I gave away all my books.

These are books I have been collecting for around 15 years – they include my university textbooks, my collections of Scottish literature and philosophy classics, detective novels, autobiographies of popstars and politicians, guidebooks to countries I have visited and might conceivably still visit, self-help books, how-to [...]]]> I did the unthinkable today.

I gave away all my books.

These are books I have been collecting for around 15 years – they include my university textbooks, my collections of Scottish literature and philosophy classics, detective novels, autobiographies of popstars and politicians, guidebooks to countries I have visited and might conceivably still visit, self-help books, how-to guides, chicklit, aga sagas, potboilers, the lot.

Some of them were great books. Some of them I will want to read again. Some I will undoubtedly regret getting rid of.

But I’m damned if I’m going to lug those boxes up another flight of stairs, put up another set of shelves and then artfully arrange the titles according to size, genre, whatever, only for them to go unread for another year, gathering yet another layer of dust.