This is Not a Library

I was watching Nate Berkus today while Kevin was eating lunch. In a cruel twist of fate, Nate began talking about cluttered bookshelves. "Listen to him" Kevin says while munching on his sandwich.

Thanks Nate.

My one clutter downfall is books. I have a stack of books next to my chair. A stack on my bedstand, albeit more decorative than storage. I have the bookcase in the living room but they share space with the stereo and Kevin's books too. The office? Oh, well, um. Yeah.

I have a nearly floor to ceiling unit from the Moody House full of books. Well, let's define full. Let's just say perhaps overfull. Disorganized, for sure. I have a few of my favorite tchotchkes mixed in: pictures, cups, candles, a Bambi snowglobe. Just a few of my favorite things. Plus elebenty hundred books.

It looks like I might have an upcoming snow day soon and organizing books will be my project.

I am not worried about the bookshelf in the living room as those are my Never Get Rid Of books. The ones next to my chair will need to be narrowed down to just a few. Then in the office, I will have to take everything down off the shelves which will be quite a job as they are mostly hardcovers.

Then there is the sorting of books, which is going to be broken into two parts. When we moved into this house, I accidentally unpacked the books without paying attention to the read/unread category. Nice, well done me.

Then there's the sorting into Can't Live Without, Give away, and Meh categories. This can either go really quickly or really slowly. It will depend on how easily I recall whether or not I enjoyed the book enough to keep.

I used to be a Danielle Steel fan, twenty years ago. Now it seems her books are complete fluff. I believe I can edit those fairly quickly.

I enjoy Nicholas Sparks but the stories always make you cry so I am unsure what category they will fall into.

Maeve Binchy, Elizabeth Berg, Emily Giffin, & Anne Lamott will most likely be keepers.

All of the other authors will be on a book by book basis. I love book series and Nora Roberts has written quite a few of those but I probably won't feel compelled to keep every single one.

Oh, I've completely forgotten the "but the cover is so pretty category!" That's just another problem to solve, I guess.

Anyway, I will take before and after pictures. If I can manage, I will try to take during pictures as well.

So, dear poppets, how do you organize your books? How do you decide what to keep & what to discard? (or get from the library)