Downsizing Our Collection of Books

We began downsizing the volumes of books in our home library in 2003 when my husband and I changed the use of that room. During the redecoration, we boxed the books we had bought as a family of readers since 1973. Our children had already taken their collections to their own households. The time was right to downsize our collection because some books we would never need again. We donated the read books from our membership in The Literary Guild and Quality Paperback Book Clubs. Books bought for reference for the school projects of our children were given to the school library. Altogether, car-trunk-loads of books were gone. We looked at what remained to go back into the three bookcases our interior designer imagined would be sufficient for a couple of readers and collectors. Three bookcase units? Obviously we were working with a man who saw books more as a design element to complement sculptures and photography. At that time we had 23 boxes of unread books in storage in our garage. Even we had to admit that was too many books. Yet they all went in the Keep pile which was subdivided into Keep-because-it's-a-favorite-worth-reading-again-some-day, Keep-as-reference, and Keep-because-we-want-to-read.

This is where I stored our keep piles. When the three new bookcases were in place, the Harvard Classics library books and the books from our charter membership in Library of America found their places in our high regard. High regard means they are stored as collections and not as design elements. Books about investing are scattered between reference shelves and garage storage. Five sets of shelving storage were placed in our garage to give our stored books protection from the wet floors of winter. More interior bookcases were purchased and put where the designer would have shuddered at our lack of taste and disregard for his plan. We had a bookcase for my husband's books about the Civil War and a bookcase for fantasy series. Local history books and books published by National Geographic and Time-Life for armchair traveling filled two more bookcases.

Six years later, I must still wonder, "What else do I want to keep, what can I sell on www.Half.com or eBay or what shall I donate?"
I documented our Keep-because-we-want-to-read library as "to read" at www.goodreads.com
my yet-to-be-read Library
Husband's yet-to-be-read Library

The project now extends to the books stored in our garage. Good news! In the last six years, the 23 boxes of unread books has been whittled down to 18 boxes of books. Most of these have been read. Choosing to offer for sell or donate a read book may appear easy. No, the choice is not easy once the book enchanted this reader with its spell. Now many boxes are labeled Favorites. These are books I didn't loan for fear they wouldn't be read or returned. Instead, when I recommended them, I suggested where the books could be found (library or bookstore) so that the intention to read would be strengthened in the act of locating them. Does my reason for keeping them six years ago still remain? If we move, is the cost of shipping worth the value of this book to me?