I love books. I have loved them for as long as I can remember. And to me, home just doesn’t feel like home unless there are shelves and shelves of books around.
I know eBooks and all things digital are the rage – I’ve written four eBooks, so I do appreciate the medium – but all of the digital books in the world can’t compare to holding your own book and thumbing through the paper pages.
Even though I love having books all around my home, sometimes I need to thin out my collection. (Typically the tell-tale sign is when our bookshelves are overflowing!)
How I thin my book collection
It may be hard for me to part with books, but I’ve found it can be easier simply by trying to start reading a book for a second time. If I lose interest within the first page or two, the book loses its spot on my bookshelf. There’s no sense in keeping a book that I don’t want to read again.
Now that my children are getting older, I’ve been getting rid of some of the baby books they’ve outgrown. Just because I’m a sentimental mama I’ve kept a few of their very favorite books. But the rest are passed along.
What do I do with discarded books?
Once I’ve culled my book collection, I try selling them at our garage sale.
If they don’t sell, though – and often they don’t – I donate them to our local library. The libraries in my area all hold book sales to help raise money. I often buy books from these sales (at FANTASTIC prices!) and I’m happy to pass my books on to help benefit our libraries.
Depending on the type of books, they also could be donated to churches.
How do you thin your book collection? What do you do with discarded books?
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i just got rid of half of our books, next up are CDs…which is way easier, cause part of that project is to import all music onto a hard drive. so i still have the music, just way less stuff.
for the books, somehow i used to hold on to them much more, i mean i little by little brought my favorites halfway around the globe. but i am in a big decluttering project, nothing that is not used or adds value (beauty or important memories) to our home stays. everything has to have its place and purpose. lots of the books just took up valueable space, so that made getting rid of them way easier. somehow my perspective on the whole subject just shifted. though i still love browsing bookstores… there is nothing like flipping through actual pages. i just don’t want my home full of them anymore.
I am also a book lover. But once in a while when the shelves look like they may warp or break – I purge. I have done very well on half.com or eBay. Once I try them through there, then the leftovers go to the library for their sale. Recently I tried a bookstore in Mayfield heights that buys books, CD’s and DVD’s. I didn’t do well their with some of my books — I should have tried them through half or eBay first. I was being lazy and didn’t want to buy more envelopes and go to the post office as they sold! Lesson learned. I also never sell a book on half.com once it’s reduced to $1.50, it’s not worth it then. We have made a large amount of money selling our books this way.