Culling the herd

As I am slowly creeping up on my one year blogoversary it has come to my attention that I may have a problem.  A growing problem.  It is called the TBR pile.  The damn thing has grown exponentially over the past year!  I know, it is the natural course of things when you start a book blog.  The thing is, I have not acquired all of these books willingly.  Quite a few have been passed along to me by well meaning coworkers and friends.  While I am wildly appreciative of free books (who isn't?) I think I have reached a point where I must cry uncle.  That pile is never going to shrink at this rate. 

So I decided it was time to cull the herd.  This literary Leaning Tower of Pisa had a solid foundation of "must read soon" books and authors: Kleypas, Showalter, Christopher Moore, La Nora, etc.  Unfortunately, the structural integrity of this edefice was being undermined by some real stinkers.  I won't go into detail, but let's just say I couldn't even make it through the backflap of most of the books. 

Since I am planning to move by the end of summer, I decided it wasn't too soon to start weeding out some of my excess belongings.  The entire TBR Tower was relocated from the office/large storage closet (I mean really, if it has no closet it isn't an actual bedroom) to the family room.  Two hours and a couple Buffy episodes later, the books had been sorted and organized.  I had piles, y'all: Contemp keepers, ParaRom keepers, Historical keepers, other-stuff-I-like-to-read keepers.  It all was transferred back to the desk in the front room, but this time in tidy piles for easier access.  What was left behind?  Three Trader Joe's bags full of books to discard. 

Now, ever since I was little the idea of throwing a book in the garbage has given me hives.  That was someone's hard work.  I may not have liked the story, but the book represents months or even years of work by the author.  And who knows, someone else may want to read it and will like the book.  Since the dumpster was out of the question I decided to take the books over to The White Elephant.  I mentioned this store about a month ago.  It is the second hand store/fund raiser for Children's Memorial Hospital.  It is the lovely place that I struck gold, purchasing eighteen books for about $15.  I figure this way I get to donate the books to a store that helps fund medical treatment for critically ill children, and allow another reader the chance to get their hands on some books.  I think it is a win-win situation all around. 

Now I just need to adopt the same approach to my clothes closet.  I am SO not going to pack up and move all of those shirts I haven't worn in three years.  Can you say "pack rat" anyone?