Books-just too many,how to manage,and sort?

[hotspur (Chris)]

Well,I guess there must be others here,with a huge amount of books,or some that have done the envitable cull,that must eventually come.

So,I have started,I guess,that's the biggest bit.But,oh my,how many books can a man have!.

Having too many hobbies/interests is not good,here is part of the list..... aircraft,wildlife,fishing,hunting,a stronomy,natural history,antiques,art,tools.........

Guess it all started bad,Auntie Bet worked in a book shop,and I still have the book on insects she gave me over 40 yrs ago.So that one I'm keeping.Seem to have accumulated quite a few books signed by the authors not sure if that's good or bad,there all quite excentric...at best.

Have managed three plastic crates so far to go to markets,couple of English tool books can go on ebay. Then there is magazines and periodicals,general papers.What have others done with all their when culling??

But,how have people gone here that have gone through all this before,seems a shame to dump them and I guess books these days are not worth much.But it has too be done.

[koputai (Jason)]

I've had the same dilema recently Chris, I feel your pain.

Over the last few weeks I've had to cull, and not only books and magazines.

A lot of the magazines, though important to me, are mostly worthless to anyone else, so a fair few of those (Warbirds, Sky and Space, and years and years worth of Australian Aviation from the early 80's onwards) went straight into the skip. I kept my vintage Wild's, and some 1950's 'Aeronautics' issues out of the UK.

Books on sailing went in boxes to the sailing club. Books on electronics went in the skip, as did the various 'rubbish' books that you buy in airports thinking you'll read them on the plane, mostly by Bill Bryson, Jeremy Clarkson, and those kind of things.

Really Chris, it comes down to being tough. Ask yourself "Am I ever going to read this again?". If the answer is "No", then into the skip with it.

I actually found the culling process (books and various other goods) quite therapeutic. It may sound a bit Buddhist or something, but you feel the weight of 'things' lifted off your shoulders. You feel freer afterwards.

Cheers,
Jason.

[hotspur (Chris)]

Thanks Jason,yes...your last two paragraphs,feel about right,I kinda felt good culling today.Might help with the 'Feung Shi' up the hallway (well that's the first bookcase I started on today-more next few days)

[rally]

There is only one solution to too many books
Get more book cases !

[h0ughy (David)]

been there and done that - i got ruthless with the house move and filed a lot in the local tip. i found no one wanted them including the shops, even for free

[xelasnave]

Lost my library in a bush fire...
Probably did me a favor.

[glend (Glen)]

I had far too many, books from Uni, my dad's old engineering books, boxes of wooden boat builder magazines, etc, etc. Lucky for me a divorce prompted the clean out and I am now down to one small bookcase of real gems, and I don't buy them wnymore - well aside from the ocassional astro book he he.

[Stardrifter_WA]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

Lost my library in a bush fire...
Probably did me a favor.

True that!

Books are a millstone around ones next, as is most stuff. It is said, less is more. I never understood that until I started to think about downsizing, for a second time.

I am reading a lot of my books again. Once read, they get thrown out, given away or sold, whichever is appropriate.

I just can't bring myself to throw them away in one lot, so I am doing it one book at a time.

When I downsized last time, from the matrimonial home, I took a truck load of stuff to the tip, mostly stuff out of my workshop, as I didn't have a shed in the next place, so it had to go. The guy at the tip thought all his Christmas's had come at once, such was some of the stuff I threw out back then.

If we have space, I have come to the conclusion that we must fill it, intentionally or not! I seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff over the ten years I have been in this house.

Cheers Peter

[Stardrifter_WA]

Originally Posted by hotspur

Then there is magazines and periodicals,general papers.What have others done with all their when culling??

I am having the same problem. I am in the process of digitising all my loose paperwork, and saving it to disc, as it saves a lot of storage. I have files full of useless ephemera that has been collected over the years, which I want to keep (no, I don't know why) and digitising was the answer.

Some other material is also being digitised too, including all my old photos.

I studied Library and Information Services, which I finished at the beginning of last year, so I guess it has paid off in this regard, even if I never planned on working in a library. I just did it for something to do.

Cheers Peter

[ZeroID (Brent)]

When I split from my first wife I ended up with all my possessions in the back of the good old Toyota Camry wagon for a month or two. You soon learn what is important when you're trying to manage that lot. Fortunately I wasn't back into Astronomy at that point in time otherwise it would have involved a lot more tears and soul searching.

My wife is an avid reader and keeps all her books. We have a spare room, her 'office' and one wall is just bookshelf but I have managed to dispose of a few books that will never get read again, Cobol programming and some other IT stuff eg.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Chris,
I went through this upon our return from the UK and "downsizing"
I had thousands of books.
Some "good" astronomy books sold, the rest ending up being sold by the Kg.
Most of the others went to Vinnies......
Breaks your heart.
We've moved (again!) but at least in this house we could have a couple of fair sized bookshelves....save more books from going.
Local libraries, schools, clubs etc. just don't seem interested.
We now have a "house rule" - ten books have to go for every one new purchase!!
(I still have to come to terms with what is probably the largest reference library/ collection on Spitfires in Australia!!)

[OzStarGazer]

I wish I could have them my way... but they grow almost by the day and I have to admit that I have a bit of a mess... I ordered them by subject last year or so but then bought more and some shelves were full (where the subject of the new ones would have been)... Actually ALL shelves are full by now.
I should definitely get rid of some. I put some in the garage last year, but they have grown again... Somehow I find it difficult to put them in the garage, even if I have already read them. But obviously I must do something if I keep going to book sales.

[xelasnave]

I had so much stuff, law real estate demands massive accumulated reading far to important to ever get rid off hobbies ...all gone.
I now don't but books but people still give me books and magazines like they can't just burn them...but I pass them on immediately..hence no books at all..I find this simple phone so good because I still can access anything that was in those books etc.

Never the less having a physical library defines so much of who you are etc.
So keep everything throw nothing out instal shelving and vaults ..

[hotspur (Chris)]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

I had so much stuff, law real estate demands massive accumulated reading far to important to ever get rid off hobbies ...all gone.
I now don't but books but people still give me books and magazines like they can't just burn them...but I pass them on immediately..hence no books at all..I find this simple phone so good because I still can access anything that was in those books etc.

Never the less having a physical library defines so much of who you are etc.
So keep everything throw nothing out instal shelving and vaults ..

Yes,that's true about books defining who you are.Think there was a P.M one time,elected and off to the 'Lodge',it was said he ordered 36 ft of books LOL

Not sure if that's true,if it was I'd say it was Bob Hawke.

All I know is I'd currently need as many as the hi-ace vans in the Obma motocade (see video my son took) to move them if I needed too. (well that was yesterday,still culling and making progress)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNclQQMEnNI

[xelasnave]

I was in real estate and so have seen the inside of countless homes.
As much as I would consider the house it was the bookshelves that revieled so much.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

I'm near the end of cataloguing my collection at the moment. I use an app called iCody to read the barcodes on the back (if they have them) then email them to myself and then import them as a text file into a program from Collectorz.com It takes the ISBN numbers that are linked to the barcodes and downloads info about the book from their database. Doesn't work for all books, some I have to hand enter, but its made it a bit easier. Found a couple of double ups that way...

But I've just moved and while I let some books go before I moved (donated to charity sales) I still have some culling to do, however, if only to make room for new ones to arrive! The move has helped me bring them all together, they were getting spread around where ever I could find space in last house, and out of sight became out of mind. I don't think there is anything wrong with keeping some older books for sentimental reasons, such as my favourite books from childhood, but some things have sadly passed a use-by date of usefulness.