Too many books

I can't believe I said that.... surely you can't have too many books? I often go to local Library stock sales and buy old reference books at ridiculously cheep prices. I tend to read them quickly and then they sit and gather dust for years. Its had reached a point where a hard nosed 'thinning of the ranks' was required if I was ever to buy another book.

So what did I decide to get rid of? I have a varied interest in military history but the fact is that my interests lay primarily with the American Civil War, WWI & WWII. So several interesting books on the Crimea, the Boar War and the wars against Napoleonic France were selected for removal as I'm unlikely to read them again. I also had a small selection of really old reference books on archaeology that were so out of date as to be useless. I also had a dozen or so books on family history that are past their usefulness as many relate to records as they were prior to the boom in Internet genealogy.

All told I managed to slim my collections down by nearly 5o books... which means there is now space on my shelves for 50 new books! Fear not however, all those books I removed are not destined for the bin (that would be sacrilege akin to book burning). All are destined for the local Charity shop, although it may take several trips to deposit them. I consider this a great way to recycle an old book, especially as I have bought several excellent books myself from Charity shops. I recently reviewed Das Reich by Max Hastings and this was a Charity shop purchase that cost the princely sum of £1. Bargain!