# Book Purges.



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

I have finally decided it's time to tackle the book cupboard and whittle out the duplicates and ones I'll never read or re-read again.
Need advice on how to avoid being distracted by a forgotten gem and not completing the job in hand.


----------



## BAYLOR (Oct 5, 2020)

Best advice , don't let nostalgia creep in,  otherwise you'll  you start making exceptions, holding aside this book and that book and, in the end, you  won't be able to get rid any of the books. It's best to just  dispose of them, don't think about it  and move on.


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

There will be specific authors and books  I'll not part with.


----------



## wagtail (Oct 5, 2020)

Set a box aside for your special gems and don't let yourself look inside that box until you've finished the Big Clean.


----------



## Ian Fortytwo (Oct 5, 2020)

I was very ruthless recently and chucked out even favourites, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get rid of any of them.


----------



## CupofJoe (Oct 5, 2020)

I'd always vote against getting rid of books [unless they are exact copies]. Every time I've had a clear out, I've regretted it. Sometimes sooner but always later. I seem to throw out the books I don't think I'll read again, not the books I know I'll never read again. Somehow I STILL have a copy of The Love Object by Jere Cunningham and did give away my Julian May Saga of the Exile paperbacks...


----------



## The Judge (Oct 5, 2020)

Have four boxes, all labelled so there's no confusion -- definitely keep, perhaps keep, definitely throw and forgotten-gems-to-look-at-again-before-deciding.  Be strict and don't hold any book in your hand for more than 15 seconds before putting it in one or other box.

When it's all done, put back all the "definitely keep" on your shelves/in the cupboard.  If there is any room left, start rummaging through the "perhaps keep" and see what can now be re-sorted into the "definitely throw" and the now-empty "definitely keep" boxes, and deal with them accordingly.  If there are any left in the "perhaps keep" when you've done, put a lid on the box, label it with the date, and if in 6 months you've not once thought about any of the books inside, throw them all out.

When all that's done, make a cup of tea/coffee/cocoa, get out some cake and/or chocolate and indulge yourself with the "forgotten-gems" box by way of a reward!


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

This is less than half, they have taking over, the bags are also full of books. Then there others scattered all over the house. All random shoved in after my son was looking for one and couldn't be bothered putting them back in either boxes or bag.


----------



## The Judge (Oct 5, 2020)

Oh yes, they need sorting all right!! Some shelving would be an idea, too!


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

The shelves are in bedroom full of books too. The majority in there are from house move 8 year ago  and were stored in the cupboard to be sorted at a later date, never happened and others have since been added

It is easy  to keep putting it off, I live in an upstairs flat with its own entrance and the cupboard is downstairs so I only have to look at when entering or leaving.


----------



## TWErvin2 (Oct 5, 2020)

Put the books to be removed in a box (or two) and set them aside, such as a closet or storage. In a few months, if you haven't missed any of them, then it is probably time to move to the next step. Instead of tossing, try a used bookstore. You might get credit (for cash or more books), and someone else might make use of what you're getting rid of.


----------



## .matthew. (Oct 5, 2020)

I'm going to play devil's advocate... Keep all the books, you know you want to.

Sentimental hoarding aside, you can't forget that when we run out of oil, books will be the new fuel of choice in our dystopian society. Plus, with all the book burning, they're bound to increase in value making them a fantastic investment opportunity.


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

One box done these 37 are going 19 kept


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

I have no idea where I got this from, never been a member of Readers Digest.


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

Well so far I've pruned out 100 books, I've stopped trying to organise my keep  pile just putting them in boxes. Will count and organise them when the purge is over.


----------



## JJewel (Oct 5, 2020)

their is a few sites online that will buy in bulk just by scanning the code or adding the title, they dont give you much though


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

Why on earth have I kept a hold of books like Robert Newcombe's The Fifth Sorceress, Eddings Elder Gods, Goodkind's Sword of Truth, Dan Brown's books, Jodi Picoult( don't judge, a friend thought I needed to widen my reading and gave them to me. I managed to plough through one).
None of these books were enjoyable but for some reason I've kept them.


----------



## Jo Zebedee (Oct 5, 2020)

Cant help. Having the bookstore hasn’t helped our hoarding at all...


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

Sorry for all the posts but its the only way I'll finish it. I've given up for today. So far over 100 books are going.


----------



## tinkerdan (Oct 5, 2020)

Are you out of book shelves?
Honestly that stack is how some of my most recent purchases look since I'm short at least one book shelf.

Get rid of?...it took so much effort to get them assembled here.
No. I just need another full height book shelf.


----------



## nixie (Oct 5, 2020)

Those are books that after reading should have never been kept.


----------



## Rodders (Oct 6, 2020)

I did try to send a load to my local library when I moved, but they were quite picky.


----------



## Vince W (Oct 6, 2020)

I'm moving next week and am in the process of sorting my books. I'm trying to be ruthless but it's hard. Very hard. I think I've set about 20 aside so far but it isn't nearly enough. *sigh*


----------



## Vladd67 (Oct 6, 2020)

Be careful Vince I had a ruthless clearout before one house move, and a number I got rid of I have since thought I must read that one. I have even bought a couple again to replace the ones purged. I'm weak.


----------



## Vince W (Oct 6, 2020)

That is a worry.


----------



## JJewel (Oct 6, 2020)

Yup been rebuying Zelazny back bit by bit recently after thinking dont need them anymore. Best just never to throw out anything unless it rots, like meat for example?


----------



## nixie (Oct 6, 2020)

Stop, I need to weed out the chaff. Don't tempt me into keeping them , I'm the person who buys boxes of books without checking what's there at car boot sales to stop them getting wet.

I no longer visit car boot sales.


----------



## JJewel (Oct 6, 2020)

Giving the selling price of books currently you would make a lot selling on Amazon, someone has to be buying at the prices they have quoted?


----------



## tinkerdan (Oct 7, 2020)

I'm really pretty ruthless about the books I keep.
With e-books I can easily test drive anything suspicious.
So, as of late I'm pretty ruthless about what I buy in paper and those are going to be ones I'll keep.

A number of those recently are for research for writing.

However I have almost a whole bookshelf(from the last two years)full that needs the bookshelf.


----------



## JJewel (Oct 7, 2020)

The kids are still at home, 2 of them anyway but I dream about the day one of them moves out and I can put up a bookshelf and get the stuff down from the loft. My entire collection of F1 books and autobiographies will fit several bookshelves alone, never mind the Sci-fi, Fantasy, Music, Detective Novels and Horror etc...


----------



## pogopossum (Feb 2, 2021)

Kept about a tenth of my SF & history books when I moved from a huge old rambling Victorian to a small 2 bedroom rowhouse.
Still have 3 crammed floor to ceiling bookshelves
Kept the ten crates of Walt Kelly books & memorabilia (in the basement)

Parenthetically, if there are any Pogo lovers out there, I have dups and am willing to share. Message me for a freebie.

As a 35 year tenure librarian I can guarantee that libraries are not the place to donate to. The luck that someone might really appreciate is minimal.
And they don't get much for them in the booksale.

By far the best place to donate to that I have discovered is any prison or jail that accepts donations.
Many cities have a place that will see that they get to the incarcerated.
Lots of prisoners love books, particularly history and SF. I even got a thank you call from a jail that hinted broadly that they would be happy to take more.

The other place that grabbed them up was at a 24 hour SF movie marathon, given away as people entered.
Had 4-5 crates snatched up that way.

But if you can bear it, give things away. Specifically if you can't see a time that you will re-read.
I admit that I am lucky. The few times I've wanted something again, I have access to one of the best Public Libraries in our country. And they keep everything. Also, used book dealers are so cheap that I have to resist my tendency to pick up mucho stuff. We are almost all hoarders.

And I sympathize with JJewel. I did not give up my Zelazny. And have added the 6 volume NESFA bound collection of his stuff since my big purge.

Parenthetically. My wife went to the same high school in Euclid, Ohio as Roger (but 3 years later ) It was huge and pretty much completely White Working Class at the time.


----------



## CTRandall (Feb 3, 2021)

Burn the lot. Make it a sacrifice to the literary gods. Satiate their eternal hunger for a good story by sending the sweet incense of purple prose, adjectives red (or read) in tooth and claw and the blackened barbituates of run-on sentences up, up to the heavens above.

And remember to disable your smoke alarms first. They make an awful racket.


----------



## K. Riehl (Feb 21, 2021)

When I moved from Boston to the West Coast in 2007 I sold 20 boxes of books and donated 70 boxes to the library. I retained 100 cases, the target number I told my wife I would keep. The sold books paid for the move as well a several months rent.
I still look for titles that I thought I kept. A big screw up was not putting my signed 1st ed 1984 in the correct box. Someone at the library got a gem.


----------

