Taking Stock

There's nothing like a prospective move to create an overwhelming conviction that one has too much stuff.  Even, dare I say it, too many books?  Sorting through leaning towers of TBR books, sifting shelves of embarrassingly dusty tomes that have not been touched since last move (though, I hasten to add, they have actually been dusted since then . . . just not recently enough), staring blankly at books that I don't remember buying (or reading).  All signs that the library needs updating (again). . . and is, possibly, just too large (again).  So, no time like the present to solve a surfeit.  Which books are essential? Which books can one not leave home for home without? And which books really need to be donated to another library? 

That is my mission for the next couple of weeks . . . sorting, taking stock, drawing a firm line* . . . but I can already tell my book-addict self is going to be a tough sell for the 'do we REALLY need it' approach . . .

Responsible self: "Yes, I know it's a book and a book is a book, but if you haven't read it in ten years what are the chances you're going to do so now?" 

Book-addict self: "Sacrilege! Can there be a time limit on the potential reading of a book? No, I didn't think so!"

Of course, the end result might be profitable. Mr. Inkslinger suspects we have enough stock to open a small used bookstore. :)

* Note: that said, I do have an armful of titles I need to order . . . really I do! There's the next Mary Russell instalment, the new Jane Urquhart, Absence of Mind by Marilynne Robinson, The Red and the Green by Iris Murdoch, Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (I've still to read some Pym!!) . . . I think the book-addict side may be winning the day.