my soon-to-be-done-away-with bookshelf

Interestingly, when I looked at pictures of other #blogeverdayofjune peeps’ bookshelves, I didn’t find myself coveting their book collections (although they were very nice book collections!), but rather, other things in the pictures: Katie’s stool and chair, as well as Con’s fireplace. I think this reflects my current state of being, in which I am trying to declutter – and the first step will be to get rid of the vast majority of my books.

I like having books – I really do. I am, after all, a hoarder and a librarian to boot. But I’m still driven to cull my book collection, for a few reasons. The first is that I have really bad allergies and it is nearly impossible to keep books dust free. The second is that I only reread books that I had a real connection with, so once a book I’ve bought has done the rounds of my family and friends, it really just sits and gathers dust. Another motivator is that I want a new, smaller bookshelf – something low that will run the length of my lounge room and act as somewhere to display all my precious things, too – but this isn’t going to give me a lot of space. The rationale for the new book case is that I just don’t like the way my current one looks in the room – it’s a big room, and although the bookshelf is big, because it’s a different style to all my other furniture, it looks small and out of place. The other driver is that I frequently have small children getting around my lounge room floor, and the towering 7 foot book case always looks a bit precarious next to a tiny crawling child.

Apart from the bookshelf, I have a few stacks of books around the house (one beside the bed, one on my desk) and a basket of cook books in the kitchen. In my perfect world, I’d have all my reading on my Sony Reader, and I’d only buy print copies for books I’ve read and loved, cook books, or books I want to read and share with my niece and nephew. One day…