What to Keep and What to Let Go

On 3/28/10, I wrote about various ways that books are recycled. I acknowledge, though, that for an individual who is a great reader, it is hard to decide which books to borrow from a library, which to buy and keep, and which to buy and pass on to friends or charities or used bookstores. Even with many bookshelves at home and in my office, I have to regularly and severely control and trim the number of books I keep; there just isn't enough room to keep everything. My general guideline for deciding is that if I think I will only read a book once, I borrow it, or buy it - generally in paperback - and then pass it along. If it is a book that I think I will re-read, or will be useful for my teaching or my writing, or is a reference book, or is a book by one of my very most treasured authors (Austen, most prominently, but also Woolf, Wharton, and Cather), I will buy and keep it. Even with the books I keep, I execute regular "purgings" every year or two, and more extreme purgings every decade or so, and/or when I move to a different house or office. Not only do I give away individual books, but also sometimes whole categories of books, such as books relating to a class I don't plan to teach again. My biggest giveaway took place perhaps 25 years ago, when my parents needed me to take or give away the boxes of books -- many from college days -- that I was still storing with them, years after I had moved away. Doing so was hard, and sad, but in a way exhilarating, as I gave away books to family members, friends, and the beautiful little library in the Northern Michigan community where my parents had a summer cottage. I have to admit that after this event, I felt lighter, freer. This feeling of lightness is -- besides the practical, physical advantage of freeing up bookshelf and storage space, and the knowledge that other readers will enjoy your books -- the main benefit of giving away books. I came to realize that as much as I love books, I actually don't want thousands of them in my possession; they would weigh me down. What I want is to enjoy books, keep some special ones, and pass the rest on. As I mentioned in earlier blog entries (1/24/10 and 1/25/10), I keep a list of what I read; perhaps, among other things, this list is a sort of surrogate for keeping the actual books.