxes 4 or 5 times. Just ask me, who’s packed and unpacked those same books that same number of times.
When I moved to the lower 48 from Alaska many years ago, in the still-early days of my book hoarding, I shipped 14 Rubbermaid tubs full of books from Wasilla to memphis. (And, let me tell you, even at the Media Rate 15 years ago, that was not a cheap shipment.) I’ve shipped boxes of books to Greece. I’ve shipped boxes of books back from Greece. The truth is, some of my books have been more places than lots of people I know.
For so many years, I’ve maintained this weird contradiction as someone who moves a lot and someone who has lots of heavy books. I guess I’m finally tired of it. I know my husband is.
How do I choose what stays and what goes? Well, it’s obviously a very personal decision, as personal as the reason we are keeping each book on our shelves. Like lots of my downsizing, the culling of books has become a very philosophical process.
First, what are the reasons we hold onto books?
- We really love this book and want to read it every couple years.
- We read this book once in college and wrote a paper on it, and it has lots of underlining and writing in the margins that might be important if we ever want to read (and understand) it again.
- We were given this book by someone special or procured it someplace special.
- We want to share it with our children/grandchildren when they are of appropriate age.
- My child needs to read books, and these are the books I hope she’ll like.
- My child needs to read books…to take tests on (specifically Accelerated Reader or AR tests?) in school, and these all fit those criteria.
- These are books I really want to read as soon as I have time. (When that will be, exactly, I don’t know.)
- These are books I desperately want to want to read sometime, but they just never sound appealing.
- These are books I’ve never read, never really even wanted to read, but feel guilty about the fact that I never read or wanted to read them.
- Owning these books makes me feel smart.
- Owning these books makes me look smart.
- Owning these books is embarrassing to me, but I still love reading them…and so hide them back in the bedroom.
- This book is just…beautiful.
- These books I bought for information on a very specific area (cookbooks, country or area-specific travel books, craft books, self-help books), and I use them a lot.
- Those same sort of books that I bought hoping I’d use but never got around to using or reading.
- And many more….
I’ve tried, mostly successfully, to get rid of the books I’ve had around just because I read them in college and think they look fancy and academic. I’ve also gotten rid of books that I want to want to read and know I never actually will. I get rid of the books my daughter reads for tests as soon as she’s done with them…when she lets me. Also, I’ve been trying to get rid of those travel/cooking/craft books that I can’t honestly say I’ll ever have time for.
Books, like anything, can become a collection. We like the look and feel of them around in our houses. (I even used to own a book about “Decorating With Books.”) We like what they represent. We like the smell and feel of them. We like the memories they elicit. I see certain books on my shelves and remember exactly how I felt when I read them the first time or who I was with or what my professor was teaching that day. Will I have that feeling if I get rid of that particular copy and someday check out a different copy from the library? I don’t know. But I know that I won’t have room for 50 cases of books in my school bus tiny house. And, I know that holding on “just in case” is kinda the reason I got into this “too much stuff” situation to begin with.
I am keeping a lot of books. To read. To read to and with my daughter. To learn about places I’ve never been and places I’ve lived for years. Some will move into the tiny house with us. Some will stay boxed in a storage unit until I need/want to switch them out for some others in the tiny house. The rest? I’ve taken lots to used bookstores over the last 4 or 5 years, just to get a little credit to, you guessed it, buy more books. (But, you end up with 1-4 books you want now in exchange for the 60 or 70 books you weren’t that into anymore.) Some have gone to thrift stores and hopefully new homes.
I went to a memorial for a dear professor of mine recently where his family had laid out all his books in a big pile on a table, for each of us to take one or two to remember him by. I found one on a subject that was very interesting to me, and I loved reading his notes in the margins and seeing what he had underlined. I also found a book I had given to him after graduation, hand-written dedication from me and all. I grabbed that one, too. The whole thing definitely left an impression, maybe because books are such a personal thing, meant to be shared. I’m thinking we’re gonna have some big party here in the month before we move into the bus. I’m thinking books as favors.
