Booking It--Weeding

When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?

Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all?

And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore? SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?

My book collection definitely blossoms out of control. I become inordinately attached to books, and I rarely "weed." Sometimes, it's even hard for me to get rid of textbooks that companies send me to preview that I know I'm never going to use. I got rid of some books when we moved to Searcy over seven years ago, and I still miss some of those books.

It's weird. The books I got rid of were not favorites--never novels. In fact, they were books bought for a specific purpose--like when I homeschooled the kids for two years, or for a hobby I'm no longer interested in--but part of me wishes I still had them, almost like a record of who I was at specific times in my life. I do weed when I end up with two copies of a book (unless each copy has a different introduction or appendices, or both were gifts that are inscribed by the giver). But even then, I don't just "get rid" of the book. I choose a person to give it to whom I think needs or will enjoy the book.

I'm so bad, I even wish I still had all my Little Golden Books. That's pitiful, isn't it?