we are moving and are getting rid of our books. It feels very very strange

[overthemill]

and I wondered what you all do with your old books?

Usually I keep them all except for right old tosh which I take to the charity shop.

I love to look at all the books lined up and remember them fondly! The house will feel naked without them.

I had a purge a few years ago and I really missed them although I rarely re-read a book.

I just started again and recycled to keep them down to the bare minimum. I need a bigger house

We don't have room for ours in our house since the DC's came along and took over the spare bedrooms so most are in the attic. I know I have bought a second copy of some that are up there.

Do you have to get rid? Could you store in the attic?

I dream of a house with a study where I will have wall to wall bookcases and all my books displayed and within reach.

I too get rid of the crap but tend to keep more or lend them out and not expect to get them back. Charity shops or freecycle is the best way to get rid I suppose. Couldn't bear to get rid of some that I own though.

Charity shop or read it swap it? List all the books you want to get rid of and swap them for new ones to be sent to your new home? (The only prob is you wil have to post the old ones which is a pita...)

Ask your library, I gave any of a decent quality to my local and they were very pleased.
It does feel very strange, I have just kept my absolute favourites.

Good luck.

we're moving to France (fingers crossed) and we do have hundreds. We can't walk past a bookshop or charity shop without getting something.

We are paring everything down to the barest minimum of what we really really love as moving costs are high.

I'm keeping many books which I love and all those I haven't yet read.

I contacted our local very good second hand bookstore and he will come and give me a valuation - they do buy whole collections it seems even books that ordinary people like us have simply acquired over years and years.

I have used readitswap it with great success though so recommend that to everyone.

The local library has a specific acquisitions policy - and the books need to be new!!

My dd is doing it too and she cried - she is a huge reader and 6 library books a week aren't enough! She does like I did, treats her books like friends

I already feel wierd with piles of books starting to be lined up 'keep' don't keep'.

I did that once, never got over it......even to the point of re-buying some of the books I gave up!

of course, moving is a damn good reason to get rid of them, but it's still heartbreaking. This is why I never plan on moving again, could never go through that again!!

I like to keep mine too, although everytime we have moved I get rid of the dross, much easier to focus the mind when you have to pack and move the boxes yourself. We took about 2000 over to Switzerland but the moving company quoted by the type of house we had and not type of possessions so that was ok, but for the move back we did it ourselves and got rid of lots because we couldnt face moving them again. Moved again recently and our house is much smaller and so I got rid of many more, actually feel much better and lighter for doing this (and still have four full sized bookcases!). It means all my favourites are more visible and not hidden behind unread impulse purchases that I know I am never going to read, or books I have read and know I won't read again for one reason or another.

A couple of things that helped were:

Getting a Librarything account (about £15 although if its less than 200 books its free) and cataloguing all the books I own. Then I could get rid of some but still have a record of what I owned if I wanted to replace them. Downside is I joined in with the forums and got loads more recommendations

Joined Bookmooch which is a points based bookswap site, so you can earn points by sending books and then spend them on more books. Its international too so you can do it from abroad (I joined in Switzerland). My little girl likes to collect the stamps from the international packages!

A lot just went on Freecycle.

Sorry pressed Post too soon.

I meant to add that I joined Dooyoo which is a review site and reviewed books (and other things) I had read, which really focused my mind over whether I liked the book or not. If I couldnt face writing a review or it got less than three stars when I came to rate it, then it went in the charity pile. Plus I got paid for it, although in Amazon vouchers which was somewhat counterproductive.

ooh impressed by all the new websites i can obsess over books on!

I use goodreads to kind of catalogue my reading and that helps a lot, when adding a review, like you say, it focusses what I really thought of a book. Reading all the time there is always some dross!

We used to have even more but moved from big to small house so got rid of lots then (like college related stuff) but now it needs to be done again.

so far we have 4 boxes of books to go and around 50 books of stuff to keep! We MUST try harder!

Think of the pleasure your books will bring to somebody new. When we last moved we went through our collection and sent about 40% to the charity shop (some just had to stay). It is amazing how quickly the house gets refilled with new ones.

ok, the bookman is here - and he's given me £125 for around half my books. Sob.. he likes the 'literary' paperbacks and coffee table types - easy to sell. So the rest are going to be in a book sale I'm going to do outside our house one weekend. 50p a book!