Hits the spot for me. I've been trying to do everything you've described. However, being a bookish sort of person, I really don't agree with your reason for 'having' books. Why would I bother having books to impress people?
I have them to read them, to discover new things, new ways of doing things, new stories. I have reference books. For example, my 1964 Concise Oxford Dictionary for the old words, middle English among others; 35 Thousand Baby Names to help name characters I write about. I have field guides for Birds of Australia, Wildlife of Brisbane and the Kingdom of Fungi. I have a decent collection of old and new SF. I share this with my son, he doesn't have space in his rental for shelves. I have a lot of how-to books. For example, on nestbox building, the art of taaniko weaving, origami.
Mine is a working library. History, general fiction and psychology also feature. Thirty years ago we were promised all this and more on the world wide web. And it probably all does exist somewhere in the ether. Having a pertinent printed book in hand beats an internet search almost every time.
While I'm still able, I feed excess books either to Opportunity shops or into the recycle bin. When I die, the remaining stock can be offered to Life Line, who run a giant book sale annually, or tossed into the recycling.
I like this piece on the age of accumulation . "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Graham is a favourite in my book collection.
Hits the spot for me. I've been trying to do everything you've described. However, being a bookish sort of person, I really don't agree with your reason for 'having' books. Why would I bother having books to impress people?
I have them to read them, to discover new things, new ways of doing things, new stories. I have reference books. For example, my 1964 Concise Oxford Dictionary for the old words, middle English among others; 35 Thousand Baby Names to help name characters I write about. I have field guides for Birds of Australia, Wildlife of Brisbane and the Kingdom of Fungi. I have a decent collection of old and new SF. I share this with my son, he doesn't have space in his rental for shelves. I have a lot of how-to books. For example, on nestbox building, the art of taaniko weaving, origami.
Mine is a working library. History, general fiction and psychology also feature. Thirty years ago we were promised all this and more on the world wide web. And it probably all does exist somewhere in the ether. Having a pertinent printed book in hand beats an internet search almost every time.
While I'm still able, I feed excess books either to Opportunity shops or into the recycle bin. When I die, the remaining stock can be offered to Life Line, who run a giant book sale annually, or tossed into the recycling.
I think you just described me.