Book Triage
My process of figuring out what to take with us to France
Originally published on Medium on 9 February 2024
To get our house ready to sell (in preparation for our move to France), I’m starting by taking a first pass through our massive book collection. And I do mean “massive.”
I read a lot — between 85 and 130 novel-length books per year. I use the public library, and I do have a Kindle, but I still buy quite a few books and receive even more as gifts. The rest of our large family reads more than average as well, and though our adult children have taken some of their books with them, many, many remain.
To get my mind around the scope of my project, I measured all the bookshelves throughout the house. (They’re all full of books; a couple of small ones until recently were double stacked.) We’re taking 152 feet of book shelf space with us in the form of nice, sturdy bookshelves. (Any furniture that’s IKEA-quality or less is not worth shipping across the ocean.)
But with built-ins and a few remaining IKEA-quality shelves that we’re getting rid of, we currently own 225 feet of books. That means I have to get rid of 73 feet of books. If the average novel is about an inch thick, that means purging about 876 books.
I’ve already texted with my kids about this, so some of these won’t be a factor. When they come visit, they’ll go through their things and either take them home with them or put them in the ever-growing donation pile.
As far all mine go, I’m using the BooksRun app to make a little bit of money. Their app scans each ISBN and tells you whether they’re buying that particular title, and if they are, how much they’re offering. Once you have enough to fill a box, they give you a prepaid shipping label and then send you the money once they receive the books. So far, I’ve made about $100.
For me, it’s not worth packaging up the book unless they’re offering at least a dollar. (They’ve offered as little as 8 cents.) Also, I don’t want to eat into my profits by buying materials other than tape, so I’ve been using old Amazon boxes and packing materials — and I’ve asked all my neighbors to save them for me as well.
But BooksRun only takes about one out of every ten books I scan. The rest I’m donating — to Goodwill and to Little Free Libraries in our neighborhood.
It’s hard for me to let go of books. And I want to keep a lot of them — several shelves’ worth, obviously ! If we live in France for the rest of our lives, we’ll want a lot of English books to keep us company. Of course we’ll be able to buy them there, but books are more expensive in Europe.
However, knowing I need to get rid of close to 1,000, and knowing how much we’re paying for this intercontinental move, I’m trying to be ruthless. Did I truly love it? Do I think of it as a friend? (I often do.) Will I re-read it? Will someone else — a future grandchild, perhaps — want to read it? I anticipate it’ll take more than one pass through our entire library to achieve my goal, but I’m determined to get there. Maybe it’ll get easier as I go along.
Oh blimey… this sounds tough. Did you manage to get rid of 800+ books?
When we moved last year, my boyfriend suggested I might like a book clear out. (I didn’t.) But I did donate about 50 books. And that felt like a huge achievement - not quite 800!!