For the first two weeks of April, my local library holds a “Friends of the Library” sale. This is a huge flea market/ thrift store-type sale in an old store (it’s actually the former library of my library branch) where they sell books, records, games, and moveis that people have donated throughout the previous years. Though I wasn’t looking for my donations, I’m 100% sure that the books I donated were on some of those tables.

So, of course, I dropped $40.

I don’ tknow what it is, and maybe Professor Alan–he of the Quarter Bin–can explain it, but there’s something about $2 paperbacks and $1 records that just calls to me. And while I spent a few hours in this sale (masked because otherwise my allergies would be going haywire), my haul of $40 worth of merchandise wound up being carefully selected. I actually bought things that I am pretty sure are going to get read and are even already on my “to read” list. And some of them might just go back into the donation circulation after I’m done with them.

But as huge as this sale was–seriously, think of an empty supermarket filled with books–I somehow managed to not get overwhelmed, and that can be hard. Then again, getting overwhelmed in situations where there’s a lot of activity and a lot of choices is really easy for me; furthermore, I don’t think you give a shit about that or about my “strategy” for tackling the book sale.

Seriously, though, I did have a strategy. I started with science fiction and horror because they are always filled to the brim with the most random of literature. I have fond memories of exploring the sci-fi paperback shelves of my old public library and to thumb my way along the many, many out of print books was a treat. I wound up with a few–especially interesting were the hardcovers of the Star Trek movie adaptations–before I moved on to other sections and went through the records and games. I grabbed another Trivial Pursuit game (this makes 24 in case you are keeping track), She’s the Man on DVD, and a few 1970s rock albums that were buried among what had to be several dozen Ray Conniff Singers records.

Getting those things–with the intent to recirulate most of them–did make me think of how i get rid of books, and I can tell you that getting rid of books is actually easier than it seems. My wife and I recently went through our overflowing bookcases and I wound up trimming my to read list by nine books in a single day just by deciding what I had put on that list out of obligation as opposed to a want to read them. They’re still sitting in a couple of Trader Joe’s shopping bags in my guest room because the library has paused donations until April 22, but once that day hits, I’m going to drive over there on my way home from work and drop them off. Then, I’ll look for them in next year’s Friends of the Library sale.

Anyway, I find it really easy to cull and toss things like books or DVDs or VHS tapes when you’ve got a partner. She pulled several books and put them in our guest room, and I didn’t give it a second thought because like I said, so many of these were sitting on a “to read” list simply because they had been in the house and I wasn’t reading them. If I really wanted to read it, I took it out of the pile and put it back. I’m not sure she noticed, by the way.

Oh, and I guess what also helped was that I hadn’t really spent any money on those books, or if I had, the money was spent so long ago that it wasn’t in the front of miy mind. Therefore, the guilt of ownership and the guilt that might have come from letting go wasn’t really there. I’ve been helping clean out some of my late father-in-law’s stuff over the last several month and this was a little similar because the decisions were a lot easier to make. I know that is definitely because of the psychology behind emotional attachments to stuff, but I will say that I like the more “detached” approach I took here. It allowed me to form a thought process while I both rearranged and pulled the books. So here’s a quick list of the criteria that led me to tossing a book:

1. I genuinely didn’t like the book. It’s the most obvious reason for getting rid of anything and the only reason the book was still on the shelf was because I’d finished it and needed to put it somewhere.
2. It was mid at best. Thse are the ones that were good at the time and that I’ve held onto, but if someone wanted to borrow it and never return it (like my sister, who is notorious for this), it wouldn’t be a big deal.
3. I loved it but I won’t read it again. This was the hardest because I truly enjoyed the book, but I don’t think it’s going to be a reread.
4. Who am I trying to impress? These are the books that I had on my shelf that were “sophisticated literature”, as if one of my college professors was going to come by and inspect my shelves for intellgience. Who honestly cares at this point?

And the other fun thing? I got to completely reorganize the shelves. This time, I went categorically: poetry, music, film, TV, general nonfiction, history, travel, sports, memoir, franchises/extended universes, fiction, coffee table books, yearbooks, and cookbooks. Yes, it’s the nerdiest freaking thing ever, but it makes me feel accomplished.

With the sale over and me desperately trying to avoid going to the used bookstore across the highway, I’ve got some good reading ahead of me … even if it’s adding to the pile.