Friday 5 October 2012

Always too many on the shelves

There are always books you can give to charity, always too many on your shelves, even when you have given away as many as you can bear. I almost donated George Simenon's La Verité sur Bébé Donge a few weeks ago but when I opened it I realised it was my French prize in fifth year at high school so, of course,  I can't release it. Why we keep these things I do not know. I doubt I'll read it again and it will  continue to gather dust.  I can't release The Lord of the Rings either, that was my Maths Prize.  I've never read it, and I probably won't - though we had to do The Hobbit in English, that's probably why I chose it in the first place. (I  haven't seen any of the hobbit films, but I do remember Bilbo Baggins' name, it's intriguing what stays in your head from books you read years ago.) I'm also quite tempted to give away Doris Lessing's Briefing for a Descent into Hell, I don't think I ever got through it, but it's signed so I can't. I must've seen her at Edinburgh Book Festival but  don't remember when.

2 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

oh gosh i know exactly what you mean. I'm not a hoarder by nature but somehow that doesn't stop me having huge numbers of books. I've become more ruthless recently but even so, if I'm not sure about a book once I've read it, I'll keep it just in case rather than get rid of it

Mim said...

Yes, we start a clean-out and end up standing with a book--or something else--in our hands, gazing at it, gazing out the window, and reluctantly put it back on the shelf.