Too Many Books?

Can a person have too many books? In the past, I probably would have said, no. But I’m now thinking, yes.

The “person” I’m referring to is me. About a year ago, we converted what used to be our son’s room into my office. (Yea!) My husband built shelves in the closet. Some were for my office supplies. Along the back wall, he put in seven shelves, running floor to ceiling. That is my “library.” I love that closet.

Problem is it’s full of books. The top shelf is reserved for my “resource” books. Then there are three shelves for autographed books, then the bottom three are for what I consider the check-out section. You want a book to read? Come to my house and get one of those. You don’t even have to return it.

When we added books as we read them, I rearranged and re-shelved. I was managing. But then this past weekend, we started doing a clean-up on our storage unit (that we filled about six years ago during a move). Yeah, you know where this is leading, there were boxes of books. Some I put in donation. Others I brought home where they now sit in the garage. I have no room for them. My library is full. So are the shelves in the living room. So is the coffee table which gets piled with books being read or recently read.

I hate to get rid of books. But I don’t have any choice. I have to admit … I’ve got too many books. The impossible has happened. My name is Helen Ginger and I’m a book-nut. (Equal emphasis on book and nut.)