Maybe I should have been a librarian...

I have a lot of books. A LOT OF BOOKS.

I love to read. When I was a kid my favorite place to go was the library (shut up, I was not a dork). My mom had a friend who was a librarian so I was in luck. She took me a lot.

I was allowed to check out 7 books at a time and I would carefully select them. First in the children's section and then later on in the young adult's section. Every week I devoured all 7 books and then we'd go back to the library.

In middle school, I found myself awash in the world of VC Andrews and other such trash. A friend and I even developed our own pen name where we wrote our own smut together. EB Dahl. It was an awesome pen name. I wonder if she has copies of that smut because I don't. I think it could have been published. :)

My love of books has never dwindled. In college, my roommate and I happily bought a book case and filled it with beautiful books. My parents thought I was spending all my money on beer, but a good percentage of it was really going to pretty books from Barnes & Noble where we would happily spend evenings reading. (Seriously, I was NOT a dork!)

In my life I have moved nine times and each time my books went with me as a priority and each time there were more boxes than the last. If I had to move them now, they would probably need their own U-Haul.

And as much as I love them, they're taking over my life.

There are books everywhere. They have filled two book cases in the living room, the shelf on top of my desk, there are piles in the bedroom and the bathroom and the family room. They are stashed in a cupboard in the hallway, boxed up and in the garage, and there are multiple boxes in the attic of poor, banished books.

Many I've read, many I plan to read, many I read a few pages of and set aside for another time.

So I've made a decision. I'm going to pick up each book and make a decision. I'm either going to read it or not read it, and then I'm going to get rid of it. I will not buy any more. This is hard for me as I spend a lot of my time in thrift stores and seriously, books for a quarter? How can I say no?! But I have made a promise to myself and a promise to The Man (who can't quite understand why I love them so much).

There may be a few that I just have to keep (Le Morte D'Arthur and The Mists of Avalon are very close to my heart and I think I'll need to keep them, probably everything by Phillipa Gregory will remain, and I'm sure there are others I'll be unable to part with) but most of them are going. Nora Roberts, I love you, but I can't keep a zillion paperbacks filled with the same romance written over and over again in different forms. Anything that was part of Oprah's book club is going to be read and given away. Little Children, The Thirteenth Tale, and The Glass Castle (all recommendations I read because of Jason - he has a 2011 edition of his book recommendations, too!) are some of the best reads I've ever had, but they're being passed on to someone else. Sophie Kinsella, Jane Green, and Emily Giffen, you've made me laugh and cry and I thank you, but off you go. Twilight Series, you're being handed off. Thanks for the super fast weekend entertainment. So far I couldn't get into The Host, but I'll be sure to give it a chance before it goes into the donation pile. And Charlaine Harris, you're a simple genius and I'm sure the person who holds my hand-me-down Sookie books will love you just as much.

And once I've cleared them all out and it's all narrowed down to the must keep pile, I'm going to reward myself with this.

it's so pretty...

Oh how I want one. But I need to earn it. And honestly, by the time I get through with this crazy project I'm sure there will be a better one for me to covet.

I just finished The Levee (it was GREAT) and now I'm finishing up the first of Nora Robert's Daring to Dream series (a great bathtub read as all of hers are) and I'll try to whip through the rest of her paperbacks that I have piled up as quickly as possible.

And one day I'll be paperless.