By books I mean my “work” books NOT my literature. All my classics and modern literature will stay.
Today I’m in the process of doing a massive house cleanup. Tidying, sorting, vacuuming, mopping. Everything.
I was in the study and looked at my book shelves full of my reference and non fiction books I have bought and collected over the years. At the time of working, these were my “go to” books and quite happily used them for inspiration and ideas.
However now in retirement it’s unlikely I’ll ever use them again. Also, I wonder if people in my field actually refer to books anymore? Well, maybe even….read? (Ok I’m being facetious).
Thing is, that most of these books were tagged with post it notes so I spent the last hour going through them and removing the notes and marginalia. I wondered what I could do with them?
Sell them?
Give them away?
Chuck them all unceremoniously into the recycling bin?
Looking through my books, I realise that these are evidence of my entire professional life. From my military, journalism, writing, public relations, learning and development, video creation, software programs and future of work interests, I realise that I’ve done – read – learned and shared so much over the years of my professional life. I have a book collection that is to be envied.
However, in the future, I may not need it all so I’d love to give it away – or sell it – to others who also may value it. Would they value it? Would the content be outdated, irrelevant or even twee compared to what people working are interested in today? AI? Technology? Robots? Virtual Worlds? ChatGPT?
I décidé that I’ll leave it for another few years to decide. By then, I may have a better idea.
In the end, everything seems to end up in a tip.
I got worried for a minute that you were getting rid of ALL of your books! When I saw a preview of this post in my Feedly, all I saw was the title and a snippet from the middle of the post 😂 When I clicked through and saw the first line, I was like…whew!
I’m starting to purge some of my books as well. Mainly ones related to virtual training/leading and some on talent development (like evals, social learning, etc..) and a few on change. I’m looking for local organizations who might be interested – community colleges, associations, veterans transitioning back to civilian life, and other orgs helping people transition into the workforce. Just started my search and hoping I can pay it forward. We shall see!
There are other books that I’m boxing and keeping because I’m having a hard time letting them go since they were so much a part of my identity for years (my work identity). If I don’t open the box in a year…they go too!
Hi Chris. I’ll need to do this too soon. When the books have been part of my working life for many years, looking at them now, I realise I just don’t need them anymore. I’ve moved on. It’s a good idea to find colleges and other places that may need them. This will be a massive job for me. My new obsession is collecting fiction – mainly literary classics.