Banishment, destruction, murder, and deportation are, regrettably, an integral part of good housekeeping – especially if you live in a small house, as I do. Banishment is putting things up in the attic for a generation. Destruction is dismantling Lego creations that no one has played with for a month. Murder is throwing things away. Deportation is akin to donating items to charity shops.

Yesterday I went on a culling spree in my own house, armed with two cardboard boxes for books. I was in a bloodthirsty mood. As I crept about, earmarking books for instant deportation, blowing the thick dust off them as a kindness before saying goodbye to them forever, I wondered whether other book-lovers did as I did, and what it felt like, and how different people chose which books to get rid of. Do some people never cull their books? I wondered. Do they keep every single one, treating all books as sacred, even the Dorling Kindersley Sew Step by Step? They need to build a yard of new shelving every year. Read this article in its entirety here.

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I am trying something slightly different as it is a newsletter from the folks at Slightly Foxed; whose articles I have been reading for decades, now, it seems like. Anyhow, this spin on getting rid of books to make more room for newly acquired ones makes for a fun and good conversational piece for ridding of books but can’t seem to do so. To ‘cull’ or not to ‘cull’? Readers /subscribers had this to say on ‘culling of books’

There are now books piled up on the floor – everywhere. Our house now reminds me of my favourite book shop! Such is the disapproval of these activities by the distaff side that I’m now driven to smuggling books in, just nonchalantly pruning the roses by the front door in order to intercept the postman. I’ve discovered a bookshop on Vancouver Island – ah, another parcel from Canada – quick, hide it. Well, one day I shall be culling – making lists of carefully described tomes and e mailing them to the bookshops from which they originated – they’ll buy them back, they are lovely books, these are mine, of course !—Pilgrim, D.

I loved this! I have several hundred books and am determined to cull my library so no books have to lie on top of any others. The question is what should stay rather than what should go: an edition of Thomas Hardy which was a birthday present from my father; anything about or by Bloomsbury because I find them so fascinating; biographies of my favourite writers; all my favourite children’s books, etc. This is going to be fun!—Weld, E.

I have culled and culled again. With every move books move on, hopefully to a new hearth and home. And I have lived on.—MacEwen, A.

This article on culling was a fun read for me and I am happy to share this post on my blog that no one read. 

Well, I hope to return and add to this Art of Writing topic monthly. This month has not been good for this ‘pretender’ who is not a writer, but takes lots of pictures of things of interest to post. I hope to share something better next time, after all–this is what writing is all about…sharing/stimulating, and supporting one another.

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Thank you!