My house has a tiny room on the second floor with three walls of built-in bookcases. We use the book shelves for our aged CD collection, old VHS tapes that I don't know what to do with, my snow globe collection (100 strong!) and books.
People often display their books to be seen by visitors as soon as they walk into the home, proving how literate and smart they are. I don't do that because I have this little library, and because I don't need people fondling the first Nancy Drew book I ever read.
It seems the books (which I don't read) multiply and encroach upon the space for the snow globes. Time to reorganize.
It's kinda hard to let go of some books since they're tied to a memory or they were a gift from someone, or painful when a book represented a past aspiration that was never reached. Others are easy to throw into the fire.*
The Look & Cook book is pretty cool. It's like a static version of a cooking blog, with step-by-step recipe instruction photos. Imagine that!
I never attempted any of the complicated-looking chocolate desserts. I just go to a bakery, for godssakes. After the chocolate I should've paid more attention to the South Beach Diet, but I also never attempted any of the cookbook's recipes because I could never decide what Phase of the Diet I was attempting. Gone.
The next two are interesting.
I don't have kids, so why do I have a Pregnancy and Birth: Your Questions Answered book? Apparently I didn't find the answers online or wanted the comfort of a Barnes & Noble latte and a real book in the early 2000's. The book did not answer all my questions, by the way.
And then there's Bipolar for Dummies. I recently bought this book, the 2nd Edition. Then, in my library, forgotten for a few years, I found this copy, the 1st edition. Of course I find this hilarious, that I have two copies of this freaking book and I have read neither to completion. I'll keep one and burn the other.*
Then, we reach:
My cousin in California, land of dog beaches, adopted a retired racing greyhound, and I convinced myself that I wanted one too. I bought this book, used, to read, never did, but I was hoping to use to book to convince Salty D to adopt. We didn't. I sort of wanted a companion greyhound but I also don't like picking up dog poop, so we're at an impasse there.
The Dalai Lama's book was purchased at an event where I saw him speak. I wrote about it here. My enlightenment lasted about 10 minutes. So, there's no need to hang on to the book. Free yourself.
* The books will not be burned, although I do need fuel for my fireplace. They will be donated to the libary's book sale.