Tales of Book Purges, Culls, Weeding, etc.

[Extollager]

This thread is intended not so much as a place for thinking about maybe disposing of some books,* as of telling about having done so: why you decided to dispose of books, how hard or easy that was, what methods you used for deciding what to retain and what to loose, the sense of relief at letting go, the regret over a book you wish you'd kept -- and remember that it's (often) not all about the you (and the books), but also about the people who came next for those books: the used book dealer who bought your book or gave you trading credit for it (or didn't), the friend or family member who accepted a book (or didn't), the donation of books to Friends of the Library -- and any other relevant stories and reflections from this aspect of your book life.

For a while, I kept track of books I gave away in a pocket diary, but I've ceased doing that since the time has come when most of the books I give away are books other people give to me to give away (or, occasionally, to keep): friends in the Seattle area and Philadelphia send me boxes of books to keep or, mostly, to offer on the freebie table on the third floor of the Main Building on campus. I've given away hundreds of books from my late father's collection (and kept a bunch too).

I did, however, recently give away my 1989 Britannica set to a family member, and promptly filled up the space with art books that had been shelved elsewhere, etc.

*For posting about that, go here:

So Many Books, but Limited Reading Time and Lifespan

 

[Glen]

Care to say more about those savage book culls? Your remark prompted me to start this new thread...

I keep far fewer books now that I used to. The last two times we moved house we thought we had got rid of loads of books, but still had umpteen boxes full of them. Now, we have reduced our shelf-space, and I am getting less attached to books anyway. I'm happy to read and pass them on. I still have a few favourite authors that I hang onto: Greene, Tolkien, Malzberg (they're so hard to come by in the first place), Calvino, Vonnegut,... But most other things are fair game.

I think I got to the point where I felt the books were just stale - a big old pile of paper, most of which wouldn't get read again. Pushing them back out into the world gave them new life. Someone else could read them. We're lucky also that there is a good local charity, Lifeline, who have book deposit points (like a shed in car park), and they then have sales where they take over a community hall and flog books for a weekend. They're always very well attended. So, someone else gets to read what would other be cluttering up my house, and Lifeline make cash for a very worthy cause.

I've never regretted throwing recycling anything. In fact it feels better to get rid.

Most books don't even get back on the shelf. They stay there in the "unread" section, and unless they're a rare keeper, they go straight to the "recycle" pile on the floor.

I got a copy of Arthur Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth recently. Ordered on-line and it arrived from the UK. Inside it had a sticker from bookcrossing.com - who encourage you to read and release your books back to the wild. You can track them on-line. My book came from Wales, to New South Wales. I'll be moving it on next time we purge. Good book, but I won't ever read it again.

 

[Glen]

...I got to about page 50 (of 400) and gave up...

That's another good reason to get rid of a book. I never give them a second chance.

 

[Extollager]

I've never regretted throwing recycling anything. In fact it feels better to get rid.

There is that, yes. I have regretted giving away a few books, but most of those I've given away, I've hardly missed, and their absence makes it easier to have the ones I've retained, out on shelves where I can see them. An unread book can become a burdensome "obligation." Give it away and that's gone. Better: someone else may profit by reading it.

 

[Danny McG]

Many years ago I worked down uk coal mines, as a consequence I got five bags of free coal delivered every fortnight for the (then pretty standard) open fireplace. As did most of the miners.
I had a small (ish) collection of battered, dog eared sci fi paperbacks but my first wife didn't 'get' the genre and would often announce she'd used one or two to light the fire.
"But you'd read them and they were just taking up space and making the room look untidy"

Because of this I ended up with bags full of books crammed into my lockers in the pit baths. When I had no space I used to take them to the charity shop. Loads and loads given away like that.
The only shop that took them in the eighties was the Salvation Army and the women there always frowned suspiciously at the lurid pulp covers!

 

[Extollager]

Great story, Danny. When you write your autobiography, be sure to let us know.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Oh, I lost a lovely set of Britannica in a divorce. Oddly not to my (ex) husband, but because I couldn't take them with me when I moved out of state, so I left them with my mother (who had loads and loads of bookcases full of books) and she later gave them to a school. They were the black leather ones -- because the white leather ones that I really wanted were $10000. My black leather ones were "only" $3000.

But I think the ones I regret the most and appreciate at the same time are my multi-autographed leatherbound astronauts series from Easton Press. Seven books. I sold them for $2000 to be able to move back to help my mom out, and she passed away two months after I got here. Glad to be able to get here, but damn that hurt to lose those books. Most of those guys are dead now.

Err... that's only six in that picture, but there was another one. All numbered sets.

 

[monsterchic]

Oh, I've got a story. I culled my collection from almost 1500 books down to 100. The number is slowly creeping back up.

Once upon a time, my uncle gifted me many boxes of books that he wasn't going to read again. I carefully alphabetized them by author and put them on my bookshelves, and proceeded to not touch most of them for almost two years. Then I moved into a much smaller apartment, and the books went into storage. During the time I was at the smaller apartment, I got really into the idea of minimalism (still follow it) and decided to go through all my stuff. Every single thing. And I did! I threw out a lot of old junk and donated quite a bit. When I got to the books, however, I got stuck. Books are my friends, I thought. I can't just donate my friends.

So I took a break from purging for a few weeks while I thought on it. Eventually I decided that if I hadn't touched the books in years, I was more than likely not going to. So I began sorting. It took me almost two weeks of plugging away at the boxes to finally set a goal and figure out what books I wanted in my collection (I decided that I'd focus on building a carefully curated library of my favorites and near favorites). In the end, I sold most of them to my local used bookstore.

Here's me and my boyfriend's combined collection

 

[Glen]

...and figure out what books I wanted in my collection...View attachment 43438

I see your collection includes War and Peace - is that in the read or to be read section?
I think I gave up Ulysses because I was never going to get to the end of it.

 

[Glen]

BTW @Extollager thanks for your hint last month about the sequel to A Half Life.
It arrived today!

 

[monsterchic]

I see your collection includes War and Peace - is that in the read or to be read section?
I think I gave up Ulysses because I was never going to get to the end of it.

That would be my boyfriend's lol

 

[BigBadBob141]

In a moment of insanity a long time ago.
I got rid of my paperback collection of H.P.Lovecraft.
Not sure but I think they were published by Panther.
I really regret doing that now.
It's not the stories as I have them all in other editions.
It's the cover art, some of them were truly outstanding!!!
Why I did this I have no idea, but I regret it because I can never get them back.
P.S. My spell checker is driving me mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[EJ Heijnis]

I gave away my Song of Ice and Fire paperbacks, the five I owned. After reading the fifth one (I think it was the fifth) I realized I didn't care enough about the story or any of the characters to wait for the next book, and someone at work expressed an interest. I did not regret it.

The only book I ever tossed out was The Eyes of God by John Marco. I disliked it so much, I felt it would be irresponsible to inflict the experience on anyone else. Looking back, maybe someone else could have enjoyed it (it does have good reviews along with the bad ones,) but it certainly felt like the right thing to do at the time.

 

[Vince W]

This thread fills me with terror, but Packing My Library on Radio 4 is extremely apropos.

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Packing My Library, Episode 1

 

[Extollager]

Well. I culled 75 books. I'd pulled books a number of times already, and was perhaps a bit surprised by how many remained that really shouldn't be missed. Most or all of them are for the campus freebie table.

 

[Harpo]

In 2014 when I moved up here from London I gave away/donated about 300 books. I had a friend look after maybe 60 for me, for collecting later, and brought just three with me.
Three Men In A Boat, The Dictionary Of Imaginary Places, and a collection of short stories that I bought especially for the journey, called Robot Uprisings.

Since then, local charity shops have provided a few hundred more books, of course.

 

[Extollager]

Having weeded some books, I'm enjoying the feeling that comes when one can put other books on the shelves -- books that might have been languishing on the floor. One thing I don't do is stack books on stairs. Photo below is not by me. I believe it's from John Sandoe Books in Chelsea.

 

[BigBadBob141]

This looks just like my own staircase!!!

 

[dask]

Just curious, any one read CHILD 44?

 

[awesomesauce]

As I've gotten more comfortable with ebooks, and almost all my reading is ebook now, it's also gotten a lot easier to give away, donate, or just plain throw away books. Seriously, paperbacks with brittle, browning pages, torn covers, and crystallized glue are not the treasures that I once believed.

We don't have infinite space, and we're pretty much at maximum book, so nowadays, books we get in physical copies tend to be things that are heavily illustrated, like Simon Stålenhag's books. Or special editions or fancy bindings of favorites (I think we must have three different hard copies, at least, of Lord of the Rings). Or that have some value or association beyond just the contents. Like we keep signed hardcover editions, even if we have it in ebook, and we have an old family Bible taking space on the shelf, even though it's a little silly and embarrassing, but it was my great grandmother's and has a bunch of family birth dates and things written in the end pages.

Book acquisition is like that old Seinfeld episode, except instead of deciding if men are "spongeworthy" the question is whether the book is "shelfworthy".

I took three large moving boxes of books to the recycling center this winter, and you couldn't even tell. Now I'm trying to work through the unreads so we can get rid of some more, but reading on paper is such a drag.