h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I guess so

What could be better than combining fun with work? [At least, chasing the ball is fun for the dog; don't know about the human]

I've tried to combine fun with w*rk. The result was less than convincing. So I gave up work

I did, too. haven't regretted it a bit, though I still dream about being back at w*rk almost every night. Don't know what's gotten into my subconscious /

I have had a similar problem a number of times over the years. I guess my subconscious was punishing me for being too lazy to finish the chores I had imposed on myself. Since I finished the significantly large task of sorting and destroying huge piles of documents I had accumulated over decades - especially work related documents - I slept well again. What will happen during "The Big Book Cull of 2016" remains to be seen

What is "The Big Book Cull of 2016" ?

My next project: Weeding out the shelves and selling whatever books I don't need any more

I own very few books, yet I read hundreds every year. Anything I'm likely to read only once gets borrowed from a library. My cookbooks are a different story. I've used most of my favorite recipes dozens of times.

I inherited a lot of books from my father. You would think he had enough books around him in his workplace - he was a librarian like you, paulh - but no, he also had hundreds of books at home

My mother's second husband had the largest single collection of science fiction I've ever seen in one place anywhere.

It went, though, to his only known natural son.

I only barely scratched the surface of it, though I did exhaust the stacks at the local municipal and county library and my Junior high school library.

One of my father's friends - a secretary general of a largish organisation - had a huge collection of scifi books. Plus a similarly large collection of erotica (of which some used to be classified as porn)
This was widely known, but he got away with it and didn't lose neither job nor influence. Some people can get away with almost anything it seems

Hi, Pierce and ITIWBS.

Your personal situation is what it is. If you have books that you read over and over, by all means buy copies and keep them.

I have almost 2,000 music CDs, almost all of which have been played four or more times, with future playings almost certain. Some have been played 9 or 10 times.

At the beginning of every year I try to go through my stuff and figure out what I'm not likely to use in the coming year. Like Pierce, I have a list of stuff I plan to get rid of. I will donate it to charity.

In principle I get rid of anything I haven't used in 12 months, but more often that not years go by without me actually getting around to doing it

I recently had the chance to donate a lot of clothes to charity, though. I may be able to do that again shortly. Plus some stuff I inherited from my mother and will never use myself anyway.

I donated a lot of shirts to charity a few weeks ago. I have too many plates and cups, and I don't use them, so I'm planning a big purge in the near future.