What do you do when you simply have too many books. Sometimes you have to part with some old friends.
Boxes of books
@kiligirl and I moved to a new house some three years ago. Packing up the books was the most difficult. How many books could we accommodate in the new house? Which ones should we get rid of before moving?
We never found answers to those deep questions, so we basically packed up and moved all the books.
Two of the bookshelves taking a fraction of the books
The new house was not so accommodating. But our plans were to put in bookshelves and in time be able to pack them all out. We managed to fill up three bookcases, but that left something like 12 cardboard boxes full of books in the garage. This prevented a second car being parked and also blocked off access to a door leading out of the garage but, we thought, this was only temporary.
Space is all you need
After many delays in getting our house alterations done, it was time to unpack all the boxes and clear the garage. Besides the books, there were a few other boxes of stuff that had to be squeezed in somewhere. So we had a large bookshelf and cupboard built that should accommodate the books, plus another bookshelf or two.
A week ago, the day arrived to unpack the boxes. We immediately realised we had hopelessly underestimated the space we would need. So the first order of business was to go through all the books and set aside those that were easier to part with than others. This resulted in this pile of books:
Books heading for the exit
The large bookshelf was soon full and overflowing. Here are the excess books piled up on the cupboard below the bookshelf:
Tension builds up between the housed and homeless books
Added to that, there's a pile of unread and semi-read books on my bedside table. Will I be able to part with them when read? If not, which books get the chop?
Work-in-progress
New homes
@johannvdwalt and @xiaoxiao visited us on the weekend. They were just about to embark on a photographic journey to some deep rural areas of South Africa. When stopping in these areas, one often finds oneself surrounded by barefoot children begging for money or sweets. We discussed if distributing pens wouldn't be a better idea. But then the solution presented itself: give away books!
The only snag is that books are heavy. So they were only able to take a box full. The books were chosen to be both educational and entertaining.
The other books are being shipped off to a charity.
Let's hope that even one of those books inspires a poor child to achieve something great.
Also posted on Weku, @tim-beck, 2018-12-17
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I'm the same way.
Fiction... non-fiction... research... homesteading... DIY... cookbooks.
You name it, I probably have one in the genre.
I can't part with them either
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It's quite weird. We lived with them in boxes for three years and only really looked for one book I needed. But once the boxes were opened it was difficult to part with them again.
I never did find the book I was looking for 🤔
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