Surgical Schedule for Avid Bibliophile

I'm not quite sure who first said "I never met a book I didn't like," but the quote certainly speaks to my soul. Books have always been like treasured friends to me. But at some point I crossed from saving special books to rescuing anything with a binding. I was homeschooling, and somehow convinced myself that I needed to have as many tomes in my basement library that I could, if asked by the public system, become a neighborhood branch.

In the last year or so, all this book collecting has become cumbersome. There are other things we can do with the space that is much more family friendly than simply housing shelf upon shelf of seldom read books. I desparately wanted a roomy sewing/craft space and a place where my teens can entertain friends.

I was emotionally ready to purge last spring, or so I thought. I realized we were talking well over three thousand books when I stopped taking a tally. The first go round was simple, really, as I had so many books that I had never liked enough to read or continue reading in the first place. I readily gathered up around a thousand and hauled them in multiple trips to donation that summer.

Over the fall, I tried at various points to gather up at least a box load a month, but I had lost my steam. It was easy for me to procrastinate, as I couldn't begin setting up my sewing area until the boys moved out their dust covered weight set. As the months went by, I began to waver in my commitment to trim the shelves. I made great use of Paperback. swap, but realize this is only trading books-not purging.

But in the last month, the boys have gotten moving. The weights were out. My DH broke down his former office, and the desk went up to Scout's bedroom (much more suitable for a college student). Before I knew it I was able to set up a sewing table and parts of my craft storage. King Bee moved his drafting table out, and is working on the weekends to sort and purge the remaining belongings of his office so that I can move in my remaining items: curriculum and books to keep.

Accepting that this purging is more than an ethereal dream has given me a feeling similar to when I've faced surgery. I know that it is something that must be done, but I am dreading it. I spent ten minutes looking at the various shelves before heading upstairs to the least traumatic of literary categories: the cookbooks. (I purged 34 and can now fit my bread machine in their former shelf space, thank you very much)

This is more than just getting rid of a lot of tomes that collect dust with fervor. There are memories tied up in my connections with certain stories. There are certain authors whose entire collection line my shelves, even if I have only read half. I've got two shelves of beautiful, leather bound Harvard classics editions of titles you couldn't pay me to stomach again, but that I couldn't resist at a used book sale .

I realized that I need to step back and analyze my relationship with books as a whole, and in parts. There are many facets to my addiction, I think. I can readily admit to my admiration of a shelf lined with gilt-paged tomes. Libraries have always been one of my favorite places. We were quite poor and faced many struggles after my father left us. But when I spent time surrounded by books, I always felt better. And though I might not ever read many of those books again, being surrounded by them has given me comfort.

As a young family, books were one of the few luxuries we could afford, especially at yard-sale prices. I hoped to instill a love of reading in my children. Having overflowing shelves helped do that, for a time. I am thrilled that they grew to love our storytime, but my children have never developed an attachment to more than a select crate-full each.

I will always enjoy the literary trips books provide me. I cannot afford to travel through place as my mind fancies, nor can I travel through time. Yet with books, I can do both, and often. I will continue forever to be an avid reader, but I need to develop a new attitude about my need to keep every book, as if it were a photograph. I have begun keeping a book journal, which seems to help greatly with this issue.

I am scheduling my next biblio-surgical procedure then, going through the four eight-foot bookcases filled with children's books. The goal is to selective reduce the collection into one bookcase. There are some that hold too many memories, some that are antiques, and some classics that I will use again and again in my teaching. I will certainly keep those that I dream of sharing with grandchildren one day!

The second bibli-otomy will defintiely be the wall shelves filled with all those classics of mine. I will never read "Old Man and the Sea" or "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" or "Grapes of Wrath"again. I don't need to keep every translation of "The Iliad" ever produced. I can purge those, as well as a huge stack of Thackeray, Bronte, and Austen. I know that if I ever have the need for them again, I can easily hop in the car to a library anywhere.

I am hoping that by the time these two areas are complete, I will have gotten addicted to the process as a middle-aged Hollywood Starlet becomes addicted to plastic surgery. That is when I will face the biggest procedure, the curricu-lotomy. This is one huge cabinet and two other shelves of items related to homeschooling.

I have admited before that I have suffered from the "Field of Dreams" philosophy toward curriculum---"If I buy it, they will learn." I don't recommend it. I've gained little more than full shelves, empty coffers, and frustrated kids! I sold off a lot of elementary items at a local curriculum sale two years ago and made a nice penny. This June, I shall do that same with what remains. By this point, I am fairly certain on what will and won't work with Honey, and what items I might use for any classes I teach. I certainly won't mind turning those items into cash again this June.

At the end, I hope to have a lovely sewing area, pared down shelves, and an awesome media room for Honey to enjoy throughout high school. And quite possibly, a whole lot of real memories created with the folks who come to craft and share movies with us!