I have a problem. I own too many books. Many of them are decent-enough, but if I made that my sole criterion for owning books, I could own thousands. I cannot afford to own that many books. I can’t even afford to own the ones I have, because they take up too much space and make my apartment feel crowded and messy. I need to simplify, especially if I ever want to move.
Ultimately, my goal of owning fewer books is pretty reasonable. I get most of the books I read at the library. And with most of what I read (85%+), I don’t really miss owning the physical book. If I ever want to re-read it badly enough, I can always go back to the library and get it.
The only books I want to own are those that are inconvenient to borrow from the library, usually because I want to reference them repeatedly over time. Others make me happy just to look at them.
A few that have made it on the “to own” list include:
- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
- Cook’s Illustrated: The Science of Good Cooking
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy & The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
- Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards by Jack Schweger
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
Judging by how short this list is, I need to get rid of about 90% of my books.