Offloading books

I'm picking away at our piles of possessions, in a non-linear, not completely logical way.  But -- I figure every little bit helps.

Over the last few months I've got rid of a few guitars and amps.  And, as mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going through my CDs -- some of which I've been carrying around since the mid-'90s, figuring "Well, maybe my tastes will change."  But they haven't.  ;)

My latest thing is going through all of my (and The Lady's) books.  I have a bunch of textbooks and "scholarly" books from when I was in graduate school -- many of which I picked up from the "free pile" in the hallway outside the professors' offices.  But, I've never got around to reading them -- and it's been 10-20 years.  And I've accepted that I'm not going to be a professor -- so I don't really need them.  So, for each one I'd open it to the middle, plus some other places, and read a few sentences:  nearly always I'd go "Urgh".  Into the "Donate" pile.

Llikewise, various sci-fi and fantasy books that I picked up in the '90s and early 2000s -- because I "used to be into sci-fi and fantasy" -- and they were inexpensive when I bought them (garage sales, etc.).  But -- I opened them in the middle, and:  "Eh".  (Over the years I've come to appreciate clever turns of phrase:  these are just "functional".)  So: donate.

As of today, I've taken 15 boxes of books to the local used bookstore guy -- who had to shut down his shop -- like so many other businesses -- during the COVID-19 lockdowns.  I haven't asked for any store credit:  I've just given them to him.  (I originally wasn't going to give him the textbooks, because so many used bookstores don't accept textbooks -- but he says he'll take them:  okay; sure!)

So far I've donated 15 boxes of books; I've used a variety of boxes (different sizes), but I estimate 15 books per box:  that's 225 books.  If he sells them for an average of $3-$5 each, that's $675 to $1125 of pure profit -- and I'm okay with that.

I have seven more boxes of books in the car, and am about 40% through all of the books in the house.  However, these first rounds of books are mostly mine:  I've been handing The Lady's books to her to review, and she's divested of the obvious ones -- but still needs to look through the ambiguous ones. 

But although The Lady will probably end up keeping most of hers (largely mysteries), I think we'll still crank out about 10-15 more boxes of books.

Oh:  plus that "cookbook" shelf just outside the kitchen:  she's talked about going through that.  I wouldn't be surprised if she got rid of half of those -- which would be another 2-3 boxes.


Anyhow: in the end we'll get rid of 20%, maybe up to 30%, of our books.  Which gives you a sense of how many books we're keeping.


It's gratifying:  I don't like having "double layers" of books (where the front row blocks the back row), because then you lose track of what you have behind (and they're hard to get to).  And I also don't like having books piled sideways on top of other books.  So I'm in the process of eliminating both of those situations.


--GG