neither of us wants to read it again, no reason for it to languish on our shelves when it could be out there making some other reader happy. I look at getting rid of books as giving a gift to that mysterious other reader, which makes it a lot easier.
A while back, I found I no longer felt a need to hang on to every book that made its way into my house. I'd rather re-home them than hang onto them for the sake of hanging on to them. I think moving all my possessions cross-country may have had something to do with my new willingness to re-home items I had once clung to the way Gollum clung to the One Ring.
I will admit that in the built-in book cases in my living room, I do have some non-book objects in there. Part of the reason is thaty they're safe from the cat up there (He cannot jump more than counter-height). Also, the backs of the bookcases are a very pretty red and it's nice to have bits of that peeking through.
One of my plans for my basement involves an entire wall of shelves. That will be an all book (and DVD) and no tchochke zone.
our not quite 8' by 8' bookcases were full before we finished them. Dh was surprised, I was not. What did surprise me that when it comes to keeping books - I am the one responsible mostly for that. oops.
After lugging them around for four different moves, the DH has decided to give up his (about three feet of shelf space) hardback Robert Parker books. This is more due to him being a completist and not liking them much anymore, than it is to sacrifice, but still--three feet! The three feet won't last long, of course, as we are going to take them to a local used bookstore and see what we can trade them for.
But still - whoo hoo 3 feet of new books. That's even more books if you get paperbacks instead of hardcover.
I don't feel much pull to hang on to most of the fiction I read. There are some to-keep authors, like Brust, or some that are mostly to-keep (I'm ditching Fledgling--I'd like to pretend it doesn't exist) but mostly I am all about the non-fiction books (love/lust/need) and the more coffee-tablish they are, the more I love them.
I have no coffee tables.
All my shelving space is full. On the other hand, I could probably cull some of it... again.
Or just throw out the diary from 15 years ago that I can't even look at without cringing. You think?
I just threw out my teenage years diary. It had stopped making me cringe a while back, but it was taking up space while moving, so it got culled.
For the first time ever, we have two coffee table books on our coffee table. It's weird.
I could never bring myself to throw out any of my diaries. There is much cringeworthiness but they're also part of me.
I am bothered, though, by the curious ingratitude of authors who exploit a common fund of imagery while pretending to have nothing to do with the fellow-authors who created it and left it open to all who want to use it. A little return generosity would hardly come amiss.
How much do I love Ursula LeGuin? So very much.
