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Parting with Books

Last year I think I did very well with my spring cleaning, all things considered. I emptied the room upstairs for Katherine to move into when she came back home. I also reduced my fabric stash by a good 75%, and cleaned out four closets. In the process I donated a lot of books as well, but I still have too many. So my plan this year is to start my spring cleaning by whittling down my personal library. Since I love books, and if I could I'd build a mansion out of them that I could live in (which I know I can't), this is going to be tough.

After twenty-three years in the biz I have too many copies of my own books, so those will be the first to go (and if anyone wants a copy of anything I've written under my byline, just let me know and you'll get first dibs on what I have on hand.) These extras are mostly publisher ARCs or gratis copies of what I wrote in the last fifteen years (they sent me at least 10 ARCs and 35 final edition copies of each title); I've actually gotten rid of most of my earlier works, including all of the StarDoc novels.

My reference library has gotten a bit out of hand, too. Example: I wrote one book with a shepherdess character; I have five books on sheep. I love my sheep books, but will I ever need them again? Probably not. Same thing with Jericho; I have three books on that ancient city, but I only ever wrote one novel about it. I need to stop hoarding these one-time-only reference books.

Then there's a big moral dilemma. I have a lot of autographed fiction, often with personal messages in them, that came to me unsolicited (some as thank-yous for something I did for the author, others from their editors hoping for a quote or a PBW mention back when I was a Times BSLer.) Think hundreds. I hang onto them out of guilt, which is ridiculous because I never asked for them. I don't know what to do with these. Other authors have told me they first tear out the signed page and then donate them, but that seems heartless to me. Also, I simply can't mutilate books that way. I don't want to keep these, but I probably will.

Finally, the fiction collection. Sigh. This is the hardest for me because I have already whittled it down to the keepers, aka the only authors I never tire of rereading. I just won't live long enough to reread all of them, so I'll have to make some hard choices.

How do you cope with parting with your books? Let me know in comments.

Image by Nino Carè from Pixabay

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nightsmusic said…
I can't mutilate my books either so the ones that are signed to me, I keep. Not that I have any room, but I keep them. The ones that are just signed and not personalized, I donate though it's still really hard. When we moved here, I downsized my books by more than half and I still have four or five big rubbermaid containers upstairs because there's no place to put them downstairs. And I won't give my favorites away. I can't do that. So here they stay. :/
January 7, 2021 at 4:52 AM
Maria Zannini said…
I would leave the signature and donate it anyway. You never know. That author could be an early Rowling or King.

I donate most books. There are still some I can't part with even though I'll likely never read them again. They gave me extra nice memories.

I would never be hurt that someone gave away a book I signed for them. I realize full well space limitations. It's not personal.

The likelihood that they'd even know you donated their signed book is slim anyway.
January 7, 2021 at 5:43 AM
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