books to keep

I'm a pack rat. A collector, if you will be kind. One of the things I collect is books. I've collected them ever since I can remember. When we were kids, and went shopping, we might ask for a new toy or something, but we didn't really expect to get it. Except at the book store. We could almost always get a new paperback. There are people who go on the read and release theory, not keeping many books in their houses, overall. There are people who will read the same book time and again for the enjoyment of it.

I like to read, and now that Raine is a little older, I actually can have a moment now and then to open a book. I like to have a nice stack of books around that I haven't read yet. While there are only a few books that I will read and reread, I like having that option as well. I enjoy libraries, walking through the stacks, touching a spine here or there, getting a feel for the sheer potential in the building. Mostly, I would rather wander the stacks than look through any card catalog to find something interesting to read. But when I find one I like, I tend to hold on to a copy of it. I think it may be an expression of the Taurus in me.

Now we have a nice wall of bookcases here in my house. Right now it is filled with a layer of hardback books, and a layer of paperbacks. Unfortunately, it holds only about half of the paperbacks we own. So, I still have boxes of books yet to be unpacked because there is no shelf space for them. Decision time... do we get more shelves? (WHERE would we put them???) or do I get rid of some books? (ACK! mine, mine, mine, all mine) After much agonizing, I've pretty much decided to weed them out. There are books I don't care to read again... there are some books which I would rather have than others... and, over all, I should be reasonable about the space those books are taking. So, one of my last summer projects, tomorrow, will be book sorting. We were low on book credit at Coas, anyway.