Going through bookshelves

in an attempt to remove books is proving even more difficult than I thought it might be. I do not like to part with books.

"There are far too many books in this house," Brother Cat informed me last time he was here. That of course is the pot calling the kettle black. There might not be quite as many in his house but there are rather a lot of books. 

Middle Cat has bookshelves up the passageway and into the other bedroom of her house. Mmmm... the Senior Cat and I did consider bookshelves up the passageway here - after my mother died.

Mum always said we had "far too many books". She was not happy when the Senior Cat and I went off to the book sales run by our favourite second-hand book sellers. Going shopping in the city with us was, according to her, a nightmare. "There are far too many bookshops in the city!" Sadly, most of them have gone.

But now I know I need to start removing some books. I really don't need over three hundred dictionaries - no, not all in English. Well actually I have given a good many of those away already.  I don't like using on-line dictionaries from a physical viewpoint but they do tend to be more up to date. I have kept things like a medical dictionary that comes in five different languages - it's a first reference point. But do I really need German-Swahili or Russian-Chinese? No. I gave those away along with many more. Many of these were used just once to write a communication board for someone - and, let's face it, my knowledge of German is "read it with a dictionary to hand". My knowledge of Swahili is rather less although I can actually say a few polite phrases. I know perhaps six words of Russian and I have forgotten all those Chinese characters I learned to " read  in English" while I was writing my thesis. There are still English and French, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish etc and other dictionaries there. I look words up from time to time. I like words. 

The dictionaries needed to go. Then there are the other books about  linguistics, syntax, semantics, language planning, thesauri, and lexicons of this and that. I am gradually parting with them - more than a thousand of them have already gone. There is a core library left.

Don't get me started on the children's literature (and books about that) or the knitting and other craft. I recently gave away a waist high pile of serious knitting books and there are now more waiting to go. I have culled some poetry and some adult novels. My mother's collection of cookery books were given away years ago.

There is a small community library near the church. They were asking for contributions for that recently. There are more than fifty paperbacks waiting to be collected by the local priest. He will take them the next time he comes hunting for timber in the shed.  There are books belonging to the Senior Cat that he will not read again. The print is too small in some. I must go through those - and that is even harder. He has discussed this with me. I don't like doing it.

An online book store left me a message this morning to say the book I had ordered is now in. They are sending it today. I ordered it with a voucher I was given for Christmas and birthday. Perhaps that sort of thing is part of the problem?

I don't know. I still have too many books.