Ash Kingery

What’s better than making space on your bookshelf? Filling it.

I finally got around to taking some of my books to Half-Price Books. The money I got in exchange wasn’t much, but the money wasn’t the point–the point was the shelf space the books would leave in their wake.

I love collecting things, books and otherwise, but sometimes, you fall out of love with a piece of your collection. With books, it’s a little different–they’re not just something you gaze adoringly at (trust me, I have enough pieces of plastic to gaze adoringly at), but something you actively use. And if I’m not reading a book anymore… what good is it to me? A few of the books were middle-grade books–it’s not like I’m reading those anymore (for the most part), even if I’d only held onto them this long for sentimental reasons. One of them was a graphic novel that I’d liked at first, but the longer it sat on my shelf, the more I realized I didn’t have any really warm feelings towards it (and damn if I don’t always need more space for graphic novels and TPBs). A couple of them were actually recent pickups from a local Friends of the Library sale that I’d read all the way through and then realized I didn’t actually enjoy. Et cetera, et cetera.

But hey, as long as someone else likes those books, they are welcome to them. Save the earth, buy used books. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can find some other books to fill these dreadful gaping holes in the shelves… I’m sure I’ll manage.