I have a copy of Lucifer's Hammer that is basically all loose pages. Needless to say, no book gets the cut in our house, unless our daughter happened to throw it into the toilet or something.

I only keep books that I think I'll read again someday. It is my only concession to "clutter". We have a whole wall of book shelves in our otherwise minimal apartment.

not only do I hold onto my books, but my parents' books are slowly making there way into my house. my parents (retired english professors) keep trying to weed out books from their collection, but I can't bear to let the books I grew up with leave the family! unfortunately, I can't seem to get them to give up any bookshelves...

As a holistic home organizer, just yesterday I worked with a client on de-cluttering her bookshelf. We purged bags and bags of books but kept current reference books, books that had a significant impact on her, and favorite children's books to pass on. I brought the books to the local trade-a-book and she ended up a credit to last her years. Eco-friendly and economical!

I weed about once a year to get rid of anything I think I "should have read by now" or know I won't read again. However, that doesn't keep me from having multiple copies of my very favorite books. I have 5 bookcases in my 1BR apt, and I love the cozy feel of the books - as long as they are on the shelves and not spilling over. Stacks of books around the apt means time to weed again.

Next to my cats, books are my most important possessions. They're good friends . . . provide me with entertainment, comfort and escape from everyday worries. To create some extra space, I just gave some cookbooks to a friend who collects them. I reread older books when I run out of new books to read. I only collect certain authors. Sometimes, I'll get tired of a particular author and then I'll donate those books to a library. My problem is I have too many authors I like! To make room for books, I drastically limit other possessions. Might not work for you, but it works for me.

Books that I'll read again someday, have information I can't find on the internet (not many of those), have sentimental value, a handful I haven't read yet...and okay, there are a few that I just keep to make me look more intellectual than I am. (Though at the moment I have The Red Tent shelved between The Hitchhiker's Guide Radio Scripts and The World of Pooh - and I don't have children - so that's rather pointless...)

Loren Eaton, who writes at "I Saw Lightning Fall" advocates "the middle shelf." ONE shelf of books---that's all. I've been thinking about his method, and I know I can't live with just one shelf, but I think I can maybe live with just one book case (instead of ten).

http://isawlightningfall.blogspot.com/2007/12/middle-shelf.html

Books are not clutter: books are essentials. I'd no more throw away books than I'd throw away art.

I keep anything that a) isn't a duplicate b) doesn't smell and c) has some connection to my scholarship, work or pleasure.

I keep mostly non-fiction books that I still refer to occasionally, or might read again.

A book-less home is the decor equivalent of wearing blue glitter eye-shadow. I and most of my friends agree that when we see a home without books, we instinctively assume the owner is stupid. It's an unfair prejudice, but a common one.

I am suspect of a house (or person) with no books! Reading is such a gift and a pleasure, I can't imagine not having a ready supply of treasured booksand books waiting to be read. Only if I truly disliked a book will I give it away to someone who might like it better - often to the local library.

Yes, they are a pain to move, but a bookcase full of real books says "home" and "someone lives here" to me. And books by the yard purchased just to fill shelves or books shelved backwards or books collected just for their beige binding to fit the look of the room don't count.

If I like a book, I will definitely read it again, so I only get rid of the duds.

I have 50 interiors books. Ooops!

(Some actually from another poster here who kindly gave some of hers away.)

...and that is the one thing I'm looking forward to when we move to a different space with more room for it: a custom bookcase on an entire wall or three walls of a small room, maybe the dining room.

The ultimate luxury!

Ah -- books......

I love them. So much so that I'm still kicking myself for not becoming a librarian.

I'm constantly in a state of panic over what to do with all of mine. As it is, there are four 7 ft. tall 36" bookshelves full, and I have a few hundred books at Mom's house too. I'm constantly trying to weed through and let go of books, simply because they flow in weekly.

I was raised to love books. My parents have had the following quote on their fridge since I was little:

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
- Cicero

"Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house." -Henry Ward Beecher

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." --Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.

You can never have too much soul.

I have two and one half shelves of books. After a few college-years bouts of brokeness that involved me selling off my current collection, I lost the will to hoard them. Now, I can afford to keep my books but generally it goes like this: I try to get a book by some means other than buying... borrowing from a friend or (not as often as I aspire) *the library*. And I don't buy a book unless I'm pretty certain I will like it, and as soon as I am done with it, I find someone to give it to. If they give it back, fine, I'll find someone else to give it to. If they "steal" it, great: less for me. :) I have a few that I re-read pretty often or that I want to make sure I have on hand for future match-making, though.

OK. One of my pet peeves. People who hoard books.

Sadly, more than like to admit it are like our friend in Montreal and think that casually displaying the "right" book or magazine makes them seem smart. Most haven't read half the books on their shelves and understand even fewer. In fact, it's the sagging bookshelf that's like blue glitter makeup; it's a mark of insecurity.

But others are just hoarders and see this as one of the few socially acceptable things to hoard. You can be helped. Once you've read a book pass it on. C'mon, why would you need to read it again? There are hundreds of great new books released every week. Read a new book. Put your old ones to good use.

As a thrift store volunteer, I see so many people who can afford to indulge their reading habit only with second hand books. Books are some of our top sellers. There are many many less fortunate people who would appreciate your cast offs more than you can imagine. You'd be surprised how many children have never owned a hardback book of their own. Whose parents can't afford to shop Barnes & Noble when they need food and medicine.

Please, please donate your books. They are treasures too valuable to stash away on a shelf. Share the wealth.

Since I started stocking a classroom library for my students, I don't have the quantity of books in my house that I once did. My husband and I still have many books in the house, but it makes me so happy to see a student fall in love with a book that otherwise would have just been sitting on our shelves.

For those of you who have appropriate titles that you won't reread, consider contacting your local schools to see if they have a need for books. Not everyone is fortunate enough to grow up in a house filled with books. Donating them to a school will ensure that students have lots of titles to explore and help them fall in love with reading. Read on!

I would consider passing on current books or out of date reference books to new homes but I don't think I could ever get rid of my childhood books with all the scribbles and coloring I use to do in them. I didn't have THAT many so its not so bad on the shelf right now.

"Most haven't read half the books on their shelves and understand even fewer."

I can't believe that's true...most book lovers I know go through absolutely copious amounts of books and have read just about everything in their collection. As for "understood" -- I can't really get behind that snarky remark, either.

I have huge two bookshelves full of well-loved treasures that I've read and re-read, and a to-read pile less than ten books high (it got halved thanks to a quiet weekend away with gramma). I've got a lot of books compared to most people my age, but over the past ten years I've given away or sold hundreds and hundreds of books, likely even thousands, all read except a scant handful I knew I'd never get around to reading. I feel my case is not peculiar, but rather the norm where bibliophiles are concerned.

Why do I keep a few hundred volumes around? Mostly for re-reading. I can't afford to go out and buy a new book whenever I want a read, and the library's off-limits until I pay the latest scandalous fine I racked up. I get a lot of pleasure out of rediscovering favorites, and I get a lot more out of prose on each thoughtful re-read.

I also consider books an essential part of my personality, so like a music collection or any other collection, they're a decorative element that mean a lot to me and present a huge part of myself to visitors. My book collection is one of the first things I unpacked when I moved in with my boyfriend recently. Home didn't feel so without it.

How do I edit my collection? If I have little-to-no interest in re-reading, out it goes. If I feel I've squeezed every last drop of understanding out of a book, same. Most reference works are gone, thanks to the Internet. And there's always a big purge pre-move -- I generally set myself a one-or-two-box goal.

What I've learned from these recurring AT posts about books: people who keep their books are insecure bourgeois posers who don't really read and don't understand what they do read. (Or, god forbid, they read books twice! Imagine!) Even worse, they hoard their precious books and refuse to share with the downtrodden masses and their starving children (whose book ownership, if only possible, would, in a startling reversal of value, somehow represent authenticity itself). Oh yeah, and they're killing the environment by not "recycling" Lolita. And did I mention their cluttery design aesthetic?

On the other hand, those who don't keep books are cold, unfeeling creeps who watch too much TV in hopes of finding the soul they're missing in the latest episode of, say, A Shot of Love. They claim to read and pass along their books, but everyone knows this is code for "I can't remember the last time I read a novel." If they did own books, they would arrange them by color (which proves their lack of a soul) or buy them by the yard to fill an otherwise empty built-in.

I could go on and on. But as someone who has employed some of the rhetoric above in past comments about AT's books posts, I ask: can't we all just agree that some people read books and some people don't, some people re-read books and some people don't, some people keep books and some people don't, some people buy books and some people get them at the library, and none of these people has any inherent claim to aesthetic or ethical superiority?

Well, okay, both camps have prejudices, agreed. But I do notice a bias against books in design circles -- the "oh, unless you can justify these, out they go!" attitude.

I'm sure it's a pain to have to deal with a client's books, much as it would be to deal with pets or kids, but still. People read. Many of us keep our books. Design solutions should deal with this.

I couldn't agree with you more, edieb!

If the idea of not having it on my shelf makes me cry, I keep it. If I read it at least once a year, AND it is a book or special edition the library does not have, I keep it. If I will never read it again, I pass it on. If it is loved but I don't have an attachment to that particular volume, I pass it on and check it out of the library when I need to read it.

I move a lot, always swearing it is the last time. I have dust and mite allergies. Both of these factors make it best for me to reduce my books. I have gone from many, many bookcases packed beyond their limits to one rationally arranged one. It is working just fine so far for me.

I sometimes like to keep multiple copies of my favorite books. I buy backup copies of out-of-print books -- just in in case!

Funny, isn't it ... how the people who don't "get it" about books think the reason people keep them is to "display" them and "seem smart"! "Why would you need to read it again?" Ummm... maybe to re-savor the experience; to catch things you missed the first time when you might have been concentrating on plot; to remember things you had forgotten; for the sheer pleasure of the language of one's favorite authors? Can you imagine anyone saying, "I've heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony already. C'mon, why would you need to hear it again?" Why, indeed!

This topic seems to get posted again and again, with the same opinions again and again. Here's mine again. I'm a big reader, but I have no attachment to books, except for a very, very few from both childhood and adulthood. I have one bookcase full of books. I keep reference books and I have books ready to read that I've mostly picked up used. I keep work-related books at work. Usually, when I finish a book I bring it to the used bookstore for credit or I loan or give it to someone. I just joined an excellent library and have started getting books there, so I'll probably have less books as time goes on (maybe - it seems I always have as many books as I have bookshelves; there's always more to weed out.) I live in an apartment, with only just so much space. The bookstores and the libraries and the yard sales store my already-read books for me.

I am an avid reader and have very few books. The reason why is two fold:

1) I use the Los Angeles Public Library. A wonderful resource of which it is a privilege and and a pleasure to support.

2) 95% of the books have owned, I give to friends to read. When they are finished, I ask them to pass it on to someone else. If not, I will find someone else to loan it to or donate it to the library.

I certainly have no need to make acquaintance with people who are so quick to judge people by the quantity and quality of books they have in their home. Reading is a gift. I prefer to share books with those around me than have them sit on a shelf.

What we should really be talking about, btw, is blue-glitter eye-shadow, since it has been summoned to stand in for both stupid non-readers *and* stupid readers. Since when does blue-glitter eye-shadow connote stupidity? Sounds more like fabulous excess to me!

My husband and I love shopping used bookstores, especially when visiting other cities. We keep our fiction finds until we've both read them, then get rid of them. We keep reference and sentimental books (old hymnals from the grandparents, yearbooks, etc.) To eliminate extra books, we trade books using paperbackswap.com, donate them to my husband's office lending library (they do a lot of air travel), or trade them in at our local used book shop for credit.

You might find a kindred spirit who could appreciate just that book -- say, and then -- it's handy to have an extra copy to lend or give away at the opportune moment.

I hoard books and watch TV. Let's not stereotype.

Yay edieb!

Disintegrating paperbacks and out-of-date reference books are the first to go. We don't hold onto a lot of fiction unless it is very important to us.

Having said that, we do love our books around here and have quite a few at home. We just try to keep what we own limited to the amount of shelving that we have to properly access it.

I love my books, but I don't pretend they are great literature or expect to fool people into thinking I'm smart because I read a lot. I read everything: chick-lit, historical books, murder mysteries, funny books, gardening and interior books. etc. I read to escape and to relax.

As for being selfish for keeping books, we're not in the Gutenberg era, people. I would say that hoarding them for my own private use was cruel to the "downtrodden masses" if there weren't libraries all over the place for said masses to check them out for free. No one is denied a book if they want one. I happen to want to keep mine to re-read or to share with a friend who shares my taste in subjects.

I keep my first editions and my hardcovers, including the fabulous Andersen and Grimms fairy tales that have been in the family for three generations now.

I used to ask the question of my library: If I had an overnight guest, would they find something interesting to read on my shelves?

Now I've changed the question to: Does this book still ask the sort of questions I'm still interested in exploring?

MandarinOrange wins by invocation of Larry Niven! ^.^

I loved it when I was a kid, and I was just holding my copy and smiling at the memory. Good times.

Oh my goodness, I have a feeling a lot of people just don't re-read the way I (and other book hoarders) do. My boyfriend and I have, um, thousands (? we really have no idea) of books in our little apartment-- his primarily nonfiction, mine mostly fiction-- and our books are worn to DEATH because we read them over...and over...and over... we're talking like 10 times. And yes, I do read new things! For me, books are like food-- I tend to need some every day to get by (if you're wondering, all that extra time comes out of sleep and my train commute, plus the fact that we don't have a TV)! Re-reading aside, I do love books just for themselves... and I'm with Cicero in that there are books in every room but the bathroom (that I do find a little nasty)! Honestly though, like our pets, I don't consider them a "design" element-- just a part of our lives. It doesn't mean they can't be well displayed, but they aren't valued according to aesthetics.

I'm an avid reader, but really not much of a re-reader. About the only thing I really like to re-read is LOTR -- I re-read that about once every 4-5 years.

The books I am interested in keeping are family heirlooms or deeply personally significant. For example, I have an old (like, 1904 kind of old) copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales. I also have a complete set of the first edition "5 Foot Classics" that is personally significant because my immigrant great-grandfather pieced together hard-earned money to buy this set of books for his eldest son and now it goes to the first-born of every generation.

Another category of book I keep are non-fiction books in topics that I'm interested in. These have an intermediate -length lifespan on my shelves.

The other sort of books I keep are books that are good to have for reference or specific pursuits. I'm a writer so there will always be a dictionary and thesaurus in the house. I'm a programmer too, so there will always be an odd assortment of unix/java/whatever books until I can leave that career. I'm developing a side business so there are some business books and books on the topic of my business.

I have hundreds of books, and I am not HORDING these books -- these books have utilitarian or sentimental value. I hold onto no book simply because it's a book.

The everyday books -- the mysteries and science fiction I take along with me on my daily commute -- get donated to the library as fast as I can read them.

quiltmaster,
It's one thing to say that you don't like to keep books and that you'd rather donate them to charity -- it's another to judge people who like to keep books, and make baseless assumptions that they don't actually read them and are hoarding them to seem smarter.
What makes you think that you can presume the motives of people you don't know anything about??

I don't have the hoarding/editing problem simply because I don't really enjoy reading all that much. Check that: I enjoy reading, but not necessarily the random act of picking up any old book and reading it, like what most people in here do (from what it sounds). I only have about 10 or so fictions from which even the shortest quotes from any random page will make me cry. In college, I studied--and still write on--cinema and philosophy, so I have books on those topics. I also have picture-books (I dunno what they're called exactly..."coffee table books", but the term puts these books in the same level as potty books) of photographers, painters, filmmakers, designers, and architects that inspire me. Then of course, a few very prized posessions: my mother's cookbook, Doc Savage collection, yearbooks, Arnold's encyclopedia of bodybuilding (some guys have muscle mags, I have the effin' bible). I guess my collection is edited by the capacity of a book to astound and inspire me. Any less, and it is chucked. Readability and re-readabiltiy is a low standard. If I don't cry tears of joy every time I open the book, then it is not worth keeping it.

it is not about keeping the books that matter - but if you can apply one of these books that inspired you in your life, life will change.

Now I keep only books that I have not read and give away books and feel very liberated. - It didn't come easy with me.
I use Worldcat.org to locate a book in any of the libraries, before I go and buy.

A friend of mine calls my library area my "more smarter room." Very funny, but to me, picking which books to throw out would be like deciding which bones I no longer need in my body and jettisoning them. I love my books. Critical mass control comes with new books: a book has to be PDG to get on my shelves. The rest move on, one way or the other. . . .

my boyfriend works at the public library in our small town and most of the book donated get thrown into the dumpster. they have five storage building full of them and a shop but still too many! I hate to get rid of books and i hate to see them thrown out, often my boyfriend and i rescue books worth the rescue. donation something that makes you feel like your helping out but when the only thing your donating in a fire starter for the homeless it doesnt seem like the right thing to do. best to check out what the organization is really doing with your donations!

I don't understand this idea of artificial numbers (or space constraints) applied to stuff. Keeping just one shelf of books when you're an avid reader is a lot like saying you are only going to keep 10 drill bits ... who needs a 5/16" bit anyway! I can just borrow one from my dad or buy new! Yeah, that works when you're in the middle of a project. Books are tools. If you're not a woodworker, you can probably get by with nothing more than a hammer and screwdriver. But to tell a hobbyist or pro woodworker that he is cluttering things up with his tools is irrational. Same with books.

The available space in our home dictates the amount of books I keep. Right now I have two tall bookshelves full and that's the maximum real estate available without making rooms feel hopelessly overcrowded (there will also be a small bookcase in our child's room). It was painful for me to thin out my collection at first, but once they were out the door I found I didn't miss them. We have a library right around the corner and I use it frequently; I've made a rule for myself that if I read a library book and absolutely love it and can see myself re-reading it, then I will give myself permission to buy it. This rarely happens!

Like many others here, I keep sentimental childhood favourites (my mother was an elementary school teacher, so I have many), favourite novels and design books and an edited collection of cookbooks. If we had a larger home (with, dream of dreams, a library) I would likely keep more, but I find I value open space now just as much as an extended collection of books and I'm not willing to sacrifice the former for the latter.

I buy books at Goodwill, used book stores & online. I try to keep only books I liked enough to read again, but they proliferate, and I love having bookshelves. They're mostly on "outside" walls, so they provide some insulation.

i love books and come from a family of book people. each time i move house i curse that fact :-D but i wouldn't feel at home in a place without books. i have a big wall with them in my livingroom, and a second one for the art books in my bedroom.

still, i am purging now and then, giving away those i know i won't read again (i am a repetitive reader, too … some of these are real long-time friends). i have several places where to donate them (where i know what is happening with them, too, btw), and also friends and neighbours who are fond of reading, so it never is a problem to get rid of them.

if a book is crap, though, i have no problem with putting it into the paper recycling bin.

I love to read but I also value books as a decorating tool. I think that a well chosen amount of books adds something to any room. They're not only visually appealing with the variety of color and texture they add, but are also fun to look at and always start conversations when you have company. I used to hoard books but now I keep only as many as I can make look nice in my apartment without making it feel too cluttered. I find that's a good way to keep my collection edited but still ensure I'm surrounded by it all the time.

Oh, man...I can also vouch for the pain of just how heavy books get when it comes time to move. Multiply a box of books by at least two dozen, and it's without a doubt the heaviest type of item to haul around (except for maybe a cathode-ray tv set, but it's easy to banish something like that from your life) But there just isn't any letting go of childhood sentiment, design, architecture and art books and magazines (all nicely stored away in Ikea magazine holders), great literature.... aye carumba!

I would never think of books as cluttering, I agree with jrochest 'I'd no more throw away books than I'd throw away art.' (though I would give away or donate books that I never liked)

Books are something I couldn't live without they're my escape, my intellectual stimulation. Although moving with tons of books is a pain, my dream home would definitely include a library.

I have a book-hoarding problem. In my relatively small bedroom I have two billy bookcases and more books in the closet. But I dont beat myself up over it--I constantly reread books, my favorite ones dozens of times. If you are like me, and actually re-read books regularly I say keep them. I think borrow books from the library, and buy your favorites is a good rule to follow.

I think the coolest books in my collection are my 1930s edition hardcover Nancy Drew books. They were hand-me-downs, I absolutely loved them as a kid.

So some people actually interviewed dozens of book hoarders about the contents of our shelves? Is this how they know that most of us haven't read most of our books, let alone understood them? And that we keep them just to create the illusion of intelligence? Honestly? Impressive. Or are they just remembering a couple obnoxious kids they knew in college?

I love reading and I read fast, so re-reading definitely helps keep me reading without having to visit a library or bookstore every day. That and I simply love the stories, language, and information in my books. I mean I'll watch a Law & Order rerun, why wouldn't I re-read a truly great or enjoyable book? I love, love, love my books. I don't really consider my books a collection, anymore than my wardrobe is a collection. Collecting *is* about acquisition--my books are about experiencing and generally living. Yeah, kind of like food.

I do try to weed through them every now and then to get rid of stuff that no longer speaks to me--again like my wardrobe. I probably have just under 100 books right now. Well, if I ignore the boxes I'm still storing in my parents' garage. Maybe I'll tackle those this month.

inertia: wow, I'm kind of jealous. I love Nancy Drew. I'm trying to build a Nancy Drew collection, but I think the newer reprints are not as great as the ratty originals that I read back when I was in elementary school.

BlackandWhite: "it is not about keeping the books that matter - but if you can apply one of these books that inspired you in your life, life will change. " Of course it's about keeping the books that matter.

BetterBombshell: "Collecting *is* about acquisition--my books are about experiencing and generally living." I think that's a short-sighted view of collecting. The point of collecting is acquiring, but also enjoying and experiencing what you acquire. I think there's no difference between reading and keeping a book and getting the most out of it, and collecting say Saarinen's chairs and knowing and understanding the maker's use of lines, shape, form, and shadow.

Wow - so much shortsightedness and extreme points of view over such simple objects...

I've spent the past decade bookbinding and I have to say books are among the most interesting, versatile, and dynamic objects humankind has ever produced. Think about it - books were resources before the internet. They were entertainment before television. They are valuable and cheap, simple and complex, speak to children and scholars.

My bookshelf is full but dynamic. Some things stay, some things go. Reference books on art, design, literature and history sit cover to cover with pulp fiction, Calvin & Hobbes, and (much to my roommates amusement) a Century of Gay Erotica. I keep things i re-read, and I pass things on that I dont. Some things I just plain throw out. I HATE books as 'design elements' and I hate organizing by color. I've read about 3/4 of the books on my shelf, and the ones I havent completed usually have bookmarks somewhere in them so I can pick them up and finish them off...at some time...

My absolute favorite thing to do with books is...give them away. Once I finish a book that I love, I give it to someone whom I love...and then I ask them to pass it on to someone else. There are, of course, a few select books that I keep for myself (ones that I reread constantly or have some sort of educational/sentimental purpose). This way I "know" where all of my books are and I can keep my bookcase fairly small (good for me, since I have to move yearly).

RE: the comments about book-hoarders being superficial intelligentsia wannabes who never read their books -

As an academic, if I don't have a wealth of books to refer to I can't get my job done. A great deal of the books I retain have been collected from second hand bookstores and from online auctions and such, as they are generally not available from local libraries. As a tutor of undergrads my book collection can also help the students I work with. So, not only does 'hoarding books' give me great pleasure, it also helps me to do my job.

Quiltmaster:

That's where I get the majority of my books, the thrift store. And I donate back when I'm done, if I think I won't read it again, or I'm tired of that author.

Had to go through a bunch of books after my mum died. And while some of the childhood Dr. Seuss books would have been neat to hold on to, I thought about the kids out there, somewhere, who have no books. A lot of books went to the thrift stores.

Other books were from college days, still holding that vast amount of knowledge that I've forgotten! Ha! But since those subjects still interest me, they are still on the shelves here. I certainly don't read and STUDY them the way I had to in school, and I do use the Internet for looking a lot up.

But when the power goes off, there is very little to do. And it goes off in storms every single year. I have a battery powered radio (the only time I listen to the radio is when the power is off). I have my books. I have playing cards for solitaire.

The best part of the power going out, is that there is a hallway light generator in this apartment complex...and there is ALWAYS good reading light, even when the power is off.

Anyway, I buy the books from the thrift store, read them, and donate them back, so I call it "book rental with the option to keep". It supports the thrift store too, with money and supplies (books).

And old books, they can be hysterical or eye opening. For instance, an old Astrology book...that version was written before they had discovered Pluto. There's no Pluto! Pluto did not exist.

And old encyclopedias that have countries that no longer exist. Last time (many, MANY years back) I saw some of the Olympics, I didn't recognize a lot of country names. Those countries did not exist when I was learning geography. And I did not keep up on that subject (or a whole bunch of other subjects).

One of my favorites was reading about how asbestos was THE choice in insulation in an old home decor book.

These old books can transport us to a time before certain things had happened. Since books are written only with current knowledge and influenced by the culture and climate in which it was written, you can SEE how opinions and attitudes have changed over time.

It's absolutely fascinating. To examine how other people or countries were portrayed and those are supposedly FACTUAL books intended on educating the masses.

And how many current books will turn out to be very wrong? How many facts will change? How often will our future generations look back on and laugh at us for being silly. For being primitive. For being uneducated. Well, we can only know what we have access to.

I keep books that I plan to reread and books that meant something to me at particular points in my life. I have a bad memory, so I can reread a book and not remember how it ends.

After several moves, I've whittled my collection down to those most important to me, but it's a constant struggle to keep books from accumulating. I would love to have space to keep them all, but that's not going to happen any time soon.

I LOVE books. They are like good friends to me and the characters in them share my interior life with me and enrich it in countless ways every day. I have lots and lots of books.

On the other hand, I hate cats. I feel cats are useless and annoying and in the way. But others LOVE them. Many people have more than one. Are they accused of being cat hoarders?

I'm a professor who has thousands of books that are essential to my work. "Clutter" is relative.

This is the third time I'm trying to comment without the internet swallowing it up in some black hole of bits and bytes never to bee seen again.

Thusly I'll keep it short-(ish).

I have two shelves of books and those two shelves are devoted to the books I reread constantly. Those books that are as much a part of me as my arms or legs.

I read constantly and voraciously. However, I also, like K T G have moved often and try to keep things light and uncluttered.

I also know many people who are book collectors and have quite literally bookshelves filled on every wall of their house. It's a fire hazard and pointless. Most of the books they have they have yet to read or have read only once. I know because I ask.

Instead I propose that you keep a very few select books, (you can decide on how many, but the whole point is to have only those that you truly, truly, cannot go without.

The rest of my books start a small pile by the bookshelf, and as I finish them, they are given time to mature and ferment inside my mind. If I pull books out of that pile to reread, they are given space on my shelf for a bit to see just how often I actually reread them. Those that don't end up going to the local coffeeshop where patrons are pretty free to either take or donate books as they see fit.

It's a great setup. Recently I picked up a copy of Siddhatha by Herman Hesse and read a copy of Sophie's World (can't remember the author. both are highly recommendable books). I dropped off some popular fiction, some sociology books and a few collections of newspaper comics.

The setup is completely anarchistic. There's nobody enforcing it (save that you use proper judgment and don't leave pornography in the stacks). Typically people simply leave books they can't be bothered to sell on ebay, old textbooks, and reference, but you get some gems in the mix as well. Most people who come in simply pick up a book, read it, and put it back. If they're really into it, they take it with them, no questions asked. Sometimes the book returns. Sometimes not.

In any case, you are helping contribute to your local business and making the place more interesting. It's also great for starting up conversations as people read the books you have also read, and brings a smile to your face to see others benefitting from your donations.

A good idea is to check with your local cafes and coffeeshops to see if they will take donations or if you can start something similarly. Independent coffeeshops are generally open to this I have experienced.

I do not care for thrift shop donations, where they end up getting beaten up,lose their covers, or otherwise damaged before a book collector ends up searching out some great deals on books, buys up the lot and they never see the light of day again.

Books are best well read.

In other words, a book isn't much of anything unless its read, and donating it is a good way to make sure others get a chance to read it.

Another option might be using the internet to find out what sort of book swapping services might be available to you. There's hundreds.

Be warned though, internet book swaps tend to be filled with junk that the lenders can't seem to get rid of, even on ebay... (and even the trashiest of romance novels are ebay-salable. Mostly you'll find third rate older fiction, dull doorstoppers, and used textbooks from the 80's). Still, it's an option to check out.

As a final option, donating to a local library isn't a bad idea. Typically,yes, most books donated get tossed. Even still, you might find luck there.

I'd only sell or donate books to a thrift shop as a desperate measure. And NEVER trash them.

Finally,a note on damaged books:

If you have books that are falling apart or the bindings are trashed, you can use the pages or covers as artwork or for projects. I've taken old hardback covers that have lost the bodies of the books and used them to bind some really interesting journals. I've also experimented with using pages in a collage style to revamp some old furniture pieces. (I've yet to perfect this, or at least be happy with the results. I'm sure someone else might be able to take this idea and run with it). I've also seen old book pages from log books (which can also be acquired) framed and used as wall decor. The possibilities only limited by your imagination.

I got together with some other book-loving friends a while ago and we started a "book swap night".... meet twice a month at each other's houses, drink wine and eat great food, and bring books to swap. It's a great way to read new material at no cost, and have an excuse to see friends as well! If one or two of your books never makes it back you know they are being enjoyed by your pals.

"It's a fire hazard and pointless." snort. That would include most possessions, including any clothes you have, bobthefish, that are not on your back at the present moment.

Collections of any sort are not pointless at all. They may represent many things, including the time and careful consideration of the investor/collector as well as a financial and spiritual resource for one's heirs.

Bookins.com has really helped me to get over my book hoarding tendencies. I can post books that I think I'm done with, and don't have to make the final decision until the email comes telling me that someone wants my book. It makes it easier to let go knowing that a good home has been found for my book. It also helps that new books arrive in the mail at least once a week.

I used to have a roommate that had made many international moves, and used to pass all of his books along with a note inside asking the receiver to share the book when they had finished it. I practice this whenever possible keeping in mind who might like to read each book next.

Right or wrong, however, I do find that every potential romantic interest that enters my house makes a beeline to my bookshelf eager to gather clues.

I'm commenting twice, only to add that I'm an academic, like ursa & amyjoanna. Worse, I'm an English professor, so books are my tools in a very explicit sense. I once culled my collection -- eliminating things I thought I'd never need -- and I've had to painstakingly build it back up again, buying out of print editions from ABE books.

Since I finally got a real job with a real office, most of the 80 boxes of books I own are in my office -- but my recreational reading and personal things (from good lit to happy crap to design manuals) are still at home, three tall Billy bookcases full. They get regularly culled: there's still always at least that many.

And in my area -- my field of study, that is -- my personal collection is better than the collection of the university I teach at. There is no way I could do my job drawing on the local public library.

I love my books, The last year has been one were I have needed to cut back on expencise were buying a book was out of my range .So I started rereading my books. It was great I picked up things I had forgotten the first time .
Books are like my kids,my cat , my friends I can not toss them aside because of no room no shelves... Maj

Librarian here.

First, at home. I keep my craft and design, gardening, and other reference books -- if I don't use them for a long time (especially elderly design books that become painfully dated) they go away, but mostly if I think I will want to refer to them again, they stay. (Same for my domestic partner, although totally different subjects.)

That's mostly non-fiction. (Oh, and by the way, regarding the "Internet thingie". If you want to read a specific author's words or find a specific project's instructions, the Internet is not always useful. I search professionally in my job, so I say it with certainty. Books Rule in some specific areas.)

For fiction, I collect books I really love, and know I want to read again -- Harry Potter, for example. But I'm a mystery junkie, and I get those in second-hand paperbacks to have on hand in case of emergency then pass them along when read. (Of course, I also read library books, since I'm in one every day.)

Now, at the Library.

My mid-sized library has about 90,000 books. And we are pretty full up. And we buy new stuff daily. Something has to give. We constantly review and weed the collection, checking how long it has been since a title has gone out, how "classic" it may be, what condition things are in, how much we have on a topic, how dated the content may be, things like that. Things that need to go away are pulled, witihdrawn and given to the Friends of the Library organization for their book sale (proceeds of which are used by the organization to sponsor programs at the library or to buy stuff outside our budget.) Anything they can't sell goes to a dumpster and we have to pay to have the contents hauled off for recycling. (Not to the landfill.)

I'm the person on our staff who sorts donations. We have a list of rules for donations, and things we don't want to see include old encyclopedias, almanacs, Reader's Digest Condensed Books, magazines (including the ever popular National Geographics, of which we already have a bound full run back to the 1930's), text books, computer manuals, etc. We don't want anything water damaged or mildewed or stinky (cigarette smoke cannot be removed.) When things like this slip through the cracks, they go to the dumpster for recycling, and again, we have to pay for the service.

I pass children's donations and fiction on to their departmental staff, but all non-fiction donations that have a hope of being useful to us, I check against the catalog. If we have it and it circulates a lot ("A Child called It", certain best sellers, etc.) we may keep it in case our copy gets ruined or stolen. If we have it and it's not amazingly in demand, it goes to the book sale. If we don't have it, it's not too old or else it's still "current enough" anyhow, we usually catalog it. (This is how we get a lot of things our budget won't accomodate, and goes beyond books to CD's, DVD's, etc.) Once I have screened things, my supervisor makes the final cut, and she is ruthless -- no health materials more than a year or two old, nothing we already have enough coverage of, etc.

Anything that seems to be collectible we pass on to a book vendor with whom we have an arrangement. He sells the stuff (eBay, shop, Abe's Books, Addall.com) and we get something like 80% of the sale which goes to the Friends' book sale funds. Recently he got over $800 for an art book we nearly added to the collection! Once before we sold Dan Brown's first book, autographed, for around $500. Usually it's a lot less, but a lot more than the $1 they get in the book sale.

One thing I find in my work with donated books is that there are people who just cannot accept that some books are simply garbage. I love books, but not everything is worth keeping. Or foisting off on the library!

Other places that sometimes take used books, and especially good condition best sellers, other fiction, etc. include nursing homes (especially appreciate large print), jails (especially appreciate paperbacks that won't be used as weapons and won't enflame the prisoners!), thrift shops (things that migiht actually sell), and used book dealers (who want things that might have markup value -- sometimes they give you a credit rather than cash, since they operate on a thin margin.)

But it's OK that some books end up being recycled. Really!

Sigh. I'm so conflicted about this topic. I adore books, and I've always wanted a kick-ass collection--I, too, don't trust anyone without books in their home.

That said, I confess I just purged about 1/3 of my book collection, because it was cluttering up my space and my psyche--do I really need my calculus textbook from 1987?--it was a painful process.

I kept what I thought I'd want to read, refer to, or be reminded of in the future. I can't say I made 100% correct decisions, but I also realize I could spend my entire life second-guessing myself, or I could get on with it (which seems to work in many aspects of life). Truthfully, I don't think I'll remember the ones I gave away in a few months.

Fortunately, there's a GREAT public library system in Chicago, so if I'm "missing" one, I can always check it out (pun intended) there.

I used to keep all my books. I kept a lot of them with the intent of sharing them, offering them to friends and family to read. I have discovered that most of my friends and family do not read much, so this means I was keeping a lot of books for no particularly good reason. I wasn't going to reread them even though I liked them a lot.

Now i give a lot of books away - through bookcrossing (bookcrossing.com) and through paperbackswap (paperbackswap.com) mainly. I keep reference works - including nonfiction books on specific subjects - and some fiction that I can't let go for some reason. I have no problem giving away yet I always have plenty left. I get books from other bookcrossers, from paperbackswap, from used book stores, from library sales, from new book stores, anywhere I find them.

So I have the comfort afforded by bookshelves (my "to-be-read" shelves are especially inviting) but my little house is not overwhelmed by them and many other people are enjoying the books I am not reading.

Books are friends for me. And, like my people friends, some I've known for a wonderful long time and others are recent connections. Those people I would be afraid or unwilling to have stay overnight, like those books that have upset or repulsed me, I simply do not invite/allow to stay. (Though I admit, it takes more of an effort to carry books out of my home than it does to refrain from inviting someone into it!)