We’ve lived in our house for 28 years. We’ve collected over 30 years of books together. More as individuals. James reads several books at a time: science, math, science fiction, birds and on and on. I tend to take one book at a time: usually something to do with history, language, the arts, or a good mystery.
Shortly after we moved in I became a teacher. In came books relating to teaching preschool, Spanish as a second language, intro to music. James began to bring in works that related to his field, as well as seismology, the ecology and hikes that are unique to our area and the ever present books that are in the science fiction and fantasy genres.
You get the picture. We have a lot of books.
In fact we’ve collected so many books that it was time to “decommission” some of them. So this last weekend we sorted through old editions, things we don’t read any more, books that would be great for libraries, subjects that might be interesting to others because of their aged quaintness. Books that some young person on a tight budget might buy at a price that would feel like a real deal. Books that we’ve read and that should be doing more than sitting on our shelves. 
The result is lots more room for the books in the back room to move up front. It feels a little odd to have the shelves looking a bit empty, but I know that we’ll adjust. Makes me smile to think that somewhere someone will pick up one of the donated books and will add it to a shelf that is hungry for books.
