If you love books they really do become part of your life, and when your bookshelves are groaning and are piled three deep and seven high, there comes a time when something has to go… some precious tome has to be sacrificed Luckily before that dreadful day arrives, there is a lot of accumulated dross which can be weeded out!
So which can go? Well, if you have read my unenthusiastic comments on Victoria Hislop ‘The Thread’ then you’ll guess that is top of the pile, and there are a few other book club choices which will be going too. There are also books which I enjoyed at the time and know I won’t reread; I loved Graham Hurley’s Joe Farraday novels, but I just don’t think I will want to read them again… somehow the endings disappointed and I’ll have that in mind when I start one. There are some unread books which I bought and if I am really, really honest, I know I won’t actually eve read them so they might as well go too. There are volumes of verse… I love poetry but I have my favourites who I read and read again and then others… who perhaps I haven’t looked at for years and years, they could go… couldn’t they? I have collected volumes of George Bernard Shaw’s plays; he’s no longer popular and I guess many young people have never heard of him… I probably won’t read his work but I inherited these books from a very dear uncle… oh what a dilemma.
I must be strict, I must be stern, I must be resolute… but oh dear, it’s just so hard to get rid of books!

I’m on the verge of doing this also – it’s awful. Four years ago, I had to get rid of lots when we moved to a smaller house but I still have so many that I need to get rid of and CDs too.
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I’m putting some things on Amazon… maybe make something?
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Yes, that’s a good idea, get a bit of a come back.
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Around here a lot of people recycle books via community or street yard-sales (your boot sale or jumble sale, perhaps?). It seems such a friendly way to put books back out into the world. The left-overs then go to a charity shop. (But I understand your emotions — it is like abandoning old friends. Still, we can outgrow or at least diverge from once beloved books, just as sometimes we diverge from people who were once close friends.)
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Very true Penny
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