De-acquisition

 

     Since we're talking about living with books, and by extension parting with them to make space for others, how about a few de-acquisition tips?

     Dark Puss is contemplating a cull, and while the following is a bit obvious, it may be worth offering at least as a general starting point for anyone looking to free up space and make their book collection more relevant to their needs today.

You might begin with -

Books you've out-grown: that Miriam Stoppard babycare manual is redundant now that your children are hulking teenagers, or the cookery books whose complicated recipes do not suit your present busy lifestyle.

Travel guides: you may visit Paris again sometime soon, but better to have an up-to-date guidebook than one that's a few years old.

'Annuals': books such as The Good Food Guide go out of date quickly, too, and may not justify their shelf space.

Previous interests or reading 'fads': a passion for drying flowers or collecting model cars may have been replaced by a new hobby; likewise the craze for sci-fi novels or bodice-rippers may be a thing of your past. Keep the best of the bunch if you have the space, otherwise move on to the next thing.

The rest -

This is where things can get difficult. You may know straightaway, by head or heart, whether a particular book should be kept or chucked, but if you find yourself swithering, then in my experience decisions can be easier if you imagine they have already been made by someone else: your reaction to that hypothetical fait accompli will tell you how you really feel about it. So for example, pretend a third party has said "No, you may not keep book X", or "Stay the hand! You must forever house book Y"; you'll soon know what to do!

Any more?

(The book pictured - for those of us who love to look at rooms of all kinds filled with books - is Leslie Geddes-Brown's Books Do Furnish a Room).

Comments

[Dark Puss]

Hi Karen

Well I got rid of the childcare books about 10 years ago, I always replace the GFG annually or biennially, I buy a new wine guide every two years (and pass on the other one to friends). Bodice rippers I have none (is there a corset-unlacer genre I wonder) and with almost no exception my collectin of books on plastic modelling, WW2 armoured fighting vehicles and Napoleonic era uniforms went at least two decades ago.

I'll try your final suggestion, and if I can come up with any helpful hints and tips I will certainly share them. It might be worth me saying that if I didn't have an extant parent (with two small houses) and a wee cottage in Scotland then my problems would be immense. I'd not be worrying about 50 or 100 books but a couple of thousand!

Looking forward to seeing what else people come up with.

[Ros]

I have a simple rule: do I think I will ever want to read this again? If not, it goes; if yes, it stays. Though I have sometimes got this wrong and had to return red-faced, to the charity shop the next day and buy a book back that it turned out I couldn't bear to live without.

[Harriet Smart]

I am looking at my own bookshelves now and thinking how I might do it. Perhaps another approach is to say, "Which ones must I absolutely keep?" Imagine you are going away for a six months and can only take two wine boxes worth in the back of your car. Which would you take with you? Then having established the ones you really really need, culling the others might be easier. Or not.

[Linda C.]

A bit of a different approach which I've found helpful and which maybe especially helpful to those of us trying to downsize: Instead of looking at a shelf and trying to decide which books to get rid of, approach each shelf with "Which one of these do I truly love best, and really want to keep?" Put that one aside and and repeat. When you are down to ten or so books (whatever number you decide on), remaining on the shelf, they (the ten "least-loved") are the ones to go. You can then re-shelf your truly loved books and have space left over! This sort of backwards way of sorting works for me.

[Fran H-B]

"Swithering"- what a wonderful descriptive word. I do a lot of that.
In a past cull when 17 boxes of books were finally retrieved from 12 years of storage I sold books which in retrospect I bitterly regret letting go. So now I am inclined to cling on to all, but with some judicious juggling and moving between rooms and shelves I manage to keep it mostly under control. I have found sorting into catagories/reading trials/ beloved authors etc has helped the overall impression. Yes, it is a house full of books but I can usually locate any volume within a few minutes.

[LizF]

I have been putting off a much needed clear out for months now and really need a push to get it started!
Since my grand daughter is away this weekend, this might be the opportune moment to make a start but apart from weeding out my cookery books which will be quite easy, most of my books will fall into the most difficult category and I suspect that a great deal of 'swithering' (lovely word!) will be going on!

[Dark Puss]

Dear Fran H-B, how does moving the books around generate more space for new volumes? That isn't really clear to me.

[GeraniumCat]

I've been agonising over this for some time, since I have completely run out of book space. The trouble is, I re-read almost all fiction and usually only buy non-fiction that I want for future reference. The last serious cull I had was when we moved house (to a much smaller one) 15 years ago. I tried to be ruthless, arguing that my favourites had always been available from the library. I cleared out a large boxful which went to the charity shop and gave my husband a second box to sort through just in case there was anything he couldn't bear to part with. Some months after we moved I found his box intact. Now I am having to buy the favourites I gave away because the library here doesn't have any of them. My Bookmooch account tells me I have given away 93 books since I joined but, since I've acquired 109, it's not doing much good. My husband, incidentally, has enough cookery books to furnish a small shop (including, I suspect, duplicates) and has no intention whatsoever of ever parting with a book again. Doomed, really.

[Mr Cornflower]

I suspect this post was triggered by a recent Book Purge outbreak at Castle Cornflower. I went through a bookcase containing mostly old university text books and related items and found without too much heartache that I was able to get rid of about 25% (in round numbers say 75 out of 300). Some of the disposals brought a wry smile (political primers from the 1970s on 'the challenge of Marxist ideology'; the New Testament in Greek, a language I once tried to learn), but most of them went into the box without a second glance.
Incidentally, books may or may not furnish a room but do they also insulate it? I'd have thought all that paper must have some effect.

[Dark Puss]

Insulation; for most of us the sound insulation effect of walls lined with books will be the most obvious benefit. You are right of course about the thermal insulation value of paper. It is comparable to other more obvious insulating materials. Have a look at this list (very small is GOOD)

I have, perhaps not surprisingly, almost everyone of my University textbooks but since, unlike you, I haven't grown up and left University yet perhaps I have an excuse. Most (99%) are currently occupying a lot of shelf space in my office at work.

Wry smile too - I'm fairly certain I had a go at reading your Marxist ideology book late one evening at Castle Cornflower - couldn't understand a word of it!

[Julie Fredericksen]

Since developing carpal tunnel syndrome and having a bad knee, I gave my gardening books and flower arranging books away to my garden club. I sold or gave away most of my too lavish collection of cookbooks, keeping only the best (tried and true).

I have joyfully discovered that The Owl bookstore has a great return policy. For every two books I return I can buy one for 50 cents. I have culled 50 books so far (although that means I will have 25 "new" ones). It was so delightful to get rid of book club books, bad recommendations and Christmas gifts I didn't like. As for swithering (love that work) if I give it to The Owl I might just find it again - for 50 cents - if I change my mind.

[Mr Cornflower]

You undoubtedly got more out of it than I would from a book on particle physics...
Excellent link, by the way. I was intrigued to see that of the older materials straw is quite effective. Was it ever used to line ice-houses?

[Dark Puss]

You are completely correct about ice houses and straw. Here are some helpful instructions from Charles McIntosh, The Practical Gardener, 1828.

I'm looking forward to seeing a new structure at Castle Cornflower!

[Mr Cornflower]

"Sometimes London's confectioners have had to procure ice from the polar seas..." What an image that conjures up!

[Ros]

There was a wonderful episode of Grand Designs a few years ago about a woodsman who built his own house using timber from his wood. The whole design was based around the size of the bales of straw he used as insulation. They were painted with some kind of limewash to stop them from rotting and looked very effective indeed at keeping the house warm.