I've posted before about my neverending clearout, and yesterday had a moment of clarity. I'd recently bought some ebooks for my kindle, and got an email from Amazon saying that they were giving me a voucher for a free ebook as a result of my recent purchases. There were about six books to choose from, but the only one I'd have had any interest in was Stardust by Neil Gaimen, which I already own. I took it anyway.
This meant I could now pass on/sell/trade my dead tree edition of the same book. Which got me thinking "Get rid of all of them except the signed one" - Smoke and Mirrors in case your interested - and replace them with ebooks.
This makes sense, as it clears up space, and lets someone else get pleasure from the physical books. I've already done this with Terry Pratchet's books. I've twice now, cleared out all the TP books I had, under the reasoning that, although I love them, I need space, and let's face it, they'll never go out of print, so I can replace them anytime. This is currently happening, as my reading pattern lately is one serious book, one TP for light relief. This works really well, and I'm getting to enjoy TP all over again. I think once I'm done with the Song of Ice and Fire books, I'll start replacing the Gaiman books with ebooks and clear up more space.
I love my ebook reader, and while I do like a physical book, there simply isn't the space on the shelves to keep buying on not clear out.
The Dalai Llama once said that accumulating "things" isn't a problem in itself, it's when you form an attachment that won't allow you to let go, that's when there's a problem. This is my chance to downsize and still have an extensive library, albeit in electronic form.
Obviously I'll be keeping some books, and there will always be the odd purchase. But I plan to make about 90% of my reading, on the kindle.
