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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to give all my books to the charity shop?

245 replies

Boomba · 19/05/2013 22:31

I'm fed up with all my clutter. I'm not really a hoarder, but very short on time and want to streamline so I can keep clean and tidy.

Ove got loads of books. In the sitting room 2 bookcases stacked 4 deep on each shelf.

I don't have time for reading anyway ant more. I've got a kindle

I feel strangely attached though. And a bit sad, that I don't have time for reading

Do you keep your books??

OP posts:
Meggymoodle · 20/05/2013 21:08

This thread has had about the worst possible outcome for me. I've been reading it thinking how sorry I was to have got rid of some of my books and I've just been and bid on a load on ebay......Blush

pointythings · 20/05/2013 21:24

crashdoll we would judge you in our house - to be a kindred spirit. Flowers.

I mean, how nice is it to be able to offer your guests something to read as well as something to eat/drink?

babytrasher · 20/05/2013 21:33

By all means get rid of most of your books (surely, you must want to keep a few???) - but the real tragedy is the households who've never had a book. Sad

I teach in SEN EBD boys school. Virtually none of them have even a single book in their homes. One boy was interested in a book I had (Marcus du Sautoy's Num8er My5teries) so I gave it to him. But his mum threw it out as it was crap. Angry

My golden rule which I try really hard (but mostly unsuccessfully) to keep is Don't buy a book you have not already read - that's what libraries are for: makes sense when you think about it... Confused

ThenWeTakeBerlin · 20/05/2013 21:41

That's so sad, babytrasher :(

I grew up in an uneducated family, the only book in our house was the Yellow Pages. I've always been an avid reader though, I have school and libraries to thank for that.

TheSnowFairy · 20/05/2013 21:48

My grandfather worked for Penguin books so I have a ton of those - we have a bookcase along one entire wall which is full, plus a smaller recessed one.

My dad had a library in his old house and I think I'm yearning for one even though we have no spare rooms!

My kindle app is, however, exceedingly useful for when I want to read in bed without disturbing anyone Grin

Arisbottle · 20/05/2013 22:03

My house is filled with books but I am willing to admit that part if the reason did that is so I can show people I am not as thick as they may assume .

LadyBigtoes · 20/05/2013 22:37

I think books look nice! I hate cutter and am on a constant mission to declutter and battle against the rising tides every day, but I wouldn't include books in that. We have literally thousands, but we've had ceiling-high built-in shelves made for them so there are no topply, looming or mismatched shelves, and the books look neat and packed away. I think it makes a beautiful wall when it's lined with all kinds of colourful books.

I actually hardly ever read any books atm apart from for work, because I'm so busy and tired and can't read enough of a novel at a time to sustain my way through it. Yet I often, often think "I know I have a book about that" or "I want to look at this or that poem/diagram/quotation" or "I feel like having a go at that book I bought 4 years ago and never started" and then go to find the book - I would hate it if I had that urge to get a particular book then found I'd got rid of it.

I'm a massive web user and can find anything on google, but my books are like friends.

LadyBigtoes · 20/05/2013 22:39

aargh clutter

allagory · 20/05/2013 23:04

I am 45 years old. In precisely 5 years' time my present employer will decide that like all women of a certain age, I am Old And In the Way. They will pay me off and I will struggle to find another job. Maybe I will try a business of my own that will limp along. Maybe I'll have to move to a smaller house. But when that time comes, I am really counting on all those books still being there for me.

EatenByZombies · 20/05/2013 23:24

YABVU!!!!!!!

Give them to be instead Grin One can never have too many books, just not enough space.

JoyMachine · 20/05/2013 23:52

I agree with whomever upthread said their books are a timeline of her life.

Impossible for me to get rid of them- it would be erasing my history.

funnyperson · 21/05/2013 00:08

What cory and hullygully said upthread.
Local library doesn't cut it, only has badly written 'romantic' novels on the shelves; local elderly people have poor eyesight. Our books are personal family friends. Loved for life. Still mourn the loss of the irreplaceable library when I moved country. Whosoever upthread says books are only a show of intellectuality has no heart.

EatenByZombies · 21/05/2013 00:11

Wow did someone say that books are only a show of intellectuality? I missed that.

Apparently the Meg, Mog and Owl books that sit beside my Murakami novels just lowered by IQ quite a bit Wink

Arisbottle · 21/05/2013 01:23

I don't think books are just a sign of intellectuality, for me they certainly tell the story of my life and I am sentimental about them.

However for me and I suspect many others ( but clearly no one on MN ( they are a way of saying , yes I am dirt common , most of you lot would label me a chav and avoid me but I have worked bloody hard and am actually bloody clever .

nooka · 21/05/2013 05:41

My house is full of books, it's a family failing :) I go through them every year or so and cull the ones I don't think I'll read again, but that leaves several hundreds, and as as both my children are also bookworms the volume is only likely to increase over time. It's still a smaller collection than my parents or really anyone from their generation in the family as they've had more time to buy and to read.

My books aren't for show. They are for me!

BonaDea · 21/05/2013 07:13

When DH and I first moved in together and has far fewer book shelves which were more than filled as soon as I moved in, we instituted a 'one in one out' policy. We both went through and weeded out the books we wanted to keep, put those on the shelves so we both had roughly equal amounts and then started the policy. If you buy a book and need to make room you have to get rid of another. Obv you can only chuck your own books!!

We now have much more shelf space and our reduced collection didn't fill what we had. But it is getting quite full now (kindles notwithstanding!) so the policy will come back.

I actually think it has made our collection much higher quality as all the rubbish is gone and we've only kept the great books. My test is - would I want to read it again, be in a position to recommend and lend to someone or would I like DS to read it.

Have the clear out!

GoblinGranny · 21/05/2013 07:55

I used to work in a school where few of the children had books at home. I kept the class library fully stocked from charity shops in my parents' home town, mixed in with what the school had.
Every half term, I let all the children choose a book that they really wanted to keep, from my stock. Most did choose one. Then I'd restock.
Worth every penny. Smile

JollyOrangeGiant · 21/05/2013 08:01

We did this recently. The hospital and nursing home didn't want them so we took them to a local charity shop.

I kept one bookcase of fiction and one of non fiction. And DS has about 200 of his own. I kept ones that are not easily replaceable in electronic form.

I don't regret it. I also don't have time to read. I bought two books in October and haven't opened them yet. I've read 6 books this side of Christmas. Maybe once I have older children I'll have more chance to read.

Guerrillacrochet · 21/05/2013 08:19

I have lots of books but have thinned them out over the years due to space limitations, and some of those that I gave to the charity shop were the smarty pants books that I never got round to reading (sorry Chaucer). I had a kindle for Christmas this year and having been sniffy about them previously I now absolutely love it to bits... it means I don't have to get backache from hauling round Game of Thrones.
I'm also in China at the moment and being able to download from Amazon makes me feel a bit less homesick.
When we were getting ready to come here our shipper told us that said we had to limit to 50 books. FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY Shock. That was tough. And the fact that we had to list all the titles and couldn't include anything 'politically sensitive' reminded me of the amazing power that books can have.

MsAverage · 21/05/2013 08:24

I treat them as all other things in the house: "Is there any chance that someone will use this thing / wear this shoes / read this book in the next 12 months? No? Out".

Interestingly, I used to read a lot, but now days every time I take a book in my hand at home I feel... guilt. Normally I read in the situations, where you have nothing to do else: on the tube, in the planes, home when ill (in other words, during "brown time"). So, when I read a book at home I feel that I waste my "green time", which may be used with family or somehow productively.

Librarina · 21/05/2013 08:29

I think everyone on this thread should read 'Ex Libris' by Anne Fadiman, it's a lovely little book about a lifelong relationship between this woman and her books

www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Libris-Confessions-Common-Reader/dp/0140283706

Also, 'Howards End is On The Landing' by Susan Hill about not buying books, and just reading those you already have...

And, 'The Yellow Lighted Bookshop' about the joys of rooting around in bookshops.

Then you can choose whether to keep them or pass them on to another book lover!

KhaosandKalamity · 21/05/2013 12:26

Not the books! You've got to be pretty strong to be able to even consider it. I'm so bad that when the library sells old worn, often torn, books I have to go buy some because I can't stand the idea of an unwanted unloved book. Drove DP nuts, until I explained it made him look smarter.

Sallystyle · 21/05/2013 12:27

I have a houseful of books and they aren't going anywhere, ever.

I am actually considering buying some of my faves on the kindle in book form. I love the ease of the kindle but also love brand new books in my house.

KhaosandKalamity · 21/05/2013 12:30

Hm... I should add that in reality I know the sheer number of books doesn't make him look smarter, which he would know if he even glanced at the titles. But he doesn't read, and the harmless white lie allows my collection to thrive.

Sallystyle · 21/05/2013 12:32

I should add that I have a heap of Danielle Steel and Mills and Boons that I hide in a cupboard Grin They were my grandma's and I wouldn't want anyone to think I love that stuff Hmm