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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not want to get rid of all my books

55 replies

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 16/01/2016 18:49

I have a lot of books. I love to read, teach English, have been collecting for forty years.

In the last three years I have got rid of over half of my collection. We are down to three large bookcases, each in a different room, and some smaller ones.

Now DH wants to get rid of the large bookcase in the dining room. I have cleared one shelf and can clear another, but that is it.

AIBU? Half of this bookcase is his cookbooks and I don't notice many of those going!

OP posts:

Lucked · 17/01/2016 00:27

Fair enough not getting rid just for the sake but it is limiting how you can use your house. Due to having to make our study dd's bedroom we have had to get rid of loads and I don't miss the, despite thinking I was very attached.

I don't think Marie Kondo is perfect but her technique of gathering everything of one type together might help you. Every book in the house on the floor in one room.

Also I think books that you think are interesting from a teaching English point of view are better on your kindle as you can bookmark and highlight.

nocoolnamesleft · 17/01/2016 00:28

LTB. KTB.

Lucked · 17/01/2016 00:33

Other option is to take the spaces currently used for bookcases and get floor to ceiling shelving put in. If you have a room like a study you could get high shelving all around the room ncluding above the door etc.

Cavaradossi · 17/01/2016 00:45

Maybe what some people mean by 'books' isn't what others mean. I'm not talking about half-read paperback novels someone only bought half-heartedly because their book group chose it. I'm an academic and writer, so use huge numbers for reference, research and teaching, I read and re-read for pleasure all the time, and DH is a collector, so we have a lot of first editions. The books we have are our joint collection over the course of a lifetime, and - given that our large house doesn't have any more walls! - I'm certainly very choosy about what I buy, and don't do disposable airport novels etc.

Original poster

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 17/01/2016 10:23

Well, we have agreed that we can put some better shelves in the study and have a cull of cookbooks. Plus I have spotted a PC desk that has some shelving attached - the old desk is going to become my sewing table to stop me taking up the dining table when I have the sewing machine out.

We just have a lot of stuff, and most of it is mine.

OP posts:

Original poster

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 17/01/2016 10:24

If I put every book in the house on the floor in one room I wouldn't be able to get in there....

OP posts:

LifeHuh · 17/01/2016 20:14

I wouldn't get rid of my books to make room for a computer - gotta get your priorities right

Original poster

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 17/01/2016 20:59

Well, we culled some of the cookbooks today and priced up some wall shelves. Compromise...

OP posts:

Topseyt · 17/01/2016 23:00

I wouldn't get rid if books I liked and still enjoyed because DH wanted me to.

I don't have a vast number, but am slowly building a collection. I want to keep them.

As for e-readers, I do have a kindle and can see the advantages. I do have a number of books on said kindle too. Call me old fashioned though, but I just prefer to have a book in front of me.

EcclefechanTart · 17/01/2016 23:27

How do you stop your books going yellow and dusty though? I have them double stacked, and just too many really, and they end up all dusty and horrible :(

MagzFarquarson · 17/01/2016 23:36

Keeep themmm.

(Lose him to free up space)

annielouise · 18/01/2016 08:17

I found it liberating getting rid of boxes of books years ago. I rarely read novels twice - have probably only read some classics twice, none in the last 10 years. Most things can be looked up on the internet as well so I didn't see the need for reference books. Haven't missed them in the slightest. When walking around peaking into people's houses and seeing people with full book cases I just see dust traps now and relieved I don't have to dust them.

riverboat1 · 18/01/2016 08:53

YANBU. I have similarly been quite ruthless in past years about cutting down my collection and only keeping books I loved and would want to read again. But I refuse to cut it down further (three big bookcases). DP makes noises from time to time about how I should get a kindle and then wouldn't need to keep buying books, but it is not an option for me! I love the colour and character that bookcases add to a room, and love being able to see my collection, lend to friends etc.

Glad you seem to have found a solution for now!

Theoretician · 18/01/2016 09:08

I've just got rid of 95% of my books. Realistically, if you've had a book more than five years and not re-read it in that time, you're not going to read it in future. In the rare case where this turns out to be wrong, the cost of buying it twice will be offset by the saving of not unnecessarily storing it for a decade or two.

There is an argument that you should only have books you haven't read in your bookshelf. A bookshelf should contain what you'll read in the future, when you have time, not what you've read in the past. (But I suppose an organised person would only get their next book when intended to start reading it, and get rid of it immediately afterwards.)

riverboat1 · 18/01/2016 12:24

Theoretician - I'd say I have the opposite POV to you. I am unlikely to read the same book twice in a five year period, but pretty likely to reread at a later point (presuming it has been kept in the first place). And the thought of my bookcases being filled largely with unread books makes me feel on edge and pressurised. I like my book cases being full of books that I can look at and remember, like having photographs up of friends and family.

Figmentofmyimagination · 18/01/2016 17:59

With exceptions for favourite authors (which I definitely do re-read), I tend to give away fiction and keep non-fiction and poetry.

I disagree with those who say you can 'look up facts on the internet'. You wouldn't get very far - except to establish 'what happened' as opposed to wondering why.

And kindles are fine for frequent fliers or for work, but give me a lovely book any day (although I do like adjusting the brightness and font size of my iPad reader, so I think that as visual aids, there is a lot to be said for them).

cantgonofurther · 18/01/2016 19:08

I couldn't get rid of any of my books. Even ones that I know I am unlikely to even pick up again. They are apart of who I was at a certain time in my life. I am the same with my music collection too. I have cds from when I was 10 (24 years ago).
We have thousands of books in our house as I have also built up a collection for my dc.

Charley50 · 18/01/2016 19:14

I love rooms that have floor to ceiling bookshelves full of books. It looks warm, cultured and intelligent.
Maybe look on Pinterest or apartment therapy for rooms full of books and make them part of the room design.

pointythings · 18/01/2016 19:52

We have 6 large bookcases in our house and are probably due another cull, but only so that we can replace books we don't read with books that we will. I far prefer a proper book to reading on a Kindle - that's really only good enough on public transport where there isn't much space.

HeavyFrost · 19/01/2016 10:09

We're another household with thousands upon thousands of books. We've just decorated a house we were renting and then bought, and are thinking about building in bookshelves wherever possible, as well as keeping all our freestanding bookcases - but, as we'll probably be selling again within a year or two, has anyone any suggestions on bookshelves that could be removed easily, as I gather there is quite the prejudice with regards buyers entering a booklined house?

Stormtreader · 19/01/2016 17:49

My books are my children, last time I moved house there were 18 boxes of them, literally half of the volume of stuff being moved was books!
I love every one of them :D

emmaMBC · 25/01/2016 17:34

Look in to International Book Giving Day ... to lessen the guilt of getting rid of books!!

chocolatestrawberries · 25/01/2016 18:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

alltouchedout · 25/01/2016 18:08

I always regret getting rid of books. 9 times our of ten I end up buying them again. People know better now than to try and make me do it!

expatinscotland · 25/01/2016 18:17

YANBU.

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