Thursday 16 May 2013

The Year of Less - Less Books


 
 
Yesterday was a pleasant day, and one of realisations.
 
I realised that I no longer have the need to browse through books looking at pictures of other peoples homes.  I no longer need to gather inspiration for what I want.  I know what I want in my home, and bit by bit, piece by piece as other things leave the house, the things that I want are showing themselves and I have them all.
 
This sudden realisation made it so easy to let go of so many of my books. 
 
 
Section by section I emptied the shelves ...
 

 
 ... and one by one I flicked through the books.

 
Housey ones just didn't make it back.

 
There was space left over to sort and catergorise the ones that were going back.

 
Gardening books together, self sufficiency ones together, unread cookery books together.

 
By the time I had finished, the shelves were full again ... 

 
.... all full, but now none were piled on top of others, all had a place ...

 
... and all had been looked at.
 
Yes, I still have a lot of books, but now these can be perused at leisure in the next sweep of sorting.  For now I know that all the ones of the shelves are ones that I do want to look through when I have time to do it properly.
 
I'm wondering now if the fiction books that I own will ever be read.  I am pondering at whether they will be coming with us to the new house at all.
 
It feels good to be sorting, during this Year of Less I'm enjoying that now I have even less books. I filled two plastic boxes with books for the car boot sale yesterday, books that should get us a good price, who'd have thought it, me letting go of books and feeling better for it !!
 
You can click on any of the pictures to get a closer look at the book titles that got to stay, I know I love to have a good nosey peek at other peoples bookshelves :-)
 
Sue xx

15 comments:

  1. It most feel quite liberating to have a good sort through your books, we did it last year and got rid of the fiction that we've read and new we were never going to read again. I'm glad to see the edible garden book on your pile, I love the alys fowler books. Just reading the thrifty forager and hoping to have a go this year.

    Just think of all those boxes you will not have to transport to your forever home xx

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  2. I seldom read any of my fiction books anymore & often wonder if I should get rid.

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  3. must confess that I don't keep fiction any longer- read it, pass it on. . .

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  4. It is doing me good this week to sort through my books for our upcoming BookSale fundraiser. Too easy to keep books 'just for the sake of it'

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  5. I was doing a similar thing last weekend.
    We cleared out the loft - 13 years worth of boys school exercise books etc, photos and it really made me think about all my books. I have 6 bookcases full of books plus a few boxes. If I was in the UK I would give them to a charity shop. I CANNOT throw books away, so I can either try and sell them at a car boot saleor put them on Amazon but that takes forever to organise them all.Not sure yet, but the car boot sale is looking favourite
    Sue

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  6. Oh well done, I find it harder to get rid of books than anything. I have just discovered pinterest though know I will use that for (free) inspiration from now on rather than books for interiors.

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  7. There's very few fiction books which I keep, I had a good sort out a long time ago and I let most of them go to the charity shop. There just wasn't room to keep them all and a line had to be drawn somewhere. It's not as though I actually read a book more than once. Good luck with your forever home, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly for you.

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  8. Books are so hard to get rid of. Like you I had loads of decorating/home furnishing ones, crafty ones, recipes and gardening. Hubby had loads of war books (his passion) but when we moved house we went through them and gave a load away to charity. We had to go through them again when we were putting everything into storage (a few new ones had found their way to the bookshelf) and we had a HUGE sort-out of Mum's attic. We have been away for around 15 months, but still find we have brought books back with us each time we return to Hampshire!! We now have tablets for our fiction reading though.

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  9. I have just done the same again and downsized from a tall five shelf bookcase to a smaller three shelf one. This now homes all my gardening, self sufficiency and other reference books which I know I look at regularly. Everything else has now gone, I do not keep fiction books and I am not planning on buying any more new reference books - I can find out anything I need to through the Internet or the library. As a life long bookaholic I am amazed that I have ever reached this point. Now I am happy to just borrow books without feeling the need to own them.

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  10. I've downsized my bookshelf already, but I must admit it was the hardest part of the whole downsizing thing - I love books, especially home design books, which I ended up keeping.

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  11. snap! I think I own pretty much all the same books as you!

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  12. Hi Sue, I understand the Homey books not coming with you, but the Fiction ones you have to keep or at least go through them and keep the ones you love, , your guests might like to read them :-)

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  13. I've just been given two more bookshelves to fill. I just can't get rid of books. I've ordered the book you featured in your last post from the library, can't wait to look through it!

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  14. Im feeling a lot like that with cookbooks and have carted loads off to the Charity shop. I used to feel the need to keep all the books I read, but now I read them and send them on. As Ive got the (hopeful) move back to NZ in the back of my mind, thinking 'would you take this with you' helps me let go of stuff I would usually hold onto. Its quite a good feeling letting stuff go. :o)

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  15. Oh I love books. Even with kindles etc around these days I don't think anything beats a hard copy printed book to flick through and read. We gave a lot of books to the charity shop when we moved a year and a half ago. Our bookshelf is still at bursting point though, but I've not yet been brave enough to attempt another purge... maybe one day!

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