Decluttering Books

In my decluttering journey, I feel like I've come along way but also am aware I'm only part way through the process. Books is a good example of where I feel I'm in the middle. I used to keep almost all my books and only thinned them out occasionally. With more books coming in than going out, overtime, my bookshelves were overflowing. I used the Ciscero quote to enable my book acquisition - "A room without books is like a body without a soul."   Side note, I first saw the quote in my local bookstore in college - tricky marketing. 

But these last two years, I've been slowly unpacking my relationships with books and what's behind the surface. Logistically, I took all my books and sorted them into two main categories - books I've read and books I've not read or not finished yet. Of the books I've read, earlier this year, I sorted them again into, books I read and I really enjoyed and would want to reread and worth carrying up several flights of stairs when moving. I was brutal and really questioned if I'd reread the book again.  Making it clear that for every book I reread that meant I couldn't read a new book during that time spent. And interestingly, I was able to weed out quite a few books I enjoyed and liked and would recommend but didn't need to own any longer. My keep pile is suprsimglu small and I feel like I could revisit again and make it smaller. 

What really helped was that in the pile of books I had read I noticed some mental themes. For me I was holding on to a lot of books from two periods of my life: young adult books and books I read in college (not text books). I split the books into three piles and found I could be ruthless weeding out books I've read these last twenty years but the other two groups I was much more sentimental. Was I really going to reread Little House on the Prairie series, and if so, couldn't I just get a copy from the library. Same with some of college books - I loved the Russians and Dickens, but haven't ready any in years. I still have books from these two groups but they are now separated out and I have a time limit.  I'm giving myself some time to see if I'd reread any, otherwise they go. And I'm slowly, mentally, uncoupling the sentimental side of keeping the books. 

But the biggest pile was books I had aquired that looked interesting but I hadn't gotten to yet. I'm slowly realizing they are part of my "fantasy self". The self that knows what's in the books - I've read them already.  Just like with beautiful things, I can't have and own every beautiful thing I see. I don't have enough space (or money). Same with books, I can't read every book I find interesting, there literally isn't enough time in my life. So again, I've been learning to add the filter to prioritize. 

Which gets me to the point of my post. I've been volunteering at my local library helping organize and prepare for their annual book sale. I like the work because it's basically sorting the books into categories and then organizing them on the tables. Last year, I ended up with an armful of books I took home. And had resigned myself that I'd probably do something similar but hopefully not as many, especially since I was out of space on the bookshelf that housed my unread books. 

But surprisingly, this last week. I found myself using some good questioning techniques. I was sorting through the cookbooks and would set aside a few I was interested in and at the end I looked at the books and found that, one, I liked the cookbooks I already owned better (prioritization), and two, that often I was sucked into the idea of the lifestyle (fantasy self). Either through beautiful pictures/graphics or with the idea of the dish. I'd love to eat it and even be able to cook it, but in reality this was a big jump from my current cooking style. Granted, I may want to shift my cooking style, but you only need one cookbook or handful of receipts - not a mini library. If you have more than one book to experiment with, you start feeling burdened for not being your fantasy self, that you've already failed.  And in the end, I put all the books back. 

As I worked through the other sections, same thing - I saw a book that looked interesting. Set it aside. And in the end decided I had enough at home. And at the end of volunteering, I left empty handed. The questioning of priority and fantasy self helped me but also the time delay. Waiting and reflecting after the initial discovery helped the endorphins settle down.  

Now the question will be, will I escape without any books in the next week - the book sale is next weekend and I still have a bunch more volunteer time. And I'm ok if I bring home a few - it's not an absolute. But more about understanding why I want to have the book and being more mindful about my acquisitions. But I feel pretty confident I won't have a huge stack like last time. It's all about progress and not being perfect.