This morning I read a feature article where the editors of the New York Times interviewed famous authors on how they decide what to cull from their book collections.  I noticed that one of the authors admitted that he never does, and several others framed it as a hypothetical question, using words like "would."

Whenever I see people say things like this I always think, "Well it must be nice to own your own home and have all that storage space."  Like Roger Ebert, who recently fetishized the non-disposing of books, or Neil Gaiman's impressive library which snuggles up in his remodeled basement.  The rest of us, living in smaller spaces, unable to install floor to ceiling bookcases according to the terms of our rental contracts, aren't so lucky!

As Peter Walsh so aptly points out in his decluttering manifesto It's All Too Much, you only have the space that you have.  If you have six total feet of bookshelf space, then you have room for six total feet of books.  Not eight total feet of books, two feet of which are jammed into a double row, or stacked in a teetering pile beside your coffee table.

The best argument for getting rid of books is that it lets you get more books.  Almost everyone in North America is within driving range of a used book store that buys used books, either for store credit or for cash (frequently either; your choice).  It may be down the street if you live in a big city, which means that you can take a sack of books there once a month.  If you live in a rural area like me, it may be two hours away, in which case you save up and do a big purge once or twice a year.

If you live farther from a used bookstore than that, Powell's (the world's largest used book store) now buys books online.  It may sound fishy if you've never heard of Powell's before, you poor thing, but trust me - they can be trusted with this.  I would ship them my books without a second's hesitation.

You can also do a very good deed indeed, and donate your books to the nearest thrift store.  Thrift stores are being squeezed twice in this recession - more people are shopping there to save money, and fewer people are donating used goods.  Think of how grateful that thrift store shopper will be, to find your wonderful book selection there on the shelves.  (I have been that thrift store shopper, too broke to buy books at a used book store, and I was very grateful indeed.)

To answer the question posed by the New York Times, I purge every book that I don't have a specific reason for keeping.  I always keep reference books that prove useful (I cull the ones that turn out to be "meh," and there are more of those than you might think).  "I enjoyed it" is not a specific reason for keeping it.  "I really liked it and I want to loan it to my aunt, because I think she'll like it too" is a specific reason.