culling books

analogue reading is for me, but the book collection is getting vast

I feel like I’m picking favourites.

Which is EXACTLY what I’m doing, but I try not to let the other books know.

We are moving from a home with extensive bookshelves to one with, well, none.

Side note: colour coding bookshelves is my one AND ONLY interior style tip. It’s a hit with anyone who walks into our current home.

Our colour coded book shelf also helped an author friend who was about to publish a book and was deciding what colour to make his cover.

Initially my husband was concerned with the colours.

“How will I find my books now?”

“Think of the book, tell me the colour of the cover and the title and I’ll find it easily.”

And so, the colour coding stayed.

Back to the culling.

For our new home I hear you offering “IKEA”.

Yes, bookshelves could be purchased but you see, there are few solid walls in our new place. It’s all windows letting in glorious light.

I guess I’m trading bookshelves for sunshine, mother nature’s enlightenment.

The beautiful windows of our new home repeat most of the way around the building.

The culling process has been harsh.

Did I read it?

We have books on our shelves that haven’t been read, bought in anticipation, a little like “Hope Couture” for the brain.

Did I love it?

I’m comfortable to admit that I will skim over chapters to get to the end if I am not crushing hard on a book. I don’t begrudge spending the money though, because to write a book is an incredible feat so the author can have my cash for that alone.

Is it from an important time in my life?

There are books I’ve bought in moments of joy (holidays), moments of heartache (oh the pain), and books I’ve been given (a well chosen books is one of my most treasured gifts to receive).

Does it hold memories outside the words on the pages?

I have books that belonged to my dead father, some from my mother’s primary school days, and a collection of books from my childhood about how to navigate the world.

I feel like even as an adult I can do with a bit of a refresher from these! Also reading my responses to some of the activities is hilarious.

Books can be an adventure somewhere new, a refuge from reality, or a compass when direction is lost.

I can’t take them all.

However there is some liberation in that. An unburdening of the physical weight of them, a lightening of life.

And so in the culling there comes space.

A freedom in letting go.

Thanks for reading what I’ve learnt from... by Willy Russo.