I love books. They’ve been a best friend and favorite addiction pastime. This last week I’ve spent some time weeding through our book collection.

First, I had to shuffle our overflowing bookcases around, so I went through all of our paperbacks to try and reduce the number of double-tall, double-deep shelves. I tend to keep everything, but I needed to pare down – give away those that I knew I’d never read again , and store those I wouldn’t be revisiting anytime soon.

Some books are easy to part with – the new authors I didn’t click with, the mind candy I’d bought as one-time reads, the truly crappy books. But there were others, harder to say goodbye to… old dreams, old favorites, old friends that just didn’t fit anymore. I said goodbye to Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Lee Modesitt and more. I gave about 120 books to a charity book drive and stored another three bankers boxes worth.

My shelves are now sparsely populated and ready the next several shopping expeditions.

Second, I got a couple of Amazon gift certs for my birthday. Instead of spending them on yet another stack of paperbacks, I decided to start trading up our horribly tattered Heinlein paperbacks for hardbacks – first editions where I could afford it.

Mostly, I couldn’t. A non-library first-edition of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress runs $1,500-1,800. Unsigned. A first edition of Have Spacesuit, Will Travel runs $225. On the low end, a first edition of Friday or Glory Road is only $14.99.

So much for a fabulous collection of first editions. Still, I ordered, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Time for the Stars, Have Spacesuit Will Travel (a 1st), Glory Road (a 1st), and Expanded Universe.

I’m looking forward to diving into my new books when they get here.