I feel like I should probably admit myself to some kind of 12 step program for book hoarders.
Last night, the daughter and I went through the final boxes/ tubs of books and magazines that we had. It has come to my conclusion, however, that I had way more books than I thought.

I come by it honestly. My grandmother had a huge room in the upstairs of her house that was essentially her "library"... and she read a paper sack full of books each week. My dad was the same way... and when he passed away in 2010, he had a collection of over 10, 000 books in his basement (all cataloged and divided into genres and in alphabetical order by author).
I love books.
I love the illustrations, I love the feel of the paper, I love the cool covers... I love the written word.
And... I also use old pages for envelopes, and old illustrations for collage art... so there is a "purpose" behind it as well. Needless to say though, things had gotten a bit out of hand for our small living and working space. I apparently, have a particular fondness for atlases and old dictionaries, botanical themed books and art books... as there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of those in the stash of books. No surprises there I suppose.

I would show you pictures, but it's a little embarrassing. Suffice it to say, that when all is said and done... we have kept about 15 (probably less) boxes worth of books for our personal library. And, there are 6 tubs of books, and 2 boxes of magazines that I have set aside to go through to either sell, or use for collage and such. And, we have already set aside to be gifted/ donated at least 25 boxes worth of books and 15 or so of magazines. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehola.

There have also been a few surprises... like the Japanese anime book we discovered that I had picked up on a whim at a yard sale many years ago; thinking I would use it for collage. Apparently, it's now worth about $50. And I found several weird old books.... one on Palm reading, that is worth about $30, and a frontier living book worth about $70. More importantly, once we get them all out of the studio; we will have more room.... which is invaluable.

((this is our main "bookcase" of books... yes, it's in the kitchen. We have one other wood shelf in the living room,
and then a few boxes of Jim's technical books, and a few boxes of Jim's comic collections that we have kept for our "personal" library.))