Little did I realise that in 2011, when I tentatively purchased my first Kindle, that it would change the way I read and consume books. My hoarding tendencies and love of books meant that I adored buying books in hardcopy. Whether it was to read once or many times, I had a number of bookshelves around the house that were stuffed with all sorts of things from popular fiction to academic texts.

Fast forward to 2014 and I’m now on my second Kindle. I rarely buy a paper book. In fact I can’t remember the last one I bought. I can’t justify the cost versus the online price, particularly if I know I am only going to read it once. I was also tired of starting new books only to get bored and leave them half-read. After the evacuation of my house in the 2013 floods I realised how many books I owned that I no interest in reading ever again. They were dust collectors and that was it. Carting everything you own in and out of the same house in the space of a week will bring about certain ephipanies with regard possessions.

And so a few weeks ago, I had to downsize rather radically yet again to make room for the big piano. I was ruthless. I culled all my CDs except for the ones you can see on the shelf here. Again, I hadn’t bought a CD for a couple of years at least and I never listened to anything unless it was already on my computer or iPod.

This shelf and a couple of shelves in a cupboard are all the paper books I have left. I was determined to keep my big dictionary. I also kept my mother’s copy of Woman’s World. It has lots of useful advice in it for us gals:

For example:  Before your husband arrives home put on a pretty apron and get his drink ready. Remember to ask him about his day. He doesn’t want to hear about your trivial problems. (I may have paraphrased but you get the general idea).

The bottom shelf also has my favourite biography, Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee. I found it on a bargain table once and read it twice in a row. The middle shelf has the best music autobiography I have read in quite some time by Paul Kelly. There’s also a few photo albums with old holiday snaps from the days before smartphones and instagram. And on the top shelf is my childhood collection of LM Montgomery as well as Little Women and its sequels. And that’s it. Everything else is on the Kindle, or….goodness me….in the library!!

(Thanks @snailx and @SonjaBarfoed for the shelf-post inspiration).

I’m now of the Seinfeld school of book ownership