It had to be

I have spent most of today surrounded by books, being determined to complete the task I started last week - the huge sort out of my fiction collection. And it’s finished.

As well as a reader, I have always been a book collector and this is a collection gathered since I was a teenager - I have found books that I know I acquired at jumble sales or bought for very little at second-hand book stalls in the market. There are the books from College, from University and from all the courses and classes and book groups since. These are mainly paperbacks, some of which are falling apart. It is only in recent years that I have had the joy of buying newly-published hardback books. 

I have been lucky as we have always had big houses and I have had shelf space, so the collection has just been allowed to grow. However, I realised that it was time to trim the collection down, something I have never done before. Every book has been taken down and considered and each has had to convince me that it has a right to a place on the shelf. I now have only the books I have read and enjoyed and may read again, or those that have some memories attached to them or some that may be part of a set or are worth keeping for other reasons. The rest have been discarded. I now have huge piles of books that need passing on so someone else can read them. 

It has been hard work carting books backwards and forwards, but I have enjoyed handling each book and recalling when and where I first read them and, in many cases, who I was reading them with. Memories of course come in to play - as soon as I saw the cover of The Day of The Triffids (it cost 3/6!) I remembered how scared I was when I first read it many, many years ago. 

So here it is - about half of my fiction library - the shelves continue along the wall and then turn the corner. And the job's done!

Of course I still have books lying around in the living room usually relatively new books, and my Iris Murdoch collection in the bedroom etc. etc. I like books around, but seeing them organised like this makes me happy.