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Original poster

Book control

40 replies

Quattrocento · 05/04/2009 11:56

I need some tips on book control for my books.

There are a LOT of bookshelves for adult books in the house. I am NOT going to get any more shelves. But the books keep on coming and I cram them into the shelves sideways and stack them up in double rows. Then the piles start. Piles of books in the bedroom and the bathrooms and the kitchen. Until they get to a point where I know I have to have a PURGE.

But I am having trouble with the purging process, I don't know when I will want to reread a book. Take The Bell Jar. I don't think I will reread it but I might want to. Even if I don't want to read it, the DCs might. This sort of dilemma occurs to me with every single book.

How do you decide what to purge?

OP posts:
southeastastra · 05/04/2009 11:57

i don't know but you sound like my dp, books everywhere.

Original poster
Quattrocento · 05/04/2009 11:59

So do you do secret purges or what? I am pondering getting DH to do a purge for me. But he will give away books that we might want ...

See, that doesn't work either! Ho hum.

OP posts:
bluebump · 05/04/2009 12:02

I always cave and get new shelves as I can't bear to get rid of books, even if I am giving them away to charity!

yappybluedog · 05/04/2009 12:05

I stopped purging, as I give away books thinking I won't reread them, then a year later spend ages trying to find it before realising it's gone

did this with Ella Minnow Pea recently, had to buy it again

southeastastra · 05/04/2009 12:31

oh no more than my life's worth to do secret purges!

he did sell one or two on ebay once..needs his own library room

RealityIsMyOnlyChocolateEgg · 05/04/2009 12:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
Quattrocento · 05/04/2009 12:57

But I don't want to move house ...

OP posts:
psychomum5 · 05/04/2009 14:00

I purged once.

I regret it to this day, and even went out and rebought some of the books.

I think you need to make yourself a library......extend if needs be. We are extending, and half of the new walls are not being decerated once it is built, they are just going to be made into shelves at the start.

and then I will need to fill them

provinciallady · 05/04/2009 18:55

I really do sympathise....our house is overflowing with books and purges are rare and very painful...!
A friend bought me this lovely book for my birthday...a fascinating read, with wonderful photographs of some gorgeous libraries. Do have a look at this link You will be filled with envy!
There is lots of advice about organizing your books, and some good advice on thinning out the library - first to go should be out-of-date travel guides, then self-help books (they become dated very quickly) then trash novels (rarely read again) then 'quality literature in mass-market paperback format' because it will always be easy to obtain. For example 'When you want to reread 'War and Peace' it will only be as far as the nearest book-shop or public library'.
Hope that helps...'The Bell Jar' will always be available at the bookshop or library!

provinciallady · 05/04/2009 19:19

Re previous message - sorry, I don't mean you will be filled with envy looking at the link! - but you will be if you treat yourself to the book - such lovely libraries and collections of books....

hannahsaunt · 05/04/2009 19:24

I try to purge sometimes generally successfully with books that have been gifts and have turned out badly [racks brain trying to think of an example]. Some books stay because I love them and some because I just think that they ought to be there e.g. Virginia Woolf and one day they will make sense. Most of mine are in the attic at the moment whilst our basement is renovated; I'm despairing of ever seeing them again not because the work has taken 3 times as long as planned (which it has) but because of the number of books garnered in the intervening period and need housing ...

FiveGoMadInDorset · 05/04/2009 19:27

I purged once, we are getting someone in this winter to do us some proper bookshelves.

I still vainly look for books I know I have given away.

nooka · 05/04/2009 19:35

I do a clear out every year. Generally it only really touches my fantasy and children's books collections though, as the classics are more permanently mine. I use two principles, is the book really good, and I feel pleased to see it on the bookshelf; or have I felt the urge to re read the book in the last year. If no on both scores it goes to a charitable cause of some sort. I have very few books I haven't read at least twice, because when I run out of books I make it a rule to check the shelves for something I haven't read for a while and only when I run out of options do I allow myself to buy a new book. We have six large bookcases, of which over 3/4 are my books, so I think I have things under control . My parents have two houses, their holiday house has all the fiction, their London house all the non-fiction. Every book has been read by my father, and there are probably two or three very large book cases in every room. Every time I visit they are installing more bookcases! They have been talking about building a library onto their holiday home and moving there permanently, but it would have to be a big library (maybe one of those ones where the walls are lined with books and there are little sliding built in ladders!). But I wouldn't say my father's book habit was out of control. He just likes to read!

FfreckleFface · 05/04/2009 19:42

This is not helpful at all, but don't purge. Don't do it. You'll regret it, and forever be haunted by books you have given away...

I have double rows on all of my shelves now, and, much to Bloke's annoyance, turn the book piles into design features around the house.

For example, we have a row of books along every windowsill in the house. I have put a little pile of books on every other stair (copied this from My Family , and have a vase on one pile in the bedroom, and a lamp on another.

Original poster
Quattrocento · 05/04/2009 20:23

I like all the ideas, thank you.

I particularly like the idea of a library, although I have to say that when we moved into this house, we built bookshelves along two walls in the study, and we have three sets of bookshelves in the other rooms.

More practically for us, I like the two principles -

is the book really good, and I feel pleased to see it on the bookshelf;

have I felt the urge to re read the book in the last year.

I'm being brave about it

OP posts:
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 05/04/2009 22:32

Are these books which you have read or books which you have bought with the intention of reading? If the latter, maybe the answer is to focus on your book acquisition habits - steel yourself only to read books from your shelves.

If only I could follow my own advice .....

A Reluctant and Occasional Purger

Original poster
Quattrocento · 05/04/2009 22:39

No, I've read them. All of them. See I wonder if the test should be whether they will ever be reread.

So three categories

Will reread
Might reread
Will never read again

Just looking at the 'P's again, as they are nearest. Edgar Allan Poe. Will I ever reread him? Nah. He's in the third category.

Plato though. He's never going to be reread but might come in handy. I need a fourth category for Useful Sources of Reference.

What should I do with Ezra Pound?

This job requires wine.

OP posts:
MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 05/04/2009 22:48

Yes, the basis of my (rare) purges is whether there is any realistic prospect of my reading the book again. And then I start to wonder whether my daughter may need it as a GCSE set book in eight years' time. And then my friends with older children tell me there's no such thing as a set book, because the exams use extracts. And then my head explodes.

JuxaLOTmoreChocolate · 05/04/2009 22:50

I cannot get rid of a book, even if I hated it; you never know when you might not need to have a quick look in it to check something or you might find that after 20 years you might see it differently and actually want to read it again. Nothing so frustrating as wanting to read a book which you know you had, but don't any more.

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/04/2009 22:52

I buy more bookcases. We have two bookcases in the downstairs hallway and three on the upstair landing. One in my office and one in DH's. Two each in DD1 and DD2's bedroom and one each in ours and DD3's. One in the kitchen (for cookbooks) three in the family room and one in the living room. And a small one in the bathroom.
There are tottering piles on everyone's bedside tables as well.
I am not sure where we are going to squeeze in the next bookcase but I'm sure we'll find somewhere.

Yurtgirl · 05/04/2009 22:52

Cant you just get rid of the stuff you may never look at again - if you do want it for any reason, go to the library

That is my method!

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/04/2009 22:56

But how do you know which stuff that is, Yurtgirl? If I like a book I always want to have the option of rereading it.

Original poster
Quattrocento · 05/04/2009 22:56

No, I have to purge.

Unfortunately I have come up with a fifth category which is Will Never Reread but Went Through so Much Agony Being Forcefed As a Set Text That it Needs to be Kept as a Reminder of Mental Torment

(especially for Ezra Pound)

OP posts:
Yurtgirl · 05/04/2009 23:01

LadyGlencora - take a risk!

I adore books. I only have three bookcases (soon to be 4 as ds wants one) but I regularly try to cut that quantity down.

I have a teetering pile by my bed as well.

In order for me to keep a book it has to be really really good, inspiring etc and a deffo read again.

A possibly read again - get rid, find in library if I change my mind - never have

I recently acquired ten more as I kept finding good ones in charity shops - yet to be opened

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/04/2009 23:04

But the library is not much good if you suddenly decide at 3am that there is a book you must reread now.
Or even 10pm.