I packed up a few grocery bags of paperback books. Cheap editions of Hamlet, Wizard of Oz, Cross Creek and other titles. I saved a few books that I think we will use in the next year or two, but all the rest will go to the Friends of the Library Sale. Did I hear some of you gasp? Do you think that books are precious? Do you love to read and cherish your books? I do too. But there are other factors here.
The first is that our house is only so big. Three adults, two children and several pets have lots of stuff. Billy has a computer business that has it own “supplies”, I have my sewing/crafting stuff, and we home school. We live in our house. Actually live, not just sleep. There are many people who work outside of their home and their children go to school. Their house is empty for a large part of the day. We live here – all day long. Don’t get me wrong. I love it this way. But we have to be careful in how much stuff we bring into the house.
The second factor of getting rid of perfectly good books is that I want my kids to love the library as much as I do. We go to the library usually once a week. We check out books, magazines, comic books, music, movies and books on tape/CD. The library is a great resource. I love (LOVE) the library. When we first got married, I started buying books at book stores. It was such a luxury. But I quickly came to my senses and realized what a waste it is to buy a book and only read it once and then donate it or keep it. Don’t feel bad if you buy books. This is my personal conviction. Now I buy reference books and books for homeschooling that I can’t find in the library. I try to get our school books from the library as much as I can. Which would you rather read? A hardcover, nice sized, nice font, lovely illustrations/pictures, with nice paper or a small, paper back with small print, bad/no pictures on cheap paper? The first from the library or the latter from the book store? I can’t afford to buy nice additions of all the books I would want for ourselves. And if I could, where would I store all of them? And would I really want to keep them if we would probably only read them once?
And on another note:
A couple of pictures for a quilt top that I made yesterday. Ever have a quilting idea stewing in your head and you just have to make it now? This is one of those times.
8 comments:
We run into that same problem every so often, and do some "weeding". We use the library as well, but we also have a great deal of books. Ironically, most of the librarians I know, have loads of books :-)
Oh how my family loves books. My kids were the only ones in their peer groups that had bookcases in their bedrooms. Books do take up a lot of spcae. That is one of my problems. I like you fabrics. Oh the best quilts are the ones that just come and you can't keep yourself from making. Enjoy and I look forward to seeing the final results.
I LOVE the library! I spend a lot of time there in the summers. In fact, I was just at my local library today!
Our library system is so great up here in the Northern Chicagoland suburbs, that our library cards are valid at libraries in the other suburbs, too! If Evanston doesn't have the book I want, I could go to Skokie or Wilmette to get the book no problem! I love it!
But the best part about my library is I'm within walking distance of the main one in downtown Evanston. Yay!
We went to the library every week when I was a kid - it was always a thrill. It make me crazy to not have a local library here. Donating books is always a great way to go too, either they put the book on the shelves or else sell it so they can buy a book. win win. fun fabrics!
We are book hounds at our house. I even have books I've kept from college. As for your quilt...good for you. I did the same thing this weekend...had this fabric...this idea and went for it. I didn't need another project, but sometimes I just can't stop myself.
Hi Sarah! Thanks for checking in at redfishcircle. I am going a little crazy right now because I cannot access etsy - so I don't know what is going on with my site. I had a frog fabric and snail fabric up there last week. But yes, I will be getting some more fabrics in. I will definitely announce it on my blog when that happens (won't be for a little while because I have to order it).
Now, I am going to have some fun surfing your blog.
*sigh* lovely fabric combination there Sarah. When can we see the whole quilt?
I, too, am a huge library fan. My county-wide system here allows me to select books online and request to have them delivered to my local branch. So I go to Barnes and Noble with a notebook and a pen, write down all the books I'm interested in, and then go home and request them from my library! It's like shopping for free! I'm also a huge fan of the used book store. I love getting a pile of old paperbacks for less than $10. Have you seen any of those people on flickr that have organized their books by color? I can't imagine doing it, but it's so pretty!
Blabby
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