I’ve been talking with you about the concept of enough. A few weeks ago I wrote about how many clothes are enough. Moving on to books… I’ve often heard said ‘you can never have too many books’. I disagree. Even though I think books are wonderful and I am, in fact, a self-professed book-worm. My nose is often buried in a book whether it be an e-book, a paperback, or a hardcover. However, I pass novels on to family, friends, or to my local public library once I’ve read them. I do keep reference books and books that have spoken deeply to me that I may want to re-read. I do not let my collection of books grow to the point where there are so many books that I don’t have places to adequately keep them.
What do I mean by that? Well, let’s go back to the concept of the container. We’ll imagine that the bookcase is the container. How many books can your bookcase hold without double stacking and without one row of books in front of the other? Some tall bookshelves with long shelves may hold many, many books while other bookcases being shorter with short shelves may only hold a few. Perhaps you have more than one bookcase in your home. Maybe you have a few shelves in the bedroom and a larger bookcase in your office or family room. You could also have a few large coffee table or picture books in the living room.
When you’ve run out of places to put books try not to run out and buy another bookcase. If your containers (bookcases and shelves) are full starting looking carefully at what you’re keeping and edit out books you’ve read and will not be re-reading. Maybe your children have out grown some of the books. Consider donating those in good condition to a pre-school or nursery. Maybe you’ve read some great novels, your friends or family members may want them or perhaps donate them to your local library. What about all those cookbooks? Are there some that you honestly never ever open? Put them aside to donate too.
I’m interested to know about the books in your home. Do you have too many books or is your collection just right?