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!
'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.'
Jun 18·edited Jun 18Liked by Mel Joulwan & Dave Humphreys
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.
I purposely stopped requesting or accepting physical review copies from publishers because my house used to be overflowing! I now read all of my review copies digitally, and that has made for a much tidier home. As for the books I purchase, I'm pretty ruthless about donating books to my public library or gifting to my sister if a book has sat unread on my shelf for awhile and my attention has turned elsewhere. I'm particularly guilty of buying "aspirational" books that are more for the person I like to think I am versus the reader I actually am. Those books I usually end up donating with no qualms after a few months because, well, the library or my sister will be happy to have them and I supported an author!
I used to own a bookstore, and I’ve always been a bookaholic, so I have a LOT of books, which I am gradually culling. But there are many books that I will NEVER part with. You can’t make me. Plus, I am now The Librarian for the Little Free Library that my husband built for me and our neighborhood (and I “decorated and landscaped,”) so books come and go from there. (It’s quite lovely, if I do say so myself.) A few years ago, I got Shingles in my right eye (GET YOUR SHINGLES SHOT NOW,) which destroyed my cornea and vision in that eye, so mostly I read on my iPad/Kindle app because I can adjust type size, brightness, etc. (Unless it’s an “art book.” Or a cookbook.) (Years ago, I gave up cooking for Lent, but I still love and buy cookbooks.🤷🏼) I joke that my iPad gets heavier and heavier with every book order. Having said that, I still have a lot of “real” books, which are semi-categorized on bookshelves in different rooms. I can’t imagine a life without physical books. I used to use horizontal stacks of large books as little tables for a small lamp, or a cup of coffee, or a stand for one of my sculptures, or a plant (on a saucer, of course.) I have a couple of TBR stacks hither and yon, as well. But the COOLEST place I have books is on the shelves my husband builds for me that are about 12-16” from the ceiling, around the perimeter of rooms, above door and window frames. He has built them in every house we’ve ever lived in. In our Now House, the shelves circle our sun room, and on one side of the kitchen. It’s wasted space anyway, and books just look wonderful there, interspersed with cool stuff, stacked vertically and horizontally. I wish I could post a photo. I will always have too many books.
Yep. It attacks the optic nerve. I won’t get into the gory details, but I’ll just say it was excruciatingly painful for a lo-ooo-ng time, with chronic stuff which still, twelve years later, are problematic. I don’t know enough about the shot to advise you, but PLEASE ask your doctor or pharmacist if you are eligible. ♥️
We got our Shingles vaccines last year. It was quite the adventure: Czech Republic didn't have it in stock (yet), so a friend got it for us in Germany from her doctor. We had to go to Germany with a cooler to pick it up, then drive it back to Prague and to our doctor (in another cooler). It was the nerdiest drug caper ever.
I'm a librarian, and one of the 5 Laws of Libraries (I am nor making this up, it's a real list) is "Libraries always grow". So we are all fighting the natural laws of the book kingdom! Even though I rarely keep books I have read, my collection always grows. Being an almost 100% audiobook reader means my piles never shrink, so I'm definitely part of the problem! I guess my advice would be this:
1. Be honest. Are you really going to read that book or miss it when it goes? If you are honest with yourself, you can probably find a lot that can go.
2. Is it easy to find another copy if you get rid of it and change your mind? (I rarely keep classics for this reason) Also remember that librarians are really good at finding books all over the world for you. Rarely are we unable to find something for a patron.
3. Don't go to library book sales if you can help it. I personally am totally out of control at those things! I leave with 50 books I may never actually get to but hey, they were only a buck each! Then I have to figure out what to do with a giant pile!
4. Decide on some reasonable rules for yourself. For example, with maybe 4 exceptions, I never keep a book I have already read. They are given or donated. Maybe once a certain bookcase is full, you don't add more until there is space. Or you limit your self to 2 new books per month.
5. My hubby and I are readers of both fic and non-fic, so we organize our books that way. One bookcase for each. Keeping books organized at least a little bit can prevent purchasing of dupes.
6. Speaking of accidentally purchasing dupes, make a shelf in your goodreads called "books I own". It has saved me from buying repeats! I can look up titles when I am out and about.
7. Try to remember that if you have a ton of books, it just makes it that much more difficult to find the one you want.
8. Look for creative places or ways to store them. I'm sure Pinterest is a good place to look for ideas.
9. Books make your home feel cozy, and are signs of an interesting person living there, imho, so don't beat yourself up too much! Be kind to your book loving self. ❤️
Great advice. I do have some books I will never part with.. but I am pretty good at passing on or giving to a thrift store my books. I LOVE the library and librarians. I get most of my book on audio from the library and listen in Hoopla and Libby. I use Audible for a backup. If I truly love a book like This Is Happiness .. I buy it and keep the usually hardback version.
Most of my kid's books went to a local elementary school. The teacher either put them in with their own room library, or they give them to the kids as prizes.
I have bookshelves in one room for the majority of my collection, along with spots in almost every room for special collections. I add little works of art and objects to those shelves, and get so much pleasure just looking at them. I organize the shelves by types of books - childhood favorites, witchy/fantasy books, nature nonfiction, old volumes, etc. I don't keep a book unless I loved it or it's meaningful in some way. I also have a stack of TBRs that I get from used bookstores or donations, but most of what I read comes from the library, which is also the perfect place to donate books I don't want to keep.
I also put little things in front of my books in my bookshelves! Figurines, postcards, trinket boxes, that sort of thing. My dad did it, too, so I like to keep it going as an homage to him.
My husband does this and it drives me nuts. I like a nice, clean line. But I also have to admit that it is my stuff on the majority of the shelves in my house and I have to let him have some space.
Last year one of my students, who started an organizing business, turned our spare room into a lovely library. She organized fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, art and children’s books using the rainbow method. It looks lovely and is one of my happy places!
I am probably going to be the only dissenting voice? I do have 3 large bookshelves which are always full-I do like having books around and a trade paperback is my preferred method of reading...bonus points for French flaps but I to me, most books are just an object that I can get rid of. My friend's LFL is stocked from my discards. I probably own 5 books that I will never part with but that's it, the rest are just stuff. To me, a book is the story it contains and once I have read it, the story lives in me. I also write in books and bend back pages. There are a lot of books in and out of my house because I mostly hate reading on my Kindle and only do it if forced (international travel with strict weight restrictions or backpacking). I rarely reread and will find another copy if that does happen-just picked up a used copy of Remains of the Day...can you believe it has been 35 years?!
Mel, here... I agree with you! I love having books around because I like looking at them, but I'm also 100% OK with giving them to friends, donating, and selling. The story *is* the thing! One of my favorite things about reading is that the words can be in a gorgeous volume, an audiobook, a Kindle, a phone, or scraps of paper in a messy pile — the story remains the same. How awesome is that?!
On my shelves, I organize by my own idiosyncratic genre system, and within the largest genres (fiction and memoir) I organize alphabetically. On my Kindle, I always immediately assign each new purchase to one or usually multiple collections. But, I have way more hard copies of books than I have shelf space. This has slowed down but not eliminated my purchase of new books! So, most of my shelves have books tucked horizontally on top of the vertical ones, and I have a pile of books next to the bed and another next to my reading chair. Most of the time I’m able to just let it go and enjoy my bookish clutter. I could probably use a gentle bookshelf cull though.
I only read physical books, no e-books for me! I donate books that I don’t want to keep, but mostly I let them accumulate in my house, thankfully we have lots of built-in shelves. When we move next year, I’ll need to seriously consider how much of my collection comes along…
I have a fair amount of space, but it’s finite. So I just do a periodic purge when I’m feeling inspired. I also donate to and regularly shop at my local Friends of Library bookstores. So if I get rid of something I wish I hadn’t the odds are pretty good I can acquire it again (possibly my own copy!) Of course I don’t do any of this with books I truly treasure, but we all have complete sets of what we loved ten years ago and it may be possible to let those go.
Oh, wooffff, book organizing and storing is an ongoing struggle, isn't it? With a BA and MA in literature, plus a job that demands regular reading and ongoing deep study, I've accumulated lots of books for work and for pleasure. But! I'm very lucky to have several designated spaces for books. Two bookcases at work in my office hold any and all reference books and texts for study, plus any nonfiction books that are even remotely connected to work stuff. If there's any way you can utilize your work/office space for relevant books, that can help keep books from taking over your home. Then, my two bookcases at home in my living room are filled (ahem, *overflowing) with fiction. Two small folding shelves in the guestroom / home office hold my poetry collection and various nonfiction books that are not work related (memoir and essays mostly). Then I have two book carts with specific categories-- one for prayer books next to my favorite chair and one for writing books next to my desk. Utilizing a book cart or smaller shelves for a specific type / category of book can help add organization and free up space in overflowing shelves. I also have some special editions and books that are sentimental, and I make it a point to display them, because they're beautiful and bring me joy-- if you can pull those books out from your general library and find a way to display them as a collection or as art in your home, it frees up space on your shelves and you have a clear purpose for keeping them as you're showing them off.
We're tried to institute a "one in, one out" rule after my husband built yet another bookcase. But our teens are all readers too, so it's impossible. I keep most of the books I haven't read yet upstairs, while the first floor bookcases are favorites organized by genre (my groups are fiction---alphabetical by author but Irish and Russian lit get their own shelves, poetry, short stories, then nonfiction is group by history, science and theology/spirituality). I'm constantly culling and adding, but my collection brings me a lot of joy and my kids shop my shelves for their English assignments.
Alas, it is too late for me. Go on without me. They will find me under a collapsed pile of TBR. Should make for an interesting obituary at least. My books have taken over a lot of space in my house. We have built in shelves in the family room - full. Two book cases in the foyer - full. One bookcase in the front room - full. Two on the landing - full. and one in my bedroom - full to overspilling. I have three TBR stacks piling up the wall. I have taken the top shelves in my son's bedroom (under the guise years ago that he couldn't reach them, but he's 6'1" now and I'm not fooling anybody).
I will point out, though, that my cookbooks are all on the bottom shelf of my pantry (which is counter height and very handy). I gave up trying to organize them by type/style/location years ago and now shelve them by color, so I have a nice splash of rainbow across one wall of my otherwise very drab kitchen. Turns out I know them so well that I can walk up and grab what I need, so organization themes aren't really neccesary for me.
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!
'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.'
Love this strategy!
I have a neighborhood local used bookstore, so I do trade in piles of books on occasion, but I am not good at downsizing them. I love them too much,
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.
This is amazing. Love it so much. 'Whelp, clearly our only option now is to pen a bookshop.' More people need to to this! :-)
I purposely stopped requesting or accepting physical review copies from publishers because my house used to be overflowing! I now read all of my review copies digitally, and that has made for a much tidier home. As for the books I purchase, I'm pretty ruthless about donating books to my public library or gifting to my sister if a book has sat unread on my shelf for awhile and my attention has turned elsewhere. I'm particularly guilty of buying "aspirational" books that are more for the person I like to think I am versus the reader I actually am. Those books I usually end up donating with no qualms after a few months because, well, the library or my sister will be happy to have them and I supported an author!
I collect too many Nature/Science books, but when I go to read, I want something less involved. I hardly ever read them, but I still love them.
That is a good piece of advice! I, too, suffer from collecting too many aspirational books!
I used to own a bookstore, and I’ve always been a bookaholic, so I have a LOT of books, which I am gradually culling. But there are many books that I will NEVER part with. You can’t make me. Plus, I am now The Librarian for the Little Free Library that my husband built for me and our neighborhood (and I “decorated and landscaped,”) so books come and go from there. (It’s quite lovely, if I do say so myself.) A few years ago, I got Shingles in my right eye (GET YOUR SHINGLES SHOT NOW,) which destroyed my cornea and vision in that eye, so mostly I read on my iPad/Kindle app because I can adjust type size, brightness, etc. (Unless it’s an “art book.” Or a cookbook.) (Years ago, I gave up cooking for Lent, but I still love and buy cookbooks.🤷🏼) I joke that my iPad gets heavier and heavier with every book order. Having said that, I still have a lot of “real” books, which are semi-categorized on bookshelves in different rooms. I can’t imagine a life without physical books. I used to use horizontal stacks of large books as little tables for a small lamp, or a cup of coffee, or a stand for one of my sculptures, or a plant (on a saucer, of course.) I have a couple of TBR stacks hither and yon, as well. But the COOLEST place I have books is on the shelves my husband builds for me that are about 12-16” from the ceiling, around the perimeter of rooms, above door and window frames. He has built them in every house we’ve ever lived in. In our Now House, the shelves circle our sun room, and on one side of the kitchen. It’s wasted space anyway, and books just look wonderful there, interspersed with cool stuff, stacked vertically and horizontally. I wish I could post a photo. I will always have too many books.
I am 100% getting my shingles shot. You have sold me. But I think I'm too young. Sheesh, you can get it in your EYEBALL?!
Yep. It attacks the optic nerve. I won’t get into the gory details, but I’ll just say it was excruciatingly painful for a lo-ooo-ng time, with chronic stuff which still, twelve years later, are problematic. I don’t know enough about the shot to advise you, but PLEASE ask your doctor or pharmacist if you are eligible. ♥️
We got our Shingles vaccines last year. It was quite the adventure: Czech Republic didn't have it in stock (yet), so a friend got it for us in Germany from her doctor. We had to go to Germany with a cooler to pick it up, then drive it back to Prague and to our doctor (in another cooler). It was the nerdiest drug caper ever.
My husband got his at 50. He had shingles once and it hit him while he was traveling. He was quite miserable.
Truly, those perimeter bookshelves are the best.
I donate all but my favorites to our library book sale fundraiser.
I'm a librarian, and one of the 5 Laws of Libraries (I am nor making this up, it's a real list) is "Libraries always grow". So we are all fighting the natural laws of the book kingdom! Even though I rarely keep books I have read, my collection always grows. Being an almost 100% audiobook reader means my piles never shrink, so I'm definitely part of the problem! I guess my advice would be this:
1. Be honest. Are you really going to read that book or miss it when it goes? If you are honest with yourself, you can probably find a lot that can go.
2. Is it easy to find another copy if you get rid of it and change your mind? (I rarely keep classics for this reason) Also remember that librarians are really good at finding books all over the world for you. Rarely are we unable to find something for a patron.
3. Don't go to library book sales if you can help it. I personally am totally out of control at those things! I leave with 50 books I may never actually get to but hey, they were only a buck each! Then I have to figure out what to do with a giant pile!
4. Decide on some reasonable rules for yourself. For example, with maybe 4 exceptions, I never keep a book I have already read. They are given or donated. Maybe once a certain bookcase is full, you don't add more until there is space. Or you limit your self to 2 new books per month.
5. My hubby and I are readers of both fic and non-fic, so we organize our books that way. One bookcase for each. Keeping books organized at least a little bit can prevent purchasing of dupes.
6. Speaking of accidentally purchasing dupes, make a shelf in your goodreads called "books I own". It has saved me from buying repeats! I can look up titles when I am out and about.
7. Try to remember that if you have a ton of books, it just makes it that much more difficult to find the one you want.
8. Look for creative places or ways to store them. I'm sure Pinterest is a good place to look for ideas.
9. Books make your home feel cozy, and are signs of an interesting person living there, imho, so don't beat yourself up too much! Be kind to your book loving self. ❤️
Good luck!
Great advice. I do have some books I will never part with.. but I am pretty good at passing on or giving to a thrift store my books. I LOVE the library and librarians. I get most of my book on audio from the library and listen in Hoopla and Libby. I use Audible for a backup. If I truly love a book like This Is Happiness .. I buy it and keep the usually hardback version.
Most of my kid's books went to a local elementary school. The teacher either put them in with their own room library, or they give them to the kids as prizes.
Such excellent guidance! Especially love this:
Be honest. Are you really going to read that book or miss it when it goes? If you are honest with yourself, you can probably find a lot that can go.
Use the library. I find I read more and choose more thoughtfully when I can read review’s and place a book on hold.
I have bookshelves in one room for the majority of my collection, along with spots in almost every room for special collections. I add little works of art and objects to those shelves, and get so much pleasure just looking at them. I organize the shelves by types of books - childhood favorites, witchy/fantasy books, nature nonfiction, old volumes, etc. I don't keep a book unless I loved it or it's meaningful in some way. I also have a stack of TBRs that I get from used bookstores or donations, but most of what I read comes from the library, which is also the perfect place to donate books I don't want to keep.
I also put little things in front of my books in my bookshelves! Figurines, postcards, trinket boxes, that sort of thing. My dad did it, too, so I like to keep it going as an homage to him.
My husband does this and it drives me nuts. I like a nice, clean line. But I also have to admit that it is my stuff on the majority of the shelves in my house and I have to let him have some space.
Last year one of my students, who started an organizing business, turned our spare room into a lovely library. She organized fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, art and children’s books using the rainbow method. It looks lovely and is one of my happy places!
<3 <3 <3
I am probably going to be the only dissenting voice? I do have 3 large bookshelves which are always full-I do like having books around and a trade paperback is my preferred method of reading...bonus points for French flaps but I to me, most books are just an object that I can get rid of. My friend's LFL is stocked from my discards. I probably own 5 books that I will never part with but that's it, the rest are just stuff. To me, a book is the story it contains and once I have read it, the story lives in me. I also write in books and bend back pages. There are a lot of books in and out of my house because I mostly hate reading on my Kindle and only do it if forced (international travel with strict weight restrictions or backpacking). I rarely reread and will find another copy if that does happen-just picked up a used copy of Remains of the Day...can you believe it has been 35 years?!
Mel, here... I agree with you! I love having books around because I like looking at them, but I'm also 100% OK with giving them to friends, donating, and selling. The story *is* the thing! One of my favorite things about reading is that the words can be in a gorgeous volume, an audiobook, a Kindle, a phone, or scraps of paper in a messy pile — the story remains the same. How awesome is that?!
On my shelves, I organize by my own idiosyncratic genre system, and within the largest genres (fiction and memoir) I organize alphabetically. On my Kindle, I always immediately assign each new purchase to one or usually multiple collections. But, I have way more hard copies of books than I have shelf space. This has slowed down but not eliminated my purchase of new books! So, most of my shelves have books tucked horizontally on top of the vertical ones, and I have a pile of books next to the bed and another next to my reading chair. Most of the time I’m able to just let it go and enjoy my bookish clutter. I could probably use a gentle bookshelf cull though.
I only read physical books, no e-books for me! I donate books that I don’t want to keep, but mostly I let them accumulate in my house, thankfully we have lots of built-in shelves. When we move next year, I’ll need to seriously consider how much of my collection comes along…
I have a fair amount of space, but it’s finite. So I just do a periodic purge when I’m feeling inspired. I also donate to and regularly shop at my local Friends of Library bookstores. So if I get rid of something I wish I hadn’t the odds are pretty good I can acquire it again (possibly my own copy!) Of course I don’t do any of this with books I truly treasure, but we all have complete sets of what we loved ten years ago and it may be possible to let those go.
Oh, wooffff, book organizing and storing is an ongoing struggle, isn't it? With a BA and MA in literature, plus a job that demands regular reading and ongoing deep study, I've accumulated lots of books for work and for pleasure. But! I'm very lucky to have several designated spaces for books. Two bookcases at work in my office hold any and all reference books and texts for study, plus any nonfiction books that are even remotely connected to work stuff. If there's any way you can utilize your work/office space for relevant books, that can help keep books from taking over your home. Then, my two bookcases at home in my living room are filled (ahem, *overflowing) with fiction. Two small folding shelves in the guestroom / home office hold my poetry collection and various nonfiction books that are not work related (memoir and essays mostly). Then I have two book carts with specific categories-- one for prayer books next to my favorite chair and one for writing books next to my desk. Utilizing a book cart or smaller shelves for a specific type / category of book can help add organization and free up space in overflowing shelves. I also have some special editions and books that are sentimental, and I make it a point to display them, because they're beautiful and bring me joy-- if you can pull those books out from your general library and find a way to display them as a collection or as art in your home, it frees up space on your shelves and you have a clear purpose for keeping them as you're showing them off.
We're tried to institute a "one in, one out" rule after my husband built yet another bookcase. But our teens are all readers too, so it's impossible. I keep most of the books I haven't read yet upstairs, while the first floor bookcases are favorites organized by genre (my groups are fiction---alphabetical by author but Irish and Russian lit get their own shelves, poetry, short stories, then nonfiction is group by history, science and theology/spirituality). I'm constantly culling and adding, but my collection brings me a lot of joy and my kids shop my shelves for their English assignments.
Alas, it is too late for me. Go on without me. They will find me under a collapsed pile of TBR. Should make for an interesting obituary at least. My books have taken over a lot of space in my house. We have built in shelves in the family room - full. Two book cases in the foyer - full. One bookcase in the front room - full. Two on the landing - full. and one in my bedroom - full to overspilling. I have three TBR stacks piling up the wall. I have taken the top shelves in my son's bedroom (under the guise years ago that he couldn't reach them, but he's 6'1" now and I'm not fooling anybody).
I will point out, though, that my cookbooks are all on the bottom shelf of my pantry (which is counter height and very handy). I gave up trying to organize them by type/style/location years ago and now shelve them by color, so I have a nice splash of rainbow across one wall of my otherwise very drab kitchen. Turns out I know them so well that I can walk up and grab what I need, so organization themes aren't really neccesary for me.
Here lies Emily. She was crushed by the very things she loves. It was a noble and delightful demise. ;-)