One of my goals for today was to clear out my overstuffed closet so I can put things in there without having to exercise my biceps. Then I had he notion to clear out my similarly stuffed bookshelves.

The Terry Pratchetts are not going anywhere. Well, okay, the Night Watch Pratchetts are going nowhere; nor are Thief of Time or Reaper Man. Or the Moist van Lipwick books. Or The Truth. (Well, one of the copies can go.) Especially not Monstrous Regiment, which may be my second favorite Pratchett after Night Watch. But I never really liked Mort or Hogfathet or Moving Pictures. Or Unseen Academicals.

Needless to say, any book even remotely concerned with art (with the exception of Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word, which I was singularly unimpressed with) is firmly attached to its shelf. Museums, art fraud and forgery, Nazi looting — it all stays.

I am not teaching Scripture classes, I don’t need four bibles and two bible encyclopedias. I am culling down to one of each. I feel guilty, though.

I am letting go of my “Corruption in Big Cities” set (two about Chicago, one about Hollywood and the William Desmond Taylor murder, and one about Storyville in New Orleans.) I’ll probably keep Devil In the White City, by Erik Larsen. (I also have Thunderstruck and Isaac’s Storm.) All of them hardback and pretty thick.

When I cleared out those, I found my small stash of science fiction — several by Connie Willis, a couple by John Scalzi. I wondered where those went — although not Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is with my “books I loved to reread” group along with Pratchett’s Night Watch and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I even named a cat after that book.

Should I reread Doomsday Book? Probably not right now.

There are books I feel guilty about getting rid of because they were gifts, and in some cases mark me as an intellectual. I am still getting rid of Mark Twain’s collected letters, though. It’s a good four inches thick.

I should probably wait to get rid of my copy of the Mueller report until after the election or Trump leaves office, whichever comes last.

I am a quarter through the books and have only culled a dozen of them. I really need to get more aggressive and disciplined in weeding things out.

Sigh. Thank goodness for Kindle.