So for some people this may not be a difficult subject but I’m struggling with reducing my collection of books. For background info: I’ve been collecting books since I was a child, I’ve always been an avid reader and books were my safe space. As an adult I significantly ramped up my collection, I was very active in the early days of eBay and made some decent money from selling collectable out-of-print books. I now have a collection of around 3000 books, from collectible and rare children’s books to commercial and easy to buy fiction.
My initial motivation was to keep them for my future children to read with them but now that I have two kids, one who is starting to read on his own, I have realized that a lot of the books I own are very doubtfully going to be read by them, especially as we are frequent library visitors and obviously stories and interests have changed in the 30 years since I was a child. An example would be The Baby Sitters Club books, I have the entire series but on rereading a couple I don’t think it will ever be of interest to my kids. On the adult side of things as an example I have a complete series of The Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella, all first editions, but I don’t think I’ll ever read them again.
Until this point I have displayed probably half of them, they are currently in a rainbow display in my home study. I’ve been on a journey to simplify and declutter, which my family is aware of, and the last bastion is my book collection. I have zero time to list to try to sell but so much of me laments the dollars spent as I try to cull my collection. 90% of the books are in as-new condition and the price stickers on the backs seem to jump out at me. The older books are even more difficult to tackle as I often spent considerable time and money tracking down difficult to find editions. Eg. I have over 400 1st edition Enid Blyton books, complete series of Trixie Belden, Bobbsey Twins, Cherry Ames, Hardy Boys etc. Please help me how to reduce the guilt and just learn to let books go.
TL:DR I have an enormous book collection that I am trying to reduce but I have a lot of guilt over getting rid of books largely because of money spent but also because I don’t want my kids to want to read them later and me not have it
by gossamerbold
2 Comments
I donated my collection to my local library. Some was put into circulation and others were sold in the annual book sale to purchase new books.
I had no room left and switched to ebooks as they are easier to read without glasses at this point in my life. I only kept autographed books, and the ones that are not in ebook format, plus an early edition of a classic that was a gift.
Once I realized I was sharing the joy of reading by donating, it was an easy choice.
Make a Free Little Library and plant it in your front yard.