Thinning the shelves
Are books just clutter you should get rid of or an essential or something in between? Julian Baggini leans toward the first.
Having recently put everything into boxes for the less terminal adventure of a house move, we decided to strictly limit how much came out of them at the other end. However, we knew that there is one kind of object that defiantly resists the cardboard coffin: books. Like so many, we would happily decimate our wardrobes, clear out our cupboards and gut our garages, but would struggle to liberate our libraries. Why is it so hard?
For a lot of reasons. We want to read a lot more books than we get around to reading. Some books merit re-reading, some multiple times. It’s good to have a wide choice. Reading actual books as opposed to articles (or ahem blog posts) is a good workout for the brain…even if you do swiftly forget what you’ve read, at least I hope so.
But more than that – more, and vaguer. A deflating reason Julian talks about is showing off, displaying how clever you are, trying to impress. Maybe, but I think there’s also a less tacky version of that, which is an actual love of books, and what they stand for (not just in the sense of flattering your vanity). They look right – they look more right than a wall filled with a screen. If you grew up on books, and remember your first trips to the public library and finding great heaps of book that you took home and devoured, you like having a wall of them even if no one ever sees it.
This doesn’t apply to books as books, though; they have to be books you care about, books you want to read or re-read. Acquiring 10 boxes of books you have no interest in from a garage sale is no use at all.
This is clearly what Julian meant too, since he didn’t get rid of all of them, but just thinned them out.
We still have more than enough books left, though maybe not enough to impress a true library-builder. But nearly 500 books have been boxed, and I am already feeling lighter. As my better half said, before there were so many books it was as though you couldn’t see the trees for the wood. We couldn’t delight in any of them because we were overwhelmed by all of them.
Ah, a mere 500, ones he didn’t actually want to read. That’s another matter.
When it came to book-purging, the only books my ex was willing to part with were mine.
After too many years of accumulating books and moving too frequently, I started selectively thinning the shelves some 15 years ago. Now that I’ve lived in the same house for 8.5 years, I’ve started paring down my library for other reasons: My paperbacks are boxed up and ready to donate because my eyes don’t handle the smaller type very well anyway, and almost all of my new book purchases are on my eye-friendly, adjustable-font Kindle. I love books, but I don’t regret getting rid of a whole lot of them in recent years.
chigau, my husband is talking about the need to start purging books, and I know he means his, but I suspect he means mine, as well. I’m resisting. I agreed to get rid of a handful of novels I didn’t enjoy, but the rest have doggedly stayed where they are. And since no one sees them (except us) it isn’t to “look smart”. I have started collecting fewer books that are on the margins of my interests, and tried to stay firmly within my areas of interest, but now I worry that I might miss finding out how fascinating something is that I never realized. That’s happened so many times…
Funny you say that. My ex thought the exact opposite. He was into interior decorating as a hobby, and believed books detracted from the look of a room. So he stuffed all my books into the bottom drawer of our built in chest. I guess he never had to crouch to open a drawer stuffed full of books while 9 months pregnant, but if I wanted something to read, that’s what I had to do. Did I mention he was my ex?
I had ~30 years of accumulated books in the basement. When we moved, I decided to toss everything that I had read (about half), on the grounds that 1. I was probably never going to read them again 2. Many of them were seriously dated 3. If I did want to read one again I could buy a used copy or an e-copy and 4. (most importantly) We didn’t have space for them.
After a couple of moves, we landed in a house with a basement. There was a space in the basement, and I looked at that space, and I said, “I see bookshelves”. I built the shelves and put my books on them, and the shelves were less than half full.
Now I wish I had all the books I tossed. Oh, well…
I could not even begin to count the number of books I have. I almost never dispose of them, except as a gift. I don’t remember every page of every book, but I remember what is in every book, and I remember where I keep that book. I keep textbooks from 40 years ago, and will refer back to them once in a blue moon. Discarding them would lose them forever.
Interior design doesn’t even enter in to it.
My thinking exactly. Books are for reading, not for looking at. My ex, not being a reader, did not understand that.
A few years back, I did a course given by a local fine-woodworking cafttsman. Using the skills I leaned from him, I built some ashamedly (if I do say so myself) magnificent bookcases in which to house my serious lifetime book collection. I have little interest in novels, but have a lot on history and biography. The collection adorns the walls of two bedrooms, with the partitioning wall removed.
I also did a course on speed-reading, 55 years ago now, and am happy to say that the skills involved are still with me.
And so I sit here happily blogging and surrounded by a wealth of knowledge, in the belief and ‘sure and certain hope’ that even if I never open another book or turn another page, in time it will all diffuse across from all the books on all the shelves to the interior of my head.
Who said you can’t get anything for nothing? ;-)
I didn’t read the article, but another reason I like having my books around is to lend them to people–I like being in a conversation with someone who’s interested in something and being able to reach over and pull out a book, saying ‘here’s more about that if you want to read it’ or ‘I loved so and so’s take on this question.’ I’ve been giving away/donating novels and a few other books I now have in e-form, so they don’t need to take up space and weight and I have them in case I ever do choose to read them again. And I’m getting to the age that reading text on a lit-up screen in font as big as I choose to make it is physically a lot easier for me than reading a paper book. I grew up in a family where ever getting rid of a book was abhorrent, which I guess comes from the days when books in general were rarer and more valuable, but circumstances and technology change.
As a once upon a time bookseller, I never thought I’d leave the printed page, but now I have over 2,000 ebooks and love the convenience of carrying so many with me. I have kept some print books, mostly because they are no longer in print / not sold as ebooks.
I dragged my books around with me and in my last shared flat I had a load of free-standing bookshelves that took up room. Then I moved to my own flat and it is bliss to have shelves built into the sitting room, and hall though I still have a free standing shelf in my bedroom. If I do empty the shelves for a clean the room becomes very echoey – books absorb sound. Removal guys have told me they hate moving books – they are so heavy and it means hundreds of boxes. They do need culling to make space for new ones. I put off this job as house dust makes me sneeze.
I do like seeing them there and picking out the occasional one to read a favourite passage or refresh the memory. Now though I mostly listen to audio books as you can carry one around listening while doing housework or gardening. I find it easier to listen to a history book than read it. The disadvantage is that you can’t flick through to refer to particular passages or quote parts. You can get Kindle copies of the books as well but I have never taken to Kindle.
I’ve moved over to e-books myself. A lot of the stuff I had before had been read to destruction, and a Kindle just doesn’t have that same weakness.
I too have been thinning mine out, for the past several years, but the abundance and quality of Little Free Libraries in my nabe has a tendency to cause me to return home with more than I took out to leave at a Little Free Library.
I agree with thinning them out. JB probably got rid of more books than I ever had at one time, but the last time I moved, after having moved several times, I got rid of all of my books except the sentimental ones. I only have a handful of books now, everything else is digital. I have become a bit of a minimalist nowadays, and a ponderous collection of books and multiple bookcases is not compatible with that. Honestly, moving residences is my least favorite thing to do, to the point where my friends and family probably think I’m an ass for not being happy to help them move either, I usually have prior commitments if they ask. ;) I hate the whole process, and loading dozens of small boxes with my collection of books was no small part of my frustration with it. (helpful hint, never use big boxes to move books!) I do miss some of my books from time to time, strangely enough only a few of the old beat up paperbacks, not the ones I struggled to finish, or the ones I never got around to reading through, or even the ones that I seemed to learn the most from. As far as the statement it makes to have a large display of cabinets filled with books; after one of my first moves after accumulating a good amount of books and cases to hold them, I had someone come to the house who seemed to be impressed by my collection. She asked me if I had read them all and I struggled to come up with a percentage (appx. 75% of what I had at the time) and found myself embarrassed by the question. Had I read enough of the ones I owned? Was I showing off, or lazy? Did I have my collection for the right reasons? Anyway, when it came time to thin them out, the last time I did so, it was more of a total purge, with only a few precious remnants left.
Now if I could only do that with my brain… :P
The only problem that I see with “too many books” is that I often feel guilt for not sitting down and just reading often enough.
Yes but the thing about books is that we’re not wasting them. The potential for reading them is always there, and in the meantime they don’t rot, although some of them do fox (get brown spots).
I don’t think anyone should be embarrassed by the “how many have you read?” question. They’re there to be read – it would be stupid to have only books you’ve already read and none you haven’t read.
Some kind of beastie (critter to you) has been eating pages and leaving dusty holes in mine.
I am working from home now and talk to colleagues via the screen. I sit in front of one of my shelves. One of my colleagues said I looked like those politicians who try to appear clever and intellectual.
I tried e-books, and still have a digital reader, but I find it challenging to read books that way. I think I’ll stick with print. Audio books are worse; I listened to a few of those, and find my attention wanders, so I don’t get anything out of them.
KB, I have done meetings with bookshelves in the background, and no one said that about mine. I guess because they are bookshelves with books, but also piles of books in front of the shelved ones that won’t fit, and you never see that with politicians. Their’s are always neat and selected for maximum visual impact. Mine are piled and selected for things I’m interested in. So that’s an advantage, I guess, of having too many books for the shelves. People don’t accuse you of trying to “look clever”, since apparently “looking clever” involves having fewer books with more easily read titles, preferably with at least some sets with matching bindings.
Beastie is part of my dialect alongside critter. That’s one of the many advantages of reading: exposure to other dialects! Och what a panic’s in thy breastie.
The Little Free Libraries are really cool, there are several scattered around my neighborhood that provide some interesting pauses on my walks. They add to the charm of the place for sure. :) A couple of the coffeehouses in the area have similar free exchange bookshelves.
I am an unrepentant book lover. I love the look, the smell and the feel of a real book. I do use an e-reader but only for travel convenience, quick reads, or pulp. I do re-read the books in my custody. I still have the very first books I ever was gifted as a child. I lend them out to friends and family usually after a relevant conversation points to one of them. I have the books we read aloud to the kids, the ones they learned to read, and the ones they borrow now as adults. I know where they all are on the shelves, in their stacks and various coveys. I have a book for most occasions. I have books that I love and ones that piss me off. I usually read to unwind and clear my head each evening. I write in some (not any first editions), and insert note cards to myself in others. Anybody with the patience or inclination could find my life story in those passages or on those cards. The memories imprinted on those pages aren’t just those of the authors.
My local Tesco Express does a book swap. It’s mostly thrillers (some good ones) and romances, with the occasional non-fiction. Books in pubs are cool – I like the randomness of finding something readable in any collection of books.
Aw Pliny same here, most of my books have 1 or 2 or 3 note-cards – not actually cards but those pieces of paper about the size of index cards. Most of the ones I’ve read or sampled, I mean.
I learned two decades ago not to write in my books; I used to, but now I am married to a librarian, and it makes his life unhappy if I write in books. So I started using sticky notes on the pages. I like it better, actually, because it’s easier to turn to the pages than trying to find the passage I noted in the middle of a large book.
Pliny, I did find my digital reader a real boon when I was on the train overnight in Canada. They didn’t have a reading light in the lower bunk, and we forgot to bring a book light; it was packed in our checked luggage. I was fortunate I had a reader that was backlit. Also sometimes during meetings; if I’m on my tablet, people assume I’m following along and taking notes. Our speakers are never worth taking notes, but it gets me through a boring meeting.
Most of the time, though…yeah. Books feel right. And I find I read differently on a screen. That’s most obvious when proofing my books. I send off my manuscript after five edits, and the proof copy still ends up bristling like a porcupine with post it notes once it comes back in hard copy.
If I was ever inclined to be a serious bibliophile, I think the way Pliny engages with his collection is ideal. I did a lot the same things when I had a lot of books, but I started exchanging, giving away, or donating them when I was young, so I never had the chance to build a lifetime-in-books collection. I must admit, I am a little envious. :)
Oops, not sure if Pliny is a his or hers, sorry if I was mistaken! I do enjoy being misgendered though, I don’t assume everyone does… ;)
I still have more physical books than will fit into my (admittedly not gigantic) bookshelf, and I have no plans of throwing them away any time soon. Still I definitely prefer ebooks at this stage and pretty much only buy physical copies if the book is not available on Kindle, which still occasionally happens (e.g. I had to buy Margaret Singer’s Cults in our Midst as a physical book). Like twiliter, I find that frequent changes of residence is a remarkably effective cure against warm fuzzy associations to “real” books (it’s also a remarkably effective cure against assigning sentimental value to stuff in general). Besides when I order a Kindle book, I can start reading right away whereas waiting for a physical book from Amazon can take weeks.
I also occasionally download audiobooks on iTunes although, like iknklast, I definitely don’t take in (or remember) as much by listening as I do by reading, especially if the subject in kind of “technical” (the vast majority of everything I read is non-fiction). Audiobooks with a more “narrational” style are easier to follow, however, and if you’re mainly interested in the “Gist” of what’s being said, they can be a good enough alternative.
Where both ebooks and (especially) audiobooks really suck is when dealing with tables, charts, figures, diagrams, illustrations, images, graphics etc. The kindle screen is too small, and to see the details you may have to zoom in so much that you only see a small part of the figure at the time. And when the narrator of an audiobook tries to translate the content of a table, say, into a linear format, it quickly gets very confusing and quite frequently tedious and repetitive.
I have a family history of bibliophilia, as does my spouse (and we have apparently passed it on to our kids as well). A few years ago, we got rid of several hundred books. Many people (present company excepted, apparently) would consider that to be a lot, but it was only about 10% of my collection. (About 10 years ago, my pre-teen nephew was visiting. He was bored, so we set him to work counting the total number of books in the various bookshelves scattered about the house. It was somewhere around 3500.)
Though I do love physical books, over the past few years I have mostly moved towards e-books for my newer acquisitions. They are very convenient for traveling, taking up so much less space, and not vulnerable to damage. Also, especially for non-fiction, I like the feature of being able to annotate and search. For me, even audiobooks have their niche. I can’t imagine sitting down to listen to a book in a situation when I would be able to read, but they are nice to have for long car trips and also very useful for helping to keep me motivated to do mindless tasks like folding laundry or exercising.
twiliter: Pliny doesn’t sweat any gender assumptions that moi’s comments might provoke either…
If only everyone were as pronoun unprovoked as nous… :D
Reviewing all the interesting contributions to this discussion, I notice that one virtue of a library of traditional (codex format) books seems to have been overlooked: in the context of any living space they provide thermal ballast. This will probably be of increasing importance as climate change produces likewise increasing extremes of temperature. But wait! There’s more!
I once owned a book-shaped bottle designed to fit into a bookshelf and look like an ordinary book. On the spine was the title The Spirit of Scotland. The canny bibliophile could fill it with whisky, or ‘whiskey’ if American. As I recall, companion bottles, suitably titled, were there for rum, vodka, brandy and schnapps. As water has about the highest specific heat (heat absorbed per degree of temperature rise; heat lost per degree of temperature fall) of any liquid, and alcoholic drinks are largely water, there is great economic potential here. An enterprising bottle manufacturer could revive a line of these in anticipation of the blizzards, hurricanes and heatwaves ahead of us as we continue our planetary cruise into the thermal extremes of the Anthropocene, and likely do quite nicely out of it, thank you very much. Paper-based books would not be in the event.
Of course, there would be the option of devoting increasing shelf space to multiple-volume editions of such titles, enhancing the apparent erudition of the resident bibliophile enormously; with a corresponding rise in social status. Win-win, n’est pas?
#15
Ophelia Benson
September 11, 2021 at 8:27 am
“it would be stupid to have only books you’ve already read and none you haven’t read.”
! ! ! !
And isn’t that a grand way to consider e-books?
Many “old” or “classic” books are available digitally for free, or for far less than a physical copy. They take up no real space, and assuming you have a reliable tablet/device, they are usually be available in an instant, where ever you happen to be.
There are shifty digital systems out there that only “license” the book to you, so some research is required before choosing any digital books you might want to purchase. But there are systems that respect honesty – and those systems allow you to build, annotate, and backup a library of extraordinary proportions.
We have a s**t-tonne of physical books (some older ones that will never see print again I hope to scan and make publicly available) but more of which are favourites that are frequently re-read, or are the second/third/fourth copies of titles that have been loaned or gifted.
When those titles move into the digital realm I find it easier to give up the physical copy. But there are definitely many real books that I hope I will be shelving, dusting, boxing, and moving for a long, long time.
Ironically the biggest problem with digital books is the limited ways you can arrange them.; as yet there are no equivalents to the physical realities of organizing books on shelves. Digital books all auto-sort, neatly/algorithmically, according to some programmer’s idea of how titles should be sorted – no allowance for piling some biographies on their side in front of related non-fiction, novels, travelogues, or fantasies .
I’m always a bit sceptical about audiobooks. One of the nice things about reading is that it’s completely immersive, whereas an audiobook is something to have on while you’re cooking or driving, which impacts how closely you follow what’s being said. You’re also not in control of the speed, can’t (easily) go back to reread a passage or check something from a previous chapter, and the voices aren’t always very engaging.
I have a friend who listens to a lot of them a sets the playback speed to x2. He says you get used to the chipmunk like quality of the voices.
On the other hand there are some that are works of art in their own right. Audio versions of Shakespeare plays such as the Paul Scofield Lear, and Prunella Scales reading Emma.
We have one bedroom in the house with a built-in full-wall bookcase, crammed full of books, and I like the aesthetics of it. But it’s too full, and I think some woefully-out-of-date (and some never used) technical training books will find their way to the trash bin soon, to make way for books that are accumulating in other places.
I like electronic books on a good reader; they are easy to transport, I can change the font, I can look up definitions and references easily (who was that character? oh right, that guy). I also like print books, but I buy fewer of them these days.
Some books that are probably destined for the big wall I’m not hurrying to put out of public view, partly out of feeling ornery: anti-religious books, anti-football books, the Cormoran Strike novels. Not that a lot of people end up seeing them, but they’re there. No one has asked about them yet, and I don’t know what I’ll do if they do.
I love reading. I got into it as a kid. It was one of the things I could still do when my allergies (pollen) were bothering me real bad and I had some trouble breathing.
Now, living in an apartment, I have limited space for books. I’ve had to get rid of books to make room for new ones. Most were donated to charity auctions. Some were given to friends and family.
My current collection is mostly science fiction and fantasy, and science books. The science books are a mix of textbooks (eg college), reference books eg CRC Handbook of Chemistry And Physics), and books geared to the general public and science popularization (eg Stephen J Gould essay collections).
The collection includes one book that could technically be called a family heirloom. It’s used to be my Dad’s. It’s the Star Wars novel – printed in 1976. On the back cover it says, “Soon to be a spectacular motion picture!” :-)
Like many here, we’ve been thinning out our book collection recently. This is partly for space reasons (we live in a four bedroom house and there are just the two of us plus Fortran who does not read much, so it took quite a lot of books before we started noticing we had no space left). The other part is to put the books back into circulation, so they have gone to various charity shops. I much prefer that someone else (plus the charity) is enjoying the books that were previously really just taking up space.
We’re keeping the ones we like having around for various, mostly sentimental, reasons, but I only buy ebooks these days. I like to read a lot of books at once and I like the fact that the notes I make are searchable across all my devices. I don’t find paper books especially appealing as many do (with some exceptions: some children’s books, illustrated books, special editions etc) and I much prefer the convenience and form factor of an ereader.
Audiobooks I find perfect for when I’m training or trying to get to sleep.
I prefer print books over ebooks. They’re easier on my eyes. I have reading glasses in a range of powers, so variations in typeface size aren’t a problem for me.