It is common for bookworms to find themselves with towers of books that they haven’t touched for years. They have the tendency of just collecting books either because they are a rare edition or for the invaluable information in them. With time, they find themselves with several books that they no longer need. If you have a mini city of books at your home, chances are that you are a bookworm yourself or you are living with someone with that condition. Some books will remain precious as long as someone is alive but others have no value to anyone at your place. Why do people do this? Why do people keep investing in so many books?
The Love for Books
My father is one of those people who love books. I think he buys a book every week, if not several. His bookshelf can hold around 1500 books. Now he has so many books that some of them he keeps in boxes. I love his taste in books because he has a collection of the most inspiring and life-changing books I have ever read. He has collections of both non-fiction and fiction. He seems particularly interested in classical writers like Edgar Allan Pore, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, and he even has collections of Greek Mythology among others. If it is an author whose work is worth reading, he has a copy.
There are people who are like this. In my family, my father is the only one who is like this. I don’t see the need to buy books myself, at least not in hard copy. In soft copy, I have my own collection of pdf and ePubs. Sure, if my dad was to get the same copies in digital form, he would save a lot of space. Nevertheless, not all books are available in digital form. In addition, sometimes holding a book in your hands feels natural. Perhaps an old habit that has a problem dying. Maybe in the future, people will have a problem reading printed books because they will be so used to reading them on screens that the printed forms feel unnatural. We’ll see.
Absent-Minded
Often people find themselves with so many books because they are not really paying attention to them. It is common for students to find themselves wondering what to do with old textbooks. Think about it, how did you end up with them? Chances are that you were just buying the books for your respective courses, but you never considered what you would do with them once they fulfilled their purpose.
Another instance is with people who just love buying books but they never really get to read them. There are people who are so fascinated with the idea of being in possession of certain books. They are aware of the nature of the information in the books but they never really read them. Such people end up with so many books, most of which they never read. I have a friend who is like that. She constantly buys books but never reads them. Her condition is so serious that she sometimes buys the same book twice or thrice. Seriously!
Disorganization
The main reason most people end with so many books that they don’t need is that they are disorganized or disoriented in one way or another. However, it is not so bad. Once you realize that you have so many books that you don’t really need, the next step is to be aware and come up with a plan to get rid of the books you don’t need.
Books that are no longer of any use to you can be gotten rid of in various ways. Whether you ended up buying too many books unnecessarily, or you just found yourself with several textbooks that you don’t need any more after finishing a course, you can get rid of the books easily. You can consider donating them, selling them, giving them to family or friends who may need them or recycle them. There are various reasons people hoard books, but when it is no longer necessary to keep the books around, it is sound to hand them over to those who really need them.
