“What do you do with books you have already read?” –from 4,000 Questions by Barbara Ann Kipfer
This is a real problem for me. I know some people give them away so others can enjoy them. I don’t do that, for a number of reasons.
First, I underline passages that move me. Second, I make personal notes next to other passages—notes I really don’t want other people reading. They aren’t earth-shattering as much as they are personal. Third, I often refer back to books I’ve already read when I’m writing a book or an article, so I need to hang on to them. Oh, and sometimes I re-read books. I’m really thinking about diving back in to the Mitford Series by Jan Karon.
If I had all the time in the world, I’d go through books when I finished reading them and enter the marked passages into a database. That way the nuggets would always be at my fingertips when I’m writing and I wouldn’t have to worry about finding each book from which I want to quote. Realistically though, that’s probably never going to happen.
Consequently, my real problem with knowing what to do with books I’ve already read is figuring out how to store them in such a fashion as to be able to find them when I need them.
A few years ago, I went through my entire library and assigned books to designated bookshelves, including a shelf of books I’d already read. But then my collection outgrew my shelves and it became a free for all. Now, I have books stacked everywhere and in no particular order. Well, that’s not entirely true. Some semblance of order exists from my previous organizational effort, but not enough.
I’m thinking this needs to be a Saturday afternoon project in the near future.
