How do you decide what books to keep?

[PolyesterBride]

Our house is hopelessly cluttered but we are moving soon so now is my chance to start afresh by chucking out a load of stuff instead of carting it all to the next place.

I have come to the realisation that one of the reasons there is nowhere to put the kids' toys is that I have kept practically every book I have ever read. Lots of them are popular paperbacks like Bridget Jones or whatever but also classics, history A-level textbooks or things like long unread parenting books / books about knitting or whatever.

What does everyone else do? Chuck anything you won't read again? Keep only the "good" ones? I don't want to live in a house without books but there doesn't seem to be much to be gained from holding onto the Kite Runner or Anita and Me or Cloud Atlas or whatever. But it's sad to get rid of them too!

Best thing to do is be brutal and give them to charity shops....if you really want to read Bridget Jones/kite runner again you can buy it in any charity shop for £1. I kept maybe 6 that I couldn't live without...

I've had to do this for two moves and storage, although now I am settled it is building up again.

if you re-read it, keep it. Otherwise it goes to the charity shops for someone else to enjoy. Such as me!

BTW if you have actual old-style classics books as in Latin and Greek, school classics depts are DESPERATE for these.

I have a permanent collection of novels I really love and will read again and again. Some for the story, some as objects (first editions, hand-me-downs, beautifully produced editions etc). I'm prepared to give any amount of space to these, but there aren't as many as you might think. Eg. I love the Count of Monte Cristo, but not so much Anna Karenina, so the latter doesn't qualify, even if my mother thinks it ought to!

I also have a couple of meters of decent books that don't quite make the grade. They cover a range of subjects, age ranges and tastes, and they live in the spare room for guests to help themselves to. It's a bit of a family tradition. Anything that doesn't fit, or isn't even that good goes to the charity shop.

Reference books have to meet the same criteria as my permanent collection of literature: there are a very few reference books I rarely open, but just seeing the spines on my shelves makes me smile; everything else, including A-level textbooks, recipe books, craft books has to have been in use in the last 3years or so, or I consider it surplus to requirements.

We are really bad at this and have had bookcases made each year for the last three years. We now have two walls of floor to ceiling books (probably 15' long by the ceiling height).

Ridiculous really, we need to stop but have now started buying each other really nice editions of our favourite classics.

That's a good idea - to have a fixed amount of shelving and if it doesn't fit, it has to go! And I suppose they could be spread around the house a bit more rather than just in the living room.

I don't think that realistically I will ever read any of the fiction again so need some sort of criteria to decide whether to keep it or not.

You don't need any "criteria" .If you are never going to read it, IT MUST GO!!!

Be ruthless! I cleared most of our books last year, it was so hard but glad I did as I never re-read fiction! I sold them to webuybooks - you don't get loads per book but it really adds up if you have lots! A few books were tworth a fair bit though-especially text books.

I'm thinking of purging mine but if you clear bookshelf shelves what do put there instead?

But then I wouldn't have any books in my house Fairy! It would look weird, wouldn't it?

Would I just have artfully arranged ornaments on the shelves then?

No idea. Following

The text books can go to charity for a start. I've got far too many books and sometimes have a clear out of some. What I do is this. I take a number of books I want to get rid of say 20/50 or whatever and then put two books (or any number) per day in a carrier bag and they go to charity when I've filled the bag. I once got rid of 200 books over the summer holidays using this method.

I keep the ones I'm definitely going to read again.

I also keep the ones that maybe I haven't even read and maybe never will, but they look clever eyes up War and Peace

Yes maybe a bit if pruning would create a more intellectual impression! At the moment my shelves look like the book swap section in the hospital (slightly less mills and boon though).

500 French Verbs anyone?!

people get rid of books??????? (I mean before they die and unfeeling relatives send them all off to Oxfam).

I came from a family where books were never bought - they were borrowed from the library, my mother threw out some books my grandmother had given me and I still remember the anguish that caused . I now have a house full of books and the collection keep growing. Bliss .

I don't find it sad getting rid of books if they are going somewhere else where they will be read.

The only books that I have kept are the ones that would not work on a kindle and a very very small number that have sentimental value. I love the words not the books themselves.

My old book shelf has now been taken over by the DC's (their books fall into the 'don't really work on a kindle' category), I simply didn't have the room to keep all of my old books and give the DC enough space for their books. I thought that I would be really sad and hate the kindle but actually the extra space is wonderful and I now read more books than I did pre-kindle.

I have gone from hugely cluttered and full bookshelves to two small bookshelves. I was just ruthless-any book I hadn't read in last few years, or that had been surpassed (old text books) were out. Anything I could borrow from library if I wanted to, was out. Kept a very small number of books for sentimental reasons-signed copies etc. I love the space. The kids have millions of books, still!