I’m normally loathe to clean out my books, but they’re multiplying at too rapid a pace to keep up with. And, I have to face it, I own a lot of crap. So any book that I’m not going to read again, don’t think is good enough to lend out, or that I’ll honestly never read has to go. Out of the hundreds of books I own, I could find about seven to get rid of. Not the most thorough of cleanings. I can’t help it. I just find I become attached to books. I was able to get rid of the Kathy Acker books I have because an ex-boyfriend raved about them. I’ll never get through them. And I now have a suspicious hunch he never read them either but thought it was cool to be po-mo. That boyfriend is gone, and now so are my Kathy Acker books. I also own a lot of books I haven’t read from my Amazon days. A magical shelf lived in a corner of editorial called the free shelf. When editors were done with their review copies, they migrated to this shelf for the rest of us to pick over. Oh how I miss the free shelf.
With the exception of the Acker books, the books are certified trash in that it’s not even worth it to sell them used on Amazon. For instance, there’s Amy and Isabelle : A novel by Elizabeth Strout, which I bought for a book club. It’s selling for a penny. This was a horrendous book I wouldn’t inflict on friends so into the donation pile it goes. Along with other winners such as Honeymoon: A Novel by Amy Jenkins, selling for 34 cents, which seemed like it would be a better read when I picked it off Brookline Booksmith’s remainders table (their remainders are usually so good!); After Life by Rhian Ellis selling for a penny, another book club book; and Amanda’s Wedding: A Novel by Jenny Colgan, going for 78 cents, which I came from the free shelf. If only I had a free shelf now to put these back on. Maybe one of these days I’ll make an actual dent in my cleaning out. Then again, maybe not.
