Books, Books and More Books

My family loves books. We ready constantly and have many, huge bookcases filled with books. Some of us (not me) have allergies. It's time to begin purging books again. I'd like to get down to 6 bookcases with only one layer of books per shelf. Currently, most of the bookcases have two rows of books on each shelf. It's difficult to find the books that are hidden behind the first row, even when they are arranged alphabetically. Yesterday, I started cleaning out the bookcases in the living room. We keep most of the homeschooling books/text books, and music books on these shelves. There are also a couple of shelves full of photo albums. It would be easy to get side-tracked looking at photo albums, but I'm refusing to open any albums right now. I can sort those out at a later date. I managed to get through 3 shelves yesterday. Some of the books will be used for next school year, some are being sold on the internet and others are going in a garage sale. So far, I've purged the equivalent of one shelf. The completed shelves are thoroughly dusted and organized. They look great, but it's such a small portion of the job ahead of me. It's a little overwhelming. There are so many memories attached to many of these books. The celebration that we had when one of the kid's completed his first chapter book. The cozy times together when we were cuddled up on the couch reading together in the cold mornings of winter. Many of the books are now on my Kindle, which I love. It's so helpful to toss the Kindle in my purse when we're heading out the door. I also love NOT having a stack of books on my nightstand for reading before sleep. There is something about the feel of a book in your hand that can't be duplicated by a hand-held electronic device. Do I really need to keep a copy of Anne of Green Gables when a copy is available on my Kindle? What it the Kindle breaks? So many decisions. I have to keep reminding myself, "I will be ruthless. I will be ruthless." Hopefully, getting rid of so many books with eventually give me that peaceful feeling that I get when a load of clutter quality-unused items is dropped off at Good Will. My goal is to get these completed by the end of next week. It may be necessary to have some of the children help with the sorting and dusting as I get closer to finishing. It's going to be a long week.