Minimalist decor regarding books11/30/2023 She lives near Chicago with her cat named after Hemingway and her bookshelves organized by color. My love affair with books continues, but I am no longer a possessive lover.Ashley Holstrom helps make books at Sourcebooks. Twenty-five are ones that I believe I will read or reference in the future. Four books are autographed and therefore hold special value to me. One I am reading, three are on my “to read” stack, and all four will probably be donated to friends or the library when I finish. Here is how my current book collection stacks up. Second hand bookstores provide an opportunity to find books that you may otherwise never discover. I have found great deals and unique gifts online, and it is fun to explore second hand bookstores. Visit second-hand bookstores in your community, on your travels and online. I am fortunate to work at a community college where I can also borrow books and seek assistance from knowledgeable librarians.ĥ. Not only is this economical, it is also a great way to support literacy and get involved with the community. This saves money, paper and physical space. Consider iBooks or another electronic reading platform. I search the library first and if my desire is stronger than my patience for the book to show up in the library’s collection, I purchase the iBook.ģ. I also keep a list of new titles I’m seeking. You don’t necessarily need to hold on to the physical book. You can do this with an app or in a journal. Design a plan and process that works for you.Ĭonsider keeping a log of the books you have read. It feels great to donate books to the local library where they can be purchased, providing funds to the library and enjoyment to their new owners, rather than having them sit, unopened, collecting dust.Ģ. Here are a few tips for decreasing the size of your collection: We each have a small stack of books to read, and we now maintain an area in the basement to collect books we will donate to the library in the coming year. Decluttering bookshelves is a personalized process. Over a few months as he began to organize his books, he also identified many books that he wished to donate, and he continues to pull more from the shelves. How many of these books have you read? Do you think you’ll ever reread them? Are you going to read those you haven’t yet read? I received a fairly clear message to back off of that particular topic as we were comingling our belongings. When I first moved in with my significant other, I gently nudged him about his hefty book collection. I also began to consciously stop and consider whether or not I actually wanted to make a purchase or could locate the desired book at a library or borrow it from a friend. As I more fully embraced minimalism and read Marie Kondo’s, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I approached my book collection with fresh, more discerning, eyes.Īs I looked through my books, I eventually shifted from asking myself which books do I want to donate to which books do I cherish?īy this time, I had also begun to read iBooks, so my collection had grown less steadily than in previous years. I knew that I wanted less not more, but I continued to find myself adding new books. Over time, my collection began to grow again. It felt good, and I’ve only ever missed two of those books, both of which I was easily able to borrow from the library. When I saw those particular books I felt heavy and a bit guilty. They had been given to me or I had picked them up second hand because they looked interesting. I also found that I was holding on to books that I had no real intention of reading. So why keep them? Maybe I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment it gave me to see all of the books I had read. I found that while I clung to my books, many of them were ones that I was highly unlikely to read again. I faced this challenge head on when I was moving in a hurry and had a large collection of books.īooks are heavy and they take up a lot of space, so I knew I had to donate some of them. Keeping minimalism in mind, I have found it helpful to design a reading and collection plan that works for me.Ĭulling my book collection has been a process, and over time it has become easier. Whether or not to purchase or borrow lend, donate, or collect books is a personal decision. Is it a holdover from earlier days when one’s personal library was a reflection of wealth and social standing? Is it to remind us of where we’ve been and what we’ve learned over the years? Do we wish to impress folks who visit our homes by letting them know how well-read and studious we are? As a minimalist, I find it interesting to think about why we collect books.
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