The site Lovely Listing features a bookcase of the day, and today's is titled "Limited Selection."The site asked, "If you could only choose a couple dozen books to keep, what would be at the top of your list?"
Faced with having to pare down my large collection, my first inclination is to keep the books that mean the most to me. That is, the physical books which hold some special meaning and can't, for me, be replaced by an ebook or a library copy.
- My 3 old Bibles
- My 1975 copy of Sybil
- King's Highway, the book I did the cover art for
- Hind's Feet on High Places
The next group of books I'd keep would be the ones that need the printed page and just don't work as well electronically.
- Art books filled with prints and etchings
- How-to books with lots of pictures and diagrams
Finally, I'd have to keep all the rare and out-of-print books.
- Old science fiction anthologies
- Books from my and my husband's childhood (Never Steal a Magic Cat, McBroom Tells a Lie, The Pop-Up Book of Star Wars)
- And probably many more
It's a good thing I do have more space than the little bookshelf in the picture, because I don't think everything I'd want to keep would fit there. But making this list has helped me think of a lot of books I can easily get rid of.
And by "get rid of" I mean "take to the used book store," where I can turn them in toward credit on more books!
Amazon wants $531.84 for a used copy of Hind's Feet, so it makes sense to hold on to that one.
ReplyDeleteGoing through a book purge right now... which pretty much consists of reluctantly giving up most of the books I've found on the side of a road or in a laboratory trash heap.
Heh. I hadn't realized I'd managed to link to the most expensive used copy out there! I was just trying to link to the abridged hardcover version, which is what I have. It looks like it's also available used for $5.99, which is a bit more reasonable.
DeleteSusanna, have you read "Mountains of Spices" as well? It's the follow up to Hind's Feet. I love it! I guess we all just make room for what we value, right? Even when we lived in the Hobbit House, we had LOTS of books--everywhere! We've been paring down the collection but it's really not going anywhere!
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't know there was a follow-up book! I'm definitely going to read that. Thanks for letting me know!
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