Books

Ok, after my inspirational (to me at least!) post about garbage the other week . . . I have to admit today still bummed me out. But I'm posting it anyway. I do not want to become a person who hoards garbage just because they feel bad about throwing it out. Some things just need to go, know what I mean?

Anyway, today I brought some books to be recycled. Books. Ouch.

11 were old books from the basement. They were stored there by my dh's grandparents who owned this house before us. They were all from the 50's and smelled like you'd imagine books stored in a basement for 50 years would smell which is why I tossed them. Most were Reader's Digest condensed books.

14 were computer text books of my husband's. That kills me. I know how much he paid for some of them but the technology changes so fast that a few years later, you can't give them away. I know, I've tried before on Freecycle. There really is no market for this stuff. So basically I threw out hundreds of dollars worth of books today. Again - ouch. But that's the nature of computing I guess.

At least it's all getting recycled, not thrown out. We can't recycle books in our town but if I drive less than 10 miles away I can dump my books at a paper factory that takes them (even hardcovers - but I did have to go through all the manuals and make sure to remove the CD's that came with them). So that's what we did today.

I know book hoarding is a big problem for many people in my family. We're all big readers and we value books. It's hard to admit when some are past their prime, or have lost their use or just plain shouldn't be taking up space in the house anymore. I've not only started making an effort to get rid of unloved books, I've also been reducing the inflow of them this past year. We still get books (we'll always buy books) but I'm being much more selective about what and how many. No more grabbing piles of books at the consignment store or books sales because "they're practically free". Now I get piles of books at the library because they are free AND - most importantly - they go back to the library when we're done with them. Then if I get a book that turns out to not be so good it doesn't sit here staring accusingly at me for years afterward.

So 25 for today.