War on Clutter

I'm about to move house (the gentrification of nearby neighbourhoods has pushed up property prices, so we're having to move further out into the sticks. It was obvious this would happen when the local Iceland closed it's doors and turned into a massive organic superstore), and so I've been trying to ruthlessly clear out all the clutter I've accumulated over the last few years. I've been trying to purge some of my books. Book collections are weird things. There are a small number of books that are my favourite and my best and I will read them more than once over the course of my life. Other books I will never read again, despite having thoroughly enjoyed them. And there are some books that were a struggle to read, and whilst I may have ultimately enjoyed them, I will never ever dream of re-reading them. So why do they continue to occupy space and collect dust on my shelves? Because I want the world (or whoever is lucky enough to be invited over) to see my books and nod with approval at the heavy tomes that grace the shelves. I want them to see what weighty, worthy literature I read, and think to themselves: wow, what an intelligent being.

Well, this is 2007, and I'm waging War on Clutter. I'm giving away all the books I'm never going to read again. I'm might even release them into the wild. But before I do, so that I can get the last moment of satisfaction, knowing that I have marvellous taste in literature, I'm going to list these books right here. All in the name of closure.

Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier

She's come undone – Wally Lamb

Veronika decides to die – Paul Coelho

Little alters everywhere – Rebecca Wells

Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison

The girl at the Lion D'Or – Sebastian Faulks

The Mermaids and the Drunks – Ben Richards

Out – Natsuo Kirino

Love in the time of cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Surfacing – Margaret Atwood

Omerta – Mario Puzio

The Flood – David Maine

Lady Oracle – Margaret Atwood

The World Unseen – Shamim Sarif

Goddess: The secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe – Anthony Summers (I'm kinda loathe to throw this last one away as I lugged it all the way back from Japan, but there's no way I'm going to read it again, so it has to go.)