Books Books Books!

I have this problem, and maybe some of you moms can relate to this....we have way too many kids' books. Actually, that's not truly the problem. I LOVE books, and I think that books make the best gifts, so I'm grateful for all the wonderful books we've received. I love books so much, that my sister will tell you that when she went to kindergarten, her little 5 year old self was mortified when the elementary school librarian, upon meeting Stacey, said to her, "Oh, your sister's such a bookworm!" (Only the first of such mortifications that would befall her, being my younger sister ;) I love to read more than just about anything, and always have. I love that my girls love to read, too. They are always up for a good story and a cuddle (although Rachel often prefers to "do it myself!"). And they love to look through books on their own, and will sit for long stretches of time doing so. I am so grateful that they've inherited this love of reading....I truly believe reading unlocks the world to us all.

The real problem I have is that I am completely and totally unable to part with any of said kids' books! Currently they are taking over our house. Each of the girls has a small bookshelf in their rooms. Right now you can barely see the carpet in Megan's bedroom....it looks as if the poor bookshelf has barfed its contents all over the room. We have a basket for books in the playroom, and one in the basement....basically wherever the kids spend any time, there are books aplenty. The thing is, that the sheer volume of our collection has completely eclipsed the storage spaces we have for it. Even if I were to have Megan pick up all of the books on her floor, they would no longer all fit on the bookshelf she has! Often she will ask me, "Mama, where's (insert name of beloved but long lost book here) ?" And I don't know what to tell her! It's hard to find our favorites sometimes, and there are books that I DO find from time to time, that we haven't read in ages, simply because they've been buried in obscurity!

So the inevitable task before me is: weed out some of the less-loved, not-as-good, or outgrown books. My problem, though, is that I can barely bring myself to do this! I start my task by saying to myself, "OK, I'm just going to pull out some of the books that are really bad." You know. The ones that are ripped to shreds, or colored all over. The ones that have a really poorly written story, or the ones that have WAY too many words (or the ones that are both of those!). The ones that were obviously printed in a country in which English is not the primary language (and seem as if they're odd translations or something, because they just don't sound right). It would be easy enough to get rid of those, at least, right? Donate them to the library, so some other kids can enjoy them, while at the same time, purge my house of just a teeny bit of the clutter here. But....many of those books also happen to be, or have been at some point, the girls' favorites. And it just occurred to me, sitting on the couch this morning reading to the girls, that this is why I'm having trouble paring down the books: even the stupid ones have sentimental value to me!

I have way too many memories of cuddling up on the rocker in one or the other of the girls' rooms, reading these books over. And over. And OVER. And OVER....you get the picture. They may be dumb. The plot may make little sense. They may have the worst pictures in them (one nursery rhyme book we have, which Rachel LOVES, includes a picture for the story of "Three Blind Mice" with a very angry looking farmer's wife, wielding a huge dagger, and holding the chopped off tails of the mice in one hand, while menacingly running after the be-tailed mice. Yeah. Nice.). In short, they may be the farthest books from "quality children's literature" that you could find. But I have probably spent collective HOURS reading these to my little ones, curled up on the couch or the rocker, my nose buried in their hair. Sometimes that's the only way I can get either of them to snuggle with me anymore. Some of the girls' first phrases were lines right out of these books. They memorized them, practically before they could talk, because we read them so often! When they were first learning to toddle (or even before), they would grab their current favorite, bring it to me, and climb up in my lap. As dumb as the content of some of these books is, they were so much a part of our lives for a time, that I just can't let them go!

And of course, I'm not about to part with some of the REAL quality children's books we have (like Corduroy, Goodnight Moon, Where Is Baby's Bellybutton, Dr. Seuss, Sandra Boynton.....my list could go on and on), even if they're not favorites of Megan's or Rachel's right now. They're some of MY favorites, and I'm determined to keep them in rotation! I guess we just need to get some bigger bookshelves....

Some of the girls favorites (both good and bad) at various stages have been (I'll add to this list, for the purpose of my own remembering, when I think of more):

Megan: Baby Beluga; What Color; What Shape; Pinkalicious; Beginner's Bible; Dragon Tales; Goodnight Elmo; Baby's Birthday; Baby Dear; Golden Book Collection (especially Color Kittens; I Can Fly; The Wonderful House); Pinocchio; any of the Dora books

Rachel (who, by the way, is very particular about what is read to her...."III pick it!!!"): Overboard; Moo Baa La La La; Welcome To Your World, Baby; Nursery Rhymes; What Color; What Shape; Babybug ("Tim and Tayits"...Kim and Carrots); I Love You More Than; You're My Little Lovebug; Goodnight, Sweet Butterflies; Where's Spot