Yup I imagine that girls read books as children that fill them full of the giant-library-with-ladder circular-room-with-pillows-and-windows scenario. The scene in Beauty and the Beast with the huge library just pushing that fantasy even more
I wonder if pushing those types of fantasies on us is any better than pushing the fantasies of "a prince will come and rescue you and you'll never have to work!" ideas
A friend of mine is very wealthy and built herself a dark wood library with floor to ceiling shelves, I am very jealous of it
It inspired me to get my current desk set which is dark wood. So I do feel the appeal greatly. And I suppose if you own a mansion, then having a big library room is wonderful! But for most of us, the books are taking up precious space which could be used for a wider range of activities.
I mean, if you had a gigantic empty room in your house, and you just left it empty, that might not be great. If instead you had it be your dream-retreat library, then it might be perfect.
But on the other hand if you have a *tiny* house and your life is spent crawling over books and being cramped by them, and you never read them, then that is the other end of the spectrum.
It's all about balance
Jilly - I know how much you need money and my suggestions for you are always keeping that in mind. I think of you gathering up 5 cent bottles and think that pretty much anything is a better time expenditure for you to be able to buy more healthy foods and so on. So the idea of just dumping all the books torments me. But on the other hand if a book is only worth 5 cents then dumping it is a better use of your time. Here is what I would do.
Tackle just one small pile a day. Do a quick 10 second search on Amazon for the title. See its price. Determine what, for you, is the break point. Is it $10? $20? Whatever that break point is, either put the book in the "to sell" box or the "library" box. Don't do anything else. Just sort them. Quick, easy, mindless, stress-free.
At some point in the future when one of those boxes gets full enough, you can take another step. But for now, just quick-sort.
