Cleaning off the bookshelf

With the amount of books that A and I have, we need shelves about three inches thick made of oak.  The bookshelf we have now we got from my sister and is from either wal-mart or k-mart (because that is what we have in the Soo).  So it isn't the best quality, but it has survived quite a number of moves, which is a good sign.  A few months ago, we realized that the shelves were starting to sag.  Literally bending in the middle.  

The unfortunate result is trimming the personal libraries we have.  It is good and bad I suppose.  Good that we have a ton of books and that someone else will get a chance to read them (more on that in a moment).  And bad that as I was going through my books, I forgot that I  owned some of them.  As I was taking them off the shelves, there were a few that I don't remember reading.  I found some books from college that I was determined to read again, but just ended up pushing them to the back to collect dust.  It was fun to take a moment and look at some older books.  A ton of Stephen King books.  I'm keeping the ones that are important to me.  It, for example, was the first of his books that I read.  The Stand, just for the pure epic significance of the book.  The unlitmate good versus evil plot ever.  And just a couple of short story collections.  I ended up taking about two dozen books off the shelf.  

The good thing about living in a bigger city such as Wichita is that there are many options for getting rid of these books.  Lots of Goodwills and other organizations like that.  There are a few second hand book stores that will take books (either pay for them or give out store credit, which can lead to the situation we are in now with our books).  In the past, we have taken bags and bags and bags to goodwills and DAVs.  I do feel better about myself whenever we give organizations like that useful items.  Recently, A found a website where you can exchange books with other people.  Which is great.  It is a simple process.  You post your books, people find them and tell you that they want a certain book and you mail it to them (using media mail because it is cheap).  You in turn, get a 'credit' on the website and go and pick a book you want.   

The prices of new books now is insane.  It makes me sad to go into bookstores and look at the prices.  I haven't purchased books in quite a while, and I am determined to go to used bookstores and buy them.  I only keep up with one or two authors and they aren't really pumping out the books, so I have no need to be buying books anyways.  

Besides, I have about a dozen books I haven't read yet sitting on the bookshelf.