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Rosalynn Tyo's avatar

I radically downsized my books before a long-distance move last year, using a strict set of rules. I thought I wouldn’t miss the books I had no plans to read again. But I do! Not the individual books so much as the collective, the decorative and cosy presence of them. I’ve begun amassing books again, and my organization is simple - faves and classics in the living room, one shelf of a three-shelf case in my office for my TBR. If the TBR shelf is filled, I cannot take in more books I have not previously read until I read some of my TBR and reshelve them with my ‘permanent’ collection. If they don’t really belong in that collection (ie,books I don’t see as keepers) I bring them to the secondhand bookshop where I work or else the little free library in my neighbourhood, but I don’t think I’ll ever radically downsize all at once again. So my advice is, I guess, it’s okay to go slow!

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Jeanine Kitchel's avatar

Eventually we founded a bookstore! Not kidding. All those books I carried around from college—my favorites— I actually put for sale in the store (new and used) with a note that it had been previously read and loved by me. The store was a success, we eventually sold, but the new owners are wonderful book-y people and the legacy goes on! Now I donate books I’ve read or give to friends. Just not enough room.

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