As I mentioned a couple of posts ago I’ve been in the process of doing a bit of weeding of the bookshelves. A few years ago I would never have thought of doing this but when you have 1,000+ books in the house (not counting the craft books or my husband’s library) then weeding of the shelves must be done every so often.
What books do I get rid of? There are some books that are just too wonderful and I want to keep my copy so those stay. As do all my author signed books and books that were gifted to me by family and friends.
But, if a book didn’t really make a lasting impression then it goes away or if it’s a book I can’t imagine reading twice then it also goes. There are also books I’ve been hanging onto thinking I’ll read them but sometimes after years have gone by I look at some books and wonder why I was even interested in them in the first place. So yes, my tastes do change.
What do I do with the books? I try to donate some books to the library, I put up books on BookMooch sometimes and then I also take books to Half Price Books. Today was a Half Price Books day. I filled up three bags but of course while they sifted through them I wandered around and ended up coming home with six books. So much for making room right?
Anyway, I found some great bargains so here’s what I got:
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. Who doesn’t want to read this book? Every review raves about it and I love the title so couldn’t pass this up.
- A Dark Dividing by Sarah Rayne. According to the Mystery Guild, this is “equal parts Daphne du Maurier, Josephine Tey and Ruth Rendell, Rayne possesses superb storytelling skills.” Ooh, gothic goodness.
- The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. I remember reading some good reviews of this one.
- Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack. According to Booklist: “Book lust meets chick lit in this tale of a love-challenged bookworm.” I know some of my bloggy friends enjoyed this and it sounds like a fun read.
- Charity Girl by Michael Lowenthal. Focusing on a little-known WWI-era government campaign to imprison women who’d contracted “social diseases,” Lowenthal follows the travails of a 17-year-old Boston girl as she’s put through the system’s wringer. I remember when this book first came out and it went on my radar then. I’m glad I found it.
- The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. Set during the summer of 1968 in Palo Alto, California, Clayton’s novel chronicles the lives of five women who conduct a weekly writing group at their neighborhood park. Sounds like a good story about women’s lives and friendships.
I guess I’ll be spending my weekend finding room in the shelves for these books. Hope you all have a great weekend!
I weeded mine some time ago but the space is quickly filled up by more new books, LOL. I guess it’s a never-ending cycle. ;P
Hope you’ve a great weekend, Iliana! Happy reading! 🙂
I’ve been weeding too, and I use the same approach as you! I wish I had a Half-Priced Books to drop them off at, although as I recall you don’t get a lot of money there, lol.
Sometimes a good purge is needed. And, it makes for room on the shelves for more books. Literacy and Longing in L.A. sounds interesting. Any book about a bookworm, piques my interest.
I LOVED The Knitting Circle, and I hope to get The Elegance of the Hedgehog too. 1000+ books –yes weeding is a much (good luck).
Wednesday Sisters was a fun read. I really liked it.
I need to do some weeding myself. It’s just so hard to part with books, isn’t it?
heh, that’s the trouble with taking books to HPB, isn’t it? But at least you can feel okay that you got rid of more books than you brought home. 🙂
Sounds like a good list – well worth bringing home 🙂 I am a librarian, so one of my favorite jobs is weeding the collection. I love getting rid of the old stuff and making room for new stuff. It’s easier to weed at work becuase I don’t feel as much ownership of the books. The only time I weed books at home is when we move.
wow, you did get some great deals. happy reading
Well, sometimes you just need more books. You can weed next week.
Melody – How does it happen that as soon as there is free space on the shelves more books appear! 🙂
Eva – Yea, HPB could be a bit better on what they give you but I guess it’s at least something. Enough for a few more books from them 😉
Mike B. – Exactly, that’s why I picked up the book. I figure it can’t be that horrid if there are bookworms involved 🙂
Diane – Oh yay, glad to hear you loved it. I was reading a bit more of the jacket and I get the feeling I’m going to need tissues nearby!
Book Escape – The very first time I parted with books it was awful. Then again I had to part with them out of necessity as my apartment flooded and ruined a lot of books. Over the years though it’s gotten a lot easier.
Stefanie – Too true! I figure six books compared to three bags full is nothing 🙂
Melanie – Oh I’d love to hear how you weed books at the library. Is it done based on if a book never gets checked out? Do you take any home? 🙂
Serena – Thank you! I’d love to start one of these but I may hold off for a bit.
Bookfool, aka Nancy – Hee,hee… that’s right. We all need more books 🙂
I find myself constantly weeding, too! (Though it’s considerably harder to do when the majority of the books are still in boxes!) I either pass them on to my sister, put them on BookMooch, or if they’re in great shape sell them to Powell’s. Can’t wait to hear what you think of the Barbery novel — I’ve had my eye on it for a long time too.
I need to weed my shelves, but every time I try I get frustrated. I can’t seem to make myself get rid of anything. I’ll have to eventually or they’ll take over the house. 🙂
I’ve “weeded” before too but unfortunately I think you might just end up with new books to replace the ones you got rid of! I guess there are many more worse vices to have than collecting books! 🙂
I so need to clean out some room around here, too. The rare times I have taken the time to reduce the collection, I’ve always taken the ones I’ve decided to get rid of to the library as a donation.
Lezlie
I loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog, so I can’t wait to hear what you think! Also, on the title alone, I’d love to read Literacy and Longing in L.A. 🙂
Mindy Withrow – I think it’s hard for me sometimes to weed the shelves just because I have books double-stacked so it’s a major undertaking sometimes just to see what’s behind 🙂
Lisa – It is hard to get rid of books. It’s funny too when I’m at HPB sometimes I see a book I love there in the clearance section and I want to buy it (even if I have it) because I can’t imagine someone letting go of such a great book – haha…
Kathleen – Exactly! I mean, if collecting books, paper and eating lots of chocolate are my vices then I think I’m ok 😉
Lezlie – You know which books I love to donate to libraries? The ARCs… If it’s a book I love, I’ll buy the “good” copy and donate the ARC 🙂
Gentle Reader – That is a great title isn’t it? I was so tempted to start it but of course I’ve already started several others so I’m waiting a bit 🙂
Enjoy your new books. I really enjoyed The Wednesday Sisters 🙂
I’m weeding as well since I’m moving at the end of July, but I can’t seem to stop swapping and mooching books. My policy, though, is that if a book receives lower than a 4, it automatically goes up for swapping, mooching, or sale. For there I decide if its a book I’m going to want to read again, or if it was just fluff that I enjoyed and will never read again.
I really need to do some weeding myself. I have trouble with it though. Ask my husband! He’s about ready to kill me for all the books I have strewn across the house.
Sounds like you got a couple good ones to replace the ones you dropped off. I really want to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
I promise that if I ever win the lottery I will buy you your own library room that will hold all those 1000+ books and plenty of space to add 1000 or so more!
Sounds like you found some great additions!
I need to take a bunch of books to the library — unlike Book Mooch, I won’t be earning points for more books, which is a good thing! I hope you like The Elegance of the Hedgehog — I’m telling everybody I know to read it because I thought it was so good!
Very brave of you to weed books out. I hardly ever do it, but I suppose a time will come when I too will have to! Great finds at Half Price Books – I SO wish there was one over here!!!
At least you came home with fewer right? Surely that’s an improvement! I’d like to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog, too!
Weeding is so difficult! At least you got some interesting-sounding replacements.
I just cleared a few out yesterday (into the charity bag they went and out of the bag some of them came as my mum decided she fancied reading them after all).
Charity girl sounds really interesting – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book about this movement before.
I read ‘Literacy and Longing’ (The Booklover in the UK) quite a while ago and it is a fun book, although a little odd at time (Dora has what you’d really call a book obsession).
I cleaned up my bookcases today, but I really need to weed some. I have a hard time getting rid of some of my books, they become such a part of me.
I purged a lot a while ago to make room, and now I need to do it again. Just like my library at school. LOL
Good for you, doing all that weeding and getting the books out of the house. I feel as though I should post the books on the swapping site to get something in return – sort of defeats the purpose of weeding, no?