Cleaning House

Ugh. It really sucks, getting rid of books. I save books for the same reason my grandma saves tinfoil and those little tables that come on takeout pizza -- because someone might need it someday.

I have books on Irish storytelling that I hate, because it's total "shamrockery," but I keep them in case someday I overcome the hatred of everything Americans think is Irish and actually read them. Also, someone who knows I lived in Ireland for a while might, one day, ask me for a book on Ireland, and I'd be really embarrassed if I didn't have one.

I have one rather scandalous book which I will not read in public, but still love because the overblown dialogue always makes me laugh. This, however, is separate from the trashy romance I keep because I bought it on a road trip with a friend and we spent three hours reading it out loud and laughing.

I have too many books on Shakespeare. I have one giant book that contains all the "necessary" plays, but I don't actually know what those plays are, so it's flanked by backups of my favorites. I also have two plays that I don't even like but were rejected by a friend and I had to take them in.

Since I'm moving and don't know where or when these books can finally come out of their boxes, some of them have just got to go. The multiples, I can deal with -- no one needs three copies of The Grapes of Wrath. It's also time to let go of some of the textbooks I was keeping just because they cost me a LOT and the bookstore wouldn't buy them back. Still, I'm going to miss seeing that trashy romance stashed next to The Irish Story and one of four copies of A Midsummer Night's Dream.