Four Years Later: I Am Still Hoarding My Dad's Books 2014

It's been four years since my father passed away. He wasn't a very materialistic person and he valued only his books and his music. I ignored the issue of his music because I didn't particularly share his musical taste, but I also didn't know what to do about records, tapes, and CDs. I pretty much just listen to free music on the cloud which is good for not hoarding.

But the books! I shared his love of reading, both generally and sometimes specifically. And even the sight of them all clustered together reminds me of my dad. Looking at my books mixed with Kevin's doesn't give the same effect. Many of his books were old and the choices unique to him.  But there are so many of them! It's a wonder we were able to move them. I spent hours packing and unpacking them, and poor Kevin dragged them down one flight of stairs and up two. He must really love me.

When we move again one day, there are too many to take to a new place, and even if they weren't, I certainly won't read all of them. So in the interest of not hoarding I promised to cull them. That was four years ago, and a few of the most terrible out-dated non-fiction books have been culled here and there, but the vast majority of them remain.

Okay, so I have a plan now: I will go by Author last name. On any given day that I deal with the books I will go through one letter, and decide which are staying and which are going. I feel strongly that this will work! Now let's see.

Getting Rid of Books! 2013

Well, we've finally started to actually get rid of some of our books. Since getting rid of my dad's books was so hard for me, I started with my own books. Kevin and I have both gone through all the nonfiction books we keep in our living room. We still haven't gone through all the fiction upstairs though, and there's been woefully few dad-books that have left the house. But we've now donated about 23 boxes of books so we're definitely making progress.

Also, even though there haven't been as many reviews as I would like, I have actually started and not-finished countless books that aren't on here, so I'm going to try to wrap some of those up in the near future.

Avoidance

Why am I reading all books my father didn't read when I have hundreds of his books upstairs and my entire goal here is to read his books? Sounds like a good question right?

Books My Father Read

I have recently become addicted to book again the way I was when I was a small kid. I read anything I have reason to believe might be awesome.

I read the books I inherited from my dad after he passed away in 2010. This blog started as a project of mourning to read the books I kept, but has now become a personal passion. I also take recommendations from my husband who's a writing instructor, my friends who prefer different types of books, and Goodreads and Youtube reviewers who catch my attention.

This is my rating system for clarification:

5 Stars = THIS BOOK MADE ME A BETTER, MORE INTERESTING PERSON. FOR THE LOVE OF PUPPIES, READ IT!
4 Stars = This book was really good! Read it!
3 Stars = I enjoyed this book. I'm glad I read it.
2 Stars = This book a little bad. I wouldn't recommend it.
1 Stars = This book is kind of evil and takes a little joy and goodness out of the world.