Culling books

[Bella Kemp]

On the Nietzsche and Mozart thread recently, I saw that two forumistas had lost books, that they might have referred to, in recent 'culls.' When did the fashion for chucking out books begin? It is something that many people, I'm sure, regret. I can understand if one is downsizing, but otherwise can think of no good reason. I imagine the damage began when IKEA ran its 'Chuck out your chintz' campaign a couple of decades ago, heralding the start of all those reality tv programmes where people are encouraged to have empty homes and lots of clear space. I can't see the point of clear space, apart from in the kitchen.

[Petrushka]

On the Nietzsche and Mozart thread recently, I saw that two forumistas had lost books, that they might have referred to, in recent 'culls.' When did the fashion for chucking out books begin? It is something that many people, I'm sure, regret. I can understand if one is downsizing, but otherwise can think of no good reason. I imagine the damage began when IKEA ran its 'Chuck out your chintz' campaign a couple of decades ago, heralding the start of all those reality tv programmes where people are encouraged to have empty homes and lots of clear space. I can't see the point of clear space, apart from in the kitchen.

I'm notorious for never culling books and on the very rare occasions I've dropped the odd one in the local street bookstall or charity shop they've been either ones I didn't enjoy or those I knew for certain I'd never read again such as a detective story. Others may be ones picked up from said bookstall and then returned but the bottom line is: I never cull books, as in a huge clear out.

However, I have books, along with CD boxed sets, absolutely everywhere in my home, even piled up on chairs and on floors now that that the shelving has long since run out.

Now in my early 70's I can see the sense in having a cull but at the same time many, indeed most, of my books have been faithful companions throughout life with some favourites re-read every few years or so. Parting with them is impossible and only the Grim Reaper will finally prise my fingers from my beloved volumes and even then he'll have a hard job of it.

[smittims]

I had to give away quantities of books owing to lack of space and inability to stop buying new ones. Then we extended the house and had room for all the books we wanted. There are quite a few I wish I'd kept. But to be fair they were mostly coffee-table stuff we had from The Book People. I kept all the ones I really want to re-read.

[vinteuil]

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... oh dear. A victorian two-up two-down poses a serious challenge for a book buyer

I suffer from a serious condition of 'completism' when it comes to books (and CDs). When I find a bit of writing that I like, I want everything the author wrote. Worse, I want it in the 'best' (here : most 'scholarly') edition. And often there are several of these... Mme v finds it hard to understand why I need three separate editions of the works of Balzac. I was very brave and got rid of one (now outmoded but still differently useful) set of the Correspondence of Horace Walpole - and still regret it.

End result : a loft groaning under the weight of boxes of books (all that Meredith!), so much so that it's practically inaccessible.

So a cull is now essential. I am dreading it - mme v has said that if in the end I 'lose' a book that subsequently proves indispensable she will re-purchase.


The current challenge is where the books could most usefully go. Any takers for a complete nice edn of Meredith??

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[LMcD]

.
... oh dear. A victorian two-up two-down poses a serious challenge for a book buyer

I suffer from a serious condition of 'completism' when it comes to books (and CDs). When I find a bit of writing that I like, I want everything the author wrote. Worse, I want it in the 'best' (here : most 'scholarly') edition. And often there are several of these... Mme v finds it hard to understand why I need three separate editions of the works of Balzac. I was very brave and got rid of one (now outmoded but still differently useful) set of the Correspondence of Horace Walpole - and still regret it.

End result : a loft groaning under the weight of boxes of books (all that Meredith!), so much so that it's practically inaccessible.

So a cull is now essential. I am dreading it - mme v has said that if in the end I 'lose' a book that subsequently proves indispensable she will re-purchase.


The current challenge is where the books could most usefully go. Any takers for a complete nice edn of Meredith??

.

Nearly all the books that I actually buy these days - in nearly all cases from charity shops - are returned to the same or a different shop.
ALL the books that I obtain from the library are returned to the library.
Although I've been assured that I don't need a new prescription, nearly all the books I read these days are large-print editions, and I have only 40 or so old favourites left on my bookshelf.

[vinteuil]

Nearly all the books that I actually buy these days - in nearly all cases from charity shops - are returned to the same or a different shop.
ALL the books that I obtain from the library are returned to the library.
.

... undoubtedly a wise approach. I s'pose my 'problem' is that I want to live in my own library ...

[LMcD]

... undoubtedly a wise approach. I s'pose my 'problem' is that I want to live in my own library ...

I'd settle for 'pragmatic'.

[Petrushka]

.
... oh dear. A victorian two-up two-down poses a serious challenge for a book buyer

I suffer from a serious condition of 'completism' when it comes to books (and CDs). When I find a bit of writing that I like, I want everything the author wrote. Worse, I want it in the 'best' (here : most 'scholarly') edition. And often there are several of these... Mme v finds it hard to understand why I need three separate editions of the works of Balzac. I was very brave and got rid of one (now outmoded but still differently useful) set of the Correspondence of Horace Walpole - and still regret it.

End result : a loft groaning under the weight of boxes of books (all that Meredith!), so much so that it's practically inaccessible.

So a cull is now essential. I am dreading it - mme v has said that if in the end I 'lose' a book that subsequently proves indispensable she will re-purchase.


The current challenge is where the books could most usefully go. Any takers for a complete nice edn of Meredith??

.

I'm afraid I also have the 'completism' disease. When there was a discussion on here a few weeks ago about C.P. Snow, who I've not previously read, I scoured Amazon for second hand hardback editions and got three of them. The rest will have to wait a bit. I love buying second hand hardback editions. I'm not too fussed about the condition as long as they are intact and not annotated. I just need the time to read them!

I've resisted the temptation to get a second complete Dickens edition, ditto Jane Austen.

[vinteuil]

I've resisted the temptation to get a second complete Dickens edition, ditto Jane Austen.

... I did get rid of the penguin Dickens and Austen I had as a student - but I do still have both the hardback oxford illustrated, and the folio reprint of the 1937 nonesuch Dickens, and the oxford illustrated Austen (supplemented by the Athlone and Cambridge edns of the juvenilia and late manuscripts ...)

.

[vinteuil]

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... I've never really been tempted by the dream of a résidence secondaire (all that worry when you're not there, and the sense of duty that you should spend all your holiday time there)

Except when I think it could be a home to all my secondary sets of books...

Anyhoo, my last Premium Bond win was for all of £25, so the dream is on hold...

.

[Petrushka]

.
... I've never really been tempted by the dream of a résidence secondaire (all that worry when you're not there, and the sense of duty that you should spend all your holiday time there)

Except when I think it could be a home to all my secondary sets of books...

Anyhoo, my last Premium Bond win was for all of £25, so the dream is on hold...

.

The property next door was for sale earlier this year and It would be ideal for my CD and book storage but it's now been sold before I could scrape together the pennies to buy it.

[vinteuil]

The property next door was for sale earlier this year and It would be ideal for my CD and book storage but it's now been sold before I could scrape together the pennies to buy it.

... yep, that wd be the dream

[LMcD]

... yep, that wd be the dream

Were the dream to be fulfilled, your local authority would certainly contact you quite quickly to talk about council tax as applied to second properties..

[vinteuil]

Were the dream to be fulfilled, your local authority would certainly contact you quite quickly to talk about council tax as applied to second properties..

... and quite right too!

(perhaps I could put it in my wife's name? ... )

[Serial_Apologist]

I have to admit to having kept almost all of the paperbacks I bought as long ago as the late 60s/early 70s - including various of the Pan Horror series, various ghost story compilations, but particularly the political and philosophical subjects (a broader categorical definition is really required, but no one seems to have come up with one that covers comparative religion, philosophy, science, art etc as one interrelateable discipline), which I re-read and re-read - similarly to how I go back over music I had thought familiar, finding new perspectives. I don't think I will ever get rid of the latter, as they represent ideas, many of which are still germane, but in serious danger of being forgotten or overlooked by more recent ideas, which are nowhere near as good. Many of them* are held together with sellotape, just about; some have pages missing, nearly always the conclusions!

*The books, that is, not the ideas!