To not want to get rid of any of my books?

[notremotelyintofootie]

I love books, always have and always will....

Over the years I have built up a huge collection but when dh moved in about 4-5 years ago I packed up a load to make space for his crap stuff....

We moved house last year and had to put some bits into storage until we could declutter and sadly a load of my books were included, in this house I have a measly 2 book cases but I need to empty the storage unit so have been decluttering like mad, selling some bits on eBay and have given loads of stuff to charity, however not my books...

We don't really have room for any more bookcases and the shed isn't watertight so the only place for the boxes of books is my 'study' but dh is already trying to get me out of there for dsd (if I don't have a study we need full time child care at the cost of £1150 a month! And I wouldn't be able to do extra work like examining without it....), if and when dsd moves in dd will come in with us rather than share with dsd as there is a 14-15 year age gap....

Anyway, dh keeps saying I need to get rid of my books but I don't want to!!! They aren't trashy novels by the way, I have about 100-200 relevant to my work and lots of lovely sets of classics (for the kids in the future too!) and complete sets of stephen king and Terry pratchet which ds who is 11 will be into soon.... I have quite a few I havent read yet too!

So aibu to not want to give up my babies??? (dh has about 700-900 vinyl albums btw and I would never tell him to give up them!)

YANBU. Books are for keeping. Can you not get more bookcases?

I'd put DD and DSD in together, regardless of the age gap.

I have the same issue but it's me that has decided that I need the space more than the books.

I've got a kindle. I've managed to get rid of about a third of the boxes that way as many of the books I have were classics and therefore free. I'm keeping rare or out of print books and most of my non fiction but I'll gradually replace the rest with the electronic versions.

I didn't think I'd take to the kindle but it's really good. I actaully found myself trying to turn a page the other day.

Double stack on bookshelves? It's a pain to get at them but better than getting rid. Or can you put in those shelves that go over doors? Put a boxful under the sofa/under the bed?

Books are certainly for keeping and it's not as if you have a ridiculous number of cheap crap like what I do.

YANBU

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY BOOKS!!!!

I currently have several boxes full in my parents garage.

I have been having this argument with DH. I have boxes and boxes of books we haven't unpacked since moving. I need them.

YANBU, I was chatting to someone about getting rid of books to declutter, she said she'd done it a few years ago and always regretted it!

You said the shed isn't waterproof, but maybe you can put some of them in plastic lidded boxes in the shed to make space?

I've never got rid of a book but currently the load of paperbacks is threatening to overwhelm the house.

So, reluctantly, I'm going to get rid of some. The ones I'm not emotionally attached to/likely to re-read, anyway.

And I'm going to join the local library instead of buying more books.

I have a very similar problem!

You know, it could be shoes, which would be less soulful and even more awkward to store. Those books have probably made you the woman you are!

Think Mummy should be allowed to have her quirks. But then I'm not being attacked by tumbling stacks every morning...

You can still get condensation and in the end the books will rot in the boxes. This happened to the pre-school and they had to chuck a load of books

Have you ever thought about hiring a storage space at those storage warehouse? For your books and his records?

Please don't tell but I'd sooner get rid of DH than my books.

Recently I have had to make room for yet more because DS1 is unwilling to part with his horrible histories and now wants to start buying "old" books. So now DH is out numbered and will have to put up more shelving

Radiator covers are handy for storing smaller less valuable books, old antique hanging shelves save on floor space for smaller books, use top of chest of drawers and have book ends, lots of ways of storing and displaying books.

Is your step-daughter moving in full time? I wouldn't suggest booting her just for the books, but giving up your study seems a bit unreasonable, if she could share with your daughter.

There was an article in the Guardian this weekend by a man who gave up his books.

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/09/homes-spring-makeover-bin-books?INTCMP=SRCH

I could never do that. Also if I gave my husband a "me or the books" ultimatum I suspect I'd not win....

YANBU

I had more than 1,000 books and unfortunately did have to get rid of some last year ... it took me ages to sort out a couple of hundred that I could bear to part with. I took them down to the charity shop and got a £60 parking ticket while I ran in and out of the shop with them. Moral: shouldn't have done it.

Nope YANBU. Every time we've moved DH winges about the books and the last time we moved he added in the 'why not get an ipad/kindle' argument. As I struggled in the door with part of an ancient analogue synth he was (and still is, and will be this time next year) lovingly restoring.

I have my grandmother's complete works of Dickens, amongst other of her books and they're very very special.

Shelves over doors, up near the ceiling, down the stairs... so many possibilities. Oh, and try not to put them outside. Whatever happens they do get mildewed.

YANBU books are great but

I used to keep all my books, but if you read a lot, say, 4 books a month, 48 a year, and start age 10, if you're 35, that's 1,200 books, plus work books, cookery books and your dh,dcs books, that's a lot of books. If you live to be 80 something that's another 2,400 books on top.

Our house was filling up with books, and I have seriously culled ours. If you think that charity shops get around £2-£3 per book, that's a lot of money which could do a lot of good in the world. Also other people can enjoy and redonate books, which is very green.

It's nice to have space for new books, too. And space to move in your house

I had a great couple of hours looking in the antiquarian book shops in lewes the other week as a special treat. I love the smell of old books. But mildewing books, well, no not really.

If you leave them outside they will be ruined and then you will wish you had just given them away.

I'd rather my dh slept in the shed than my books!

I am so glad I am not alone in this!

I have been hinting to dh about a kindle for about 6 months but nothi g at Xmas, perhaps this year, if not then when I finish my phd next Easter I will buy myself one but I can't get rid of all my books on that basis! Perhaps just the less 'nice' ones!

This is a rented house and the Walls are like steel so shelves aren't an option I'm afraid....

My storage unit is costing me £67 a month so I have to empty this month as it's silly paying out but I think I will need to stack them up in the study and ignore dh's 'fire hazard' moans!

Oh and on a plus/positive point I today rescued my skull with accurate brain and my skeleton from the unit so they are happily sat in my study now!

Agree with Easter - I carried around loads of books for years (ex university stuff which must be years out of date/classics which I am never going to read again/all my 'feminist' books from the 70s/80s /book club books that I had never enjoyed anyway etc etc ) - I finally took them to one of the Oxfam book shops - I don't miss ANY of them, anything I want to read I can order from the library. The space and 'clutter free ness' is wonderful. .

If you really would end up paying £1000 a month childcare with no study is there any chance of building a study in your garden (perhaps to replace the shed). Making it totally watertight, rigged up with electric and a duplex heater for the winter?

No don't do it!

I got rid of loads of books. 100's I really REALLY regret it now.

YANBU at all! I would never get rid of my books. We have 2 huge bookcases in the lounge, kids have bookcases in their bedrooms, and I have 2 bookcases in the spare room. I tolerate dh's crap man stuff so he tolerates my books! Is there nowhere else you can put them? Could dsd share a room with your books in it?

One thing I find quite helpful is the way oxfam give you a code and send you six monthly emails to tell you how much money your book contributions have raised. I love that. I still find it a real struggle to give them away, but I grew up in the house of a compulsive hoarder, so I try and stay on top of my collection (not altogether successfully).

I sometimes wonder why I hang onto them, as I will never read 99 per cent of them again. I definitely have a fairly snobbish internal "system" for deciding what must be kept and what can be thrown away, and it seems to have nothing to do with whether I will read it. My husband thinks it is about reminding myself that I am an intelligent person!

I was disappointed recently though when I unpacked some I had put away in dry boxes, indoors etc in 1995, to find that a lot of the paperbacks were very brown - so even if I hang onto all my childrens' books for my childrens' children, they are not likely to be in great shape...

YANBU I have well over 900 books... I logged 850 on librarything when on mat leave but before DD had arrived. The only rooms which don't have books are the bathroom and the kitchen.... but that will change in a few weeks as we're having a redesign. One wall in the lounge is floor to ceiling bookshelves. Some double stacked.
I get rid of any books I haven't enjoyed, all the ones which are left I like and I re-read, including the children's books. I buy almost all from charity shops too so they don't cost me much.

DH used to comment, but he's learnt there's no point now. He has very few books and always reads the same few authors.

In my opinion lining all the walls with books is an effective form of insulation. :o