Advice on thinning out the library

[FenderPriest]

Hey folks,

So, we have too many books. Way too many, and while I've been doing a good job of getting rid of books I don't need or books that are poor theology over the last few years, I've come to the point of needing to get rid of some friends. The good guys, in some cases have got to go. So, fist question:

1) How do you determine which books you keep and which you get rid of - even of the good guys?

2) Specifically, with Amazon's Trade-in program, I can get around $30-35 bucks for trading in my Matthew Henry and Philip Schaff church history sets. They are online and free to access, and they take up a lot of space. Also, Schaff's history isn't the greatest at many points, but it is a relatively completely history of the church up to the mid 19th century. Personally, I'd much rather have the language resources I can get with the money from the trade in than have those volumes taking up space. Any recommendations here?

~Jacob

 

[Pilgrim]

I've got way too many books too. I ran out of room some time ago and I simply want to be rid of a few hundred. I've done a much better job of collecting than reading. A lot of the books have been bargains I've picked up somewhere that I haven't read and very likely will never read even though many of them would be at least somewhat worthwhile.

I'm not a pastor or church officer and am not currently doing any kind of teaching (Sunday School, etc.) so I don't really need a lot of books right now. Basically what I'm doing is getting rid of anything that I don't have definite plans to read (or anticipate referring to) in the near future. The exception is some books that have sentimental value or reference type books that I don't want to be without. I've gotten a lot of Kindle books in the past couple of years. In the cases in which I have print copies of the same work, I'm getting rid of the print copies in the vast majority of cases and am considering doing it with almost all of them.

I've justified getting rid of some of the "good guys" in recent years by hoping that I can get the book into the hands of someone who will likely make better use of it than I will. The thing is, I've found that I don't sit up at night missing those good guys! After selling a few hundred over the past decade, there are only a handful that I really wish I still had, such as the 2 vol. MLJ biography. (Of course, it's possible that I got rid of some so long ago that I've simply forgotten about some of them.)

Since I've avoided just dumping books at Goodwill so far, many of the "good guys" I end up getting rid of are ones that are in demand and have a higher value on the used market. I've also simply given books away to family, friends and church book tables.

I'll have to look into the Amazon Trade-in program although I'm not sure if it will meet my needs now unless I have something that I can't get someone to buy!

 

[jwithnell]

A match works pretty well

Seriously, if you haven't opened a book for a few years, you're not likely to do so -- and if it's available online, it should go. That said, I can appreciate having attachments to certain volumes, especially if you've made notes or received them from a dear friend.

 

[Andres]

Gentleman, you're in luck! (err...in providence?)

Our church plant has recently started a church library and we are welcoming any donations of solid, reformed literature! I'm sure we could even arrange to pay shipping if you (or anyone) wants to be so generous as to donate to us.

Second, I completely understand wanting to get some monetary compensation for books you've paid a bit more for, so I'd suggest listing many of those here on the board. There are numerous bibliophiles here so it's likely you could sell titles to others right here.

 

[DMcFadden]

No advice. I have given away 3,700 books in the last two decades and ended up with many times that many digital versions!!! Collecting books is not an easy habit to break. Unless you are running out of shelf space and garage space, why do you want to get rid of them?

 

[FenderPriest]

Second, I completely understand wanting to get some monetary compensation for books you've paid a bit more for, so I'd suggest listing many of those here on the board. There are numerous bibliophiles here so it's likely you could sell titles to others right here.

I'm not sure it's the best use of time to sell books at a few bucks a pop with shipping... Potentially not the best use of time...

No advice. I have given away 3,700 books in the last two decades and ended up with many times that many digital versions!!! Collecting books is not an easy habit to break. Unless you are running out of shelf space and garage space, why do you want to get rid of them?

I've moved these guys 4 times in the last year and a half... We don't have a garage anymore in our current setting, and I don't want to lug them into the basement to never use them and then have to move them next time... My back is killing me!

 

[Pilgrim]

I'm not sure it's the best use of time to sell books at a few bucks a pop with shipping... Potentially not the best use of time...

I agree, although I might do that with ebay long enough to get out of their "probation" stage for new sellers where they hold your funds for a few days to make sure you're not a scammer.

When I moved several years ago I was faced with having to move hundreds of books that I didn't really have room for. I noted this in a theology group and a pastor said they were starting a new church library and had ust received a generous donation. They had been wiped out by Hurricane Katrina a couple of years before that. They ended up taking about 200 or 300 of them. So that was definitely providential! I don't know what I would have done otherwise. I'm to the point now of not wanting to move what I have either. I'm not sure that I'd want to move half of my current inventory.

 

[reaganmarsh]

No advice. I have given away 3,700 books in the last two decades

And here I was thinking that the 350 or so I've given away in the last couple of years to trim down to about 1,500 was pretty good. Thanks for bursting that bubble.

To the OP:

Jacob, what a wonderful problem to have! Keep only the best of the best, if you must part with the rest. Although retaining a few good reference works across the various headings of theology is always wise. You might then consider finding a seminarian or pastor of a small church who doesn't have a book budget and blessing him with the volumes you can't use.

Grace to you.

 

[Logan]

I've been thinning out too. I opted to keep things like Poole, Trapp, Henry commentaries because for quick reference I find it easier to look back and forth than at something online.

I also keep books I think I might want to lend out, like Messiah the Prince, History of the Work of Redemption, Domestical Duties, etc.

Most of my books if I can find in ebook form or as occasional reference online, I will sell, such as books by Sproul etc.

 

[DMcFadden]

No advice. I have given away 3,700 books in the last two decades

And here I was thinking that the 350 or so I've given away in the last couple of years to trim down to about 1,500 was pretty good. Thanks for bursting that bubble.

I had a pretty adequate library when in the pastorate. Moving to a retirement home executive role, however, caused me to think that such a large library was "overkill." So, I thinned and gave away 2/3 of my print books. Unfortunately, collecting books is pretty irresistible and it was not long before my digital library swelled (partly with Logos and Word Search paid volumes and partly with e-Sword and theWord free ones). Then, Kindle came along with even more sources of free books (24 or so from R.C. Sproul alone) and my digital library grew some more.

Given Jacob's report of four moves in a couple of years, I would give away anything that was a hassle to move. Here would be my approach.

Working library:
* Keep 1 "best of class" book for specialty tools (e.g., historical geography, maps, and the like).
* Keep 1 good technical commentary on each book as well as at least 1 good classic one. If you have a good series of commentaries that you like, keep it too.
* Get rid of vanity volumes you own just to sound smart (e.g., Schleiermacher, Tillich).
* Keep Greek/Hebrew texts and major lexica and word studies.
* Keep any theologies you actually reference. Get rid of the ones who don't.
* Keep any books by authors you personally know or have an emotional attachment to for other reasons. It was too difficult to give away books by former profs and friends.
* Get rid of anything you bought because you thought that you would want to use it sometime (e.g., The Steinsaltz Edition of the Talmud).

Since I've gone to digital for research, I have kept only a pretty Spartan library of print books just in case there is a EMP event and my digital library disappears. I ask myself the question: If I lost all of my digital books, what would I NEED to be able to preach and teach? Sets such as Barth's Dogmatics took up space on my shelf and it is on my computer. If the world really came to an EMP, it is doubtful that ANYTHING in ole Karl's CD would be NEEDED. So, I gave it to a PB brother a few years ago. Outside of the EMP criterion, duplicates (digital and print) are the first ones to get given away. And, with Logos "libraries" that you purchase all at once, there were a LOT of duplicates to offload.

These principles made our move to Fort Wayne a LOT easier. That and the fact that my wife threatened to kill me if we had to move my library . . . "one more time."

 

[Pilgrim]

Get rid of anything you bought because you thought that you would want to use it sometime

That'd be about 3/4 of my library with a good many bought at "bargain" prices. That's why I usually don't miss them when they are gone, as noted above. Instead, I can scratch that itch by acquiring free or cheap e-books that at least don't take up physical space.