The couple of times I moved since I have been living in the Netherlands, most of the moving boxes were filled with books. I love reading and buying and collecting books. I can’t travel to a new city without visiting a bookstore and buying a book. That’s the kind of souvenir I like.

It’s not that I read that much either. I’m always impressed by people who can read 50 or even 100 books a year. The most I managed in one year was 75 books, usually, it’s 20 to 25. It was only due to being a year of intense stress and reading was the only thing calming me down. I do “cheat” a bit in the sense that I only update Goodreads with the “serious” books I read. I don’t keep track of all the fluffy books I read and re-read. So I guess I do read a lot.

Unfortunately, living in a small apartment means that it is now full of books. I could cram in more bookcases but it would make the space super crowded and a bit unsafe. Imagine being buried under mountains of books.

Since I replaced my Kindle Paperwhite with a Kobo Libra 2 I have been reading more and more e-books. Still, I kept buying physical books because sometimes I must have some books in my hands and in my bookcase. For example, I got all Robin Sloan books in physical edition, hardcover even. Another example is even tho I bought LaserWriter II by Tamara Shopsin in e-book version the day it was released. I wanted to own the physical version, so I bought the paperback edition.

Time to let go

I finally decided it was time to part with old books to clear space for the newer books I wanted to keep. I needed to put my book attachment emotion on 0 and just go through to shelves with my oldest books and clear them out. Luckily my local bookstore has special days a couple of times a year where they buy up your books and take what is not resellable for donation. Thus I found myself hauling 3 full bags of books to the store. I still have a stack that I will be adding to the library bookcase at work where everyone can grab a free book or leave a free book behind. There is nothing more joyous than finding a book you want to read on happenstance for free.

Even so, my bookcase is still full. The freed-up space was immediately filled with all the books that had been stacked on my desk. Next year I will need to be even more strict with myself and get rid of newer books. I’ll need to come up with criteria for what I’ll be keeping and what not.

Currently, to restrict myself from buying too much, I only get cookbooks, which I don’t buy that often. Once a year at most. And certain non-fiction books. Recently with my local bookstore Thanksgiving sale, I got three books of which 2 have been on my to-buy list for a long while.

Thanksgiving sale haul:

1. A Dictionary of Color Combinations
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
3. Soup, Salads and Sandwiches by Mattty Matheson

The e-reader slowly but surely became my go-to

I have noticed that even tho I have a book in the physical version and I haven’t read it yet or I want to re-read it. I will get the e-book version and read it on my Kobo. I never thought I would go fully digital, but I noticed my concentration when reading from an e-reader is better. I think it’s a combination of the e-book light, adjusting text size and the ease of holding it.

There is research that shows that reading a physical book is better for information retention. That’s why my current criteria for buying physical books is non-fiction. If I want to retain the info of e-books I read I tend to highlight the text and if I really want to absorb it I will write it down in a notebook.

I don’t think I will ever go free of physical books. My books are what give my home cosiness and a soul, together with my plants and art. Getting a book as a gift is also great. Even tho due that I have so much, people play it safe and give me book coupons. But I do keep my Goodreads pretty up to date with books I have read and books I own and haven’t read yet, although I’m a bit behind on updating the own but not read yet list.

Now that I read most of my books on the Kobo I need to control myself and not want to buy every new e-reader on the market such as the Kobo Libra Colour or the Boox Palma 2.

It’s what happens when you are a bookworm and a geek.