I recently offloaded around 100 music books to Oxfam, which should have generated quite a lot of money as some of them were long out of print. I didn't hesitate to get rid of them as I'm not really very interested anymore in which groupie Keith Moon squired on a particular Tuesday in 1972.

Art books, on the other hand, are incredibly precious to me. I have hundreds. Some may not be opened for years, but they are there and they give me pleasure by being so. I love the fact that if I'm in the mood for looking at Andrea Mantegna's paintings then I have a book to hand that allows me to indulge that pleasure.

.

Just saw this post seconds after selecting a few tomes from my personal unread library to pass on to charity, in order that I can go and buy lots more books that I genuinely want to read, if only I had the time, but which will also sit around on my shelves for a few years (like photos of beloved relatives who I never actually see) and which will end up in a charity shop, circa 2014. Repeat ad infinitum (apart from the bit about seeing this post, unless I have accidentally stumbled into Groundhog Blog).

loads of books to charity shops, as my enthusiasm for certain hobbies and pastimes comes and goes, only to find myself re-buying them a few years down the line. Stupid and expensive really.

The main problem though, like many of the Massive I suppose, is space. We had two spare bedrooms when we moved in here, but the kids have them now, so almost every spare nook and cranny now has a bookcase in it. There is literally no room for any more books, so I'll soon have to instigate a one in - one out policy, I fear.

I had several evenings of agonising over piles of books, trying to decide for each, if I'd ever read it again; or if I never read it again, did it have sentimental value; or should it just go to charity.

Anyway, most ended up going to Oxfam, who have a very good scheme if you decide to 'Gift Aid' them. They track each sale & send an email later, telling you how much your books have raised (£260-ish in my case).

My shelves now look much neater, by the way.

but with regards to encyclopedia, you face an interesting quandary...

An aunt of mine died recently and we're in the process of emptying out the house that the family had for the last 100 years. Among the hundreds of books we'll need to decide to chuck or not are a few sets of encyclopedia. Old as the hills. Useless, in a sense, seeing as they were published in the early 1920s. However, in a sense, they're fascinating as a snapshot of what life was like, and how the world was seen in that time. We're talking about a world where there was no 'World War 1', but a 'Great War'. There's no mention of fascism, Marie Curies Nobel Prize for chemistry is as recent to the publishers as 9/11 is to us, and the description of Ireland (he said, rather tetchily) isn't a million miles removed from the Punch cartoons of the 1800's.

The downside of online encyclopediae (and also digital photography to an extent) is that nowadays 'knowledge' will never be preserved in amber, and maybe your kids, or your grandkids might appreciate these artifacts in years to come.

Just a thought...

You can fling out the Nick Hornby books, mind, they'll not thank you for those!

I write this with four full boxes of books, sitting just to my right, awaiting delivery to our local friendly Barnados. (I've already given two full boxes of books to my daughter's school fete).

Books are one of my most treasured things in life. I have thousands and thousands of them. So many, I've realised that there are loads I'm never going to read again. Some, I didn't even enjoy that much in the first place.

So, many of my books are going. I feel great about this. They can raise some money for charity and hopefully give another reader some pleasure.

Most get read and stuck into the book recycling bin. I do keep lots but I have frequent purges. The big bookshelves in the spare room are the guide.. Once I start double-stacking, stuff needs to go. But I do love books.

Same problems here at The Hovel.A ruthless culling of books takes place every Autumn.Only paperbacks,the hardbacks are sacrosanct and like Patrick my Art tomes are one of my pride and joys.

But that doesn't mean I don't want to hang on to them. My house is overflowing with books, and I'll have the occasional cull, but I never throw away anything I like. I prefer to keep books, magazines, reference works, English-German dictionaries because one day, who knows, they might come in useful or even that I might get around to re-reading them.

Basically I am a hoarder.

When I moved into my flat I got rid of loads of books which I knew I would never read again. Those which I thought I would re-read but couldn't fit on the shelves went in a box under the bed. 12 years later they're still there and still not read again.

......even though I almost never re-read any of them. The FPO, on the other hand, is ruthless, and probably rightly so (and I didn't even need to say that as she never comes here) so the shelves get kept at a reasonable level most of the time.

The exception is my Wodehouse books (all but one of the entire canon - the bloody expensive one, of course)which will NEVER be going anywhere and DO get re-read.

It will be interesting to see if my attitude changes as I've started reading on an iPad - a good experience, by the way.

I thought it was a thread on Westlife...

A hearty slap on the back for those who suggest recycling via charity shops. Charidee is now my given career choice and crate digging in charity shops my hobby of choice, given the demise of ye olde record shoppe. I find by picking up books cheap I am reading more.

A third option is selling on eBay, possibly chosing to donate to charity and saving fees. Books are not easy items to post but you do have an option to check on past sales to see if it is valuable or a hopeless case. CDs are easier to sell and the world is your marketplace.

"You can never have too many books"

Luckily at present, I still have space for them, but I do cull of the lamer things every now and again. Stuff I've enjoyed and loved though is indispensable. For some reason known only to my subconscious.