When it comes to books, I am a bit of a hoarder.

This is the smallest of my 3 bookshelves

bookshelf3

It struck me recently that this is quite a sorry state of affairs.

First off, if you’ve really imbibed the lesson(s) of a book, you shouldn’t need it anymore. How does mere ownership help you anyway? Secondly, that book might benefit many, many other people. Knowledge is meant to be shared.

Third, if you ever need to revisit that book, there’s always the local library, a very undervalued part of what makes a great community.

And lastly, it’s quite a negative impact on the environment to have so many dead trees around.

So, as of this morning I’ve donated this set of books. My goal is to start the following process:

  1. Read a book, absorb the ideas
  2. Write or blog about it to capture my thoughts
  3. Revisit within 3 months. If I feel like the book has no more “ownership” value, I will give it away to the local library.

Donated on Mar 2nd, 2016

donated