Why I Own 400+ Books

*Pretend this was posted in early January...oops*

I've been collecting books since around 2010 or 2011. Over the years I have accumulated a lot of books. I'm not saying that I've kept every book I've read but...I've kept most of them. If I kept every book that I've ever bought I would probably have 1000+ books. I don't think I really understood why I started keeping all of my books. I didn't even have a bookshelf until my freshman year of high school. I knew that the books brought me a sense of pride and joy so I kept doing it. Since then my room is filled to the brim with books that I have loved, hated or never read. Right now I have three bags of books with me to take back to school. Will I read all those books? No, not while at school. Still it is important to me that I have books and always have a book with me. 

Then Marie Kondo's new show, Tidying Up came out and naturally there was confusion and controversy. When a show about 'decluttering' comes out it might not be well received. The whole point of the show is to get rid of items that "don't spark joy". There is one particular episode that includes a couple, who are writers. It would make sense that writers would have a lot of books and they did. There is one section of the show dedicated to books. Each person has to pick up each book and if the book sparks joy they have to keep it. This caused an internet frenzy of people freaking out because Marie Kondo was 'forcing' people to get rid of books. It became even more out of control when Marie Kondo says that she only keeps thirty books at a time. Obviously this became twisted and then people were saying that she believes people should only have thirty books at a time. That is not what she meant. Marie Kondo was specifically speaking about herself. While some people found this ridiculous other people started doing it. 

Some of the boxes...

I would be lying if I said I never considered getting rid of my books. There was a time when I considered only keeping ten books. Last year I did go through all my books and gave away a lot of time. I probably gave away 200 books. In hindsight it's such a small part of my books. It was so hard to go through all the books and be honest about the books I didn't want anymore. I originally wanted to make a post about that experience but I couldn't. I spent hours going through all of my books and tried to be honest with myself. It was easy to get rid of the books that I did not like. It was not easy to get rid of the books that I was 'going to read'. I somehow mustered the courage to put the books in the bin. The weekend eventually rolled around and people started to buy my books. I'm not going to lie, it was painful. It was painful to realize that I was not going to have those books anymore. Nearing the end of the day, things were starting to calm down. Then there was a sixteen year old girl, looking at my books. She did exactly what I would have done at sixteen years old. I would have picked up the majority of the books and bought them. As she was paying for them she thanked me for keeping my books in good condition. I realized that sixteen year old was exactly like me. It gave me joy to give someone else the gift of books and reading...even at a yardsale. 

So why not get rid of the majority of my books?

Why wouldn't I want to feel that feeling again?

I probably will do it again. In a few years I'll grab a few more bins and put two hundred books in them. My books bring me a lot of joy and there is a deep sense of emotional attachment. Your books say a lot about you as a person and where you are in life. If anything the books that I own say that I'm dedicated and that reading is a huge part of my life. I want to be surrounded by stories because it's stories that bring me joy. I also want my kids to read the books that I read growing up. I want them to read the books that I once loved. They won't be able to touch my Harry Potter books but anything else is fine. I want my kids to be surrounded by stories in the same way that I was. I want my kids to read The Diary of Anne Frank and Are you there God? It's me Margaret. 

Right now, I'm happy with the books that I have. I'm happy with my 400+ books and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. There might come a day where I give up all of my books. I don't see that being any time soon though. I'm at a point in my life where I'm falling in love with books again. I'll probably talk about this in another post. I haven't read much in the past two years and I think that was because of my anxiety. I wouldn't be able to sit or concentrate for long periods of time without thinking about things I should be doing. I was also afraid that I was going to lose that part of myself. I've had to force myself to read, to relax and fall into books. It's a beautiful/difficult thing to do. It's making me realize that it would be impossible to remove myself from books. Books are such a huge part of me.

DFTBA

-AB