Book Grief
Every once in a while, we talk about culling out books from our collection, and then we buy another bookcase, move books into storage, or stack them up in another spot, and the idea disappears for a while.
We got rid of a bunch of books years ago, but I kept pulling them back out of the donate pile, thinking, “What if I decide months from now that I want to read this? What will I do then?” Better to be safe than sorry.
If I love a library book, sometimes I’ll buy it after reading the borrowed copy. I hate the idea of being cut off from a story I liked.
So this article resonated with me about the grief you feel after getting rid of books. I read it like a warning: Do not get rid of anything, Melissa.
Passing it along in case you are also feeling guilty about your stacks.
2 comments
Oh dear! I’ve been thinking of getting rid of some of my books. I loved most of them, but haven’t bought many new physical books in the last 20 years because I’ve been reading ebooks. My bookshelves represent my reading in the 90s and earlier. And I haven’t reread that many, certainly not recently. And I would be glad of the space. I need to clean them out and only keep the best! (I can’t read the article, so don’t know their arguments for doing that.) The Husband’s books take up more room though, but he’s a chronic book hoarder and re-reader.
Every time I move another box of books, I think about getting rid of them. I find I don’t reread anything much any more.