Everything we ever buy is either an investment or a liability.
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Every time I go to the country house I am overwhelmed by stuff, like, oh, say, the books. I have literally thousands of books. It has to be close to or over 5,000 books. I am absolutely not bringing them all down here. Maybe a few hundred of the best - the valuable ones, the ones I want to read again, the ones I haven't read yet, and a few of the reference books (like the Black's law dictionary, oriental rug and vintage jewelry guides, the encyclopedia of needlework, etc. - ones that address stuff the internet isn't as good at). But I was stumped as to what to do with the rest. There's just so many, and I couldn't bear the thought of throwing them out.
Then I read this: http://magnificentnose.com/2011/05/16/i-can%E2%80%99t-believe-you%E2%80%99re-throwing-out-books/. She's a librarian. She throws out books. At the link she describes why they are no good for donation, and her criteria.
She has given me reasons and courage. I'll pick out what I want to keep, a few sets and modern bestsellers I'll sell, then open the rest to vultures. Anything left over after vultures have picked through I think I can throw out without too much pain. Hey, vultures didn't even want them.
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4 comments:
As scandalized as I was when I first read your post, I know the same thing is going to happen / is happening in my house. Still, I don't think I can bear to part with my collection of all the Travis McGee books, no matter how dated and sexist they are.
I've worked at the local library sales and they put up signs before the sales saying "We cannot accept damaged (mildewed,water damaged) book. We do not accept encyclopedias or very old books."
After the sale? Whatever's left goes in the Dumpster.
But if someone had done that before I read "I Capture the Castle", it would have been lost to me and that would be a shame.
How would you like to be a vulture?
No, ma'am! No, thank you. Unless you happen to have sets of classics you don't want or a relatively recent set of Encyclopedia Britannica and/or the Great Books. Or the Harvard Classics.
After all, I lived with Xman for 20 years and I saw what a terrible master books can become.
Excellent, thank you!
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