For the four years that I’ve been writing this column, I’ve lived in one place. I’ve moved my books around—a lot—and bought new shelves (inevitable) and done that foolish but oddly enjoyable thing where I buy books and then, at some unspecified period of time later, decide I’m not going to read them after all. A lot of books have come in and out of my front door. But now they all have to go out, because I’m moving.
This, as I suspect just about any collector of books will agree, is a pain in the ass. I know there are people who are capable of moving frequently, or without any fuss or worry, who just do what needs doing and get on with it. I am not one of those people. I did not move at all between the ages of 3 and 17, and then I moved constantly, but in that college way where you don’t really have any stuff anyway so it’s fine. Gradually, the books accumulated. Eventually there was a whole bookcase worth of them. And then more. The first time I moved a significant number of books across the country, I left a box behind because it simply wouldn’t fit in the Mitsubishi Montero that was the biggest thing the car rental joint had on offer.
I still think about some of those books. I’ve lost much more meaningful things in moves since, but a box of letters between my grandparents is irreplaceable. Those left-behind books, I might be able to find again, if I could just remember what all of them were. One was a Don Marquis first edition copy of Archy and Mehitabel that was a gift from my mother. That one, I still look for.
Part of the problem with moving a lot of books is simply that they’re distracting. It’s the thing I have recommended doing—putting your hands on all your books—but with a time limit. You get to touch the books; in fact, you have to touch the books. But then you have to pack them. You don’t get to just sit there and paw through them and read random paragraphs and discover the things stuck between the pages. Into the box they go. And then the next box. And the next.
Practically speaking, there are two real keys to packing a lot of books. Use small boxes, and pack by size. Liquor boxes were my go-to when I was young and broke and too foolish to realize that people could and did just go buy brand-new boxes at big box stores. Until about five years ago I still had my collection of picture books in a liquor box with an address from two decades ago on it. But then I unpacked it, and found a long-forgotten prize: A copy of East of the Sun and West of the Moon with illustrations by Kay Nielsen. Every time I see that book, I’m happy all over again that it was there, and amused that I hid it from myself for so long.
Now I have to pack it up again.
Packing by size is key. I know there is a temptation to somehow keep the books in order. You can’t. I mean, sure, you can, but then what? A shelf of books standing upright in a box means the box is not structurally stable and requires filling. I like to fill my book boxes with random t-shirts and out of season clothing and absolutely anything else that’s soft and does not require buying a pile of packing material. This means the books have to be stacked, flat, and filling up as much space as possible. It is a process.
This is probably like loading a dishwasher: A thing that I’m certain there’s a most-efficient way to do, but I will do it my way, as will basically everyone else. But also, it’s fun to unpack the books and have to find their new homes. To reorder, reorganize, uncover a few more things that might be better off in a local little free library. Unpacking is the good part. Greeting old friends as you lift them out of boxes, realizing you do have a copy of that book that you couldn’t find (or cursing when you realize you bought a second copy), dusting things off and taking satisfaction in putting them in a new space. That’s the best part.
There’s a tension in having all these books. They anchor me to a place; they are a big part of what makes any space feel like home. Shelves line the walls; the stack by the door is there to take to the used bookstore or give to friends; sometimes I just stand in the corner where the unread books live, unable to pick what to read next. It’s a bounty collected over time, a personal history told in other people’s stories. There are entirely too many articles about keeping or getting rid of books. I don’t mean to be prescriptive: You should do what you want with the things that you love having.
But there is a way in which it all feels precarious. I can barely imagine being the kind of settled-in-one-place that would allow for the kind of sprawling library I’d love to have. I am too much a New Yorker at heart; I am always aware of the limits on shelf space, and the fact that one might have to move again. Sometimes I think about what will become of all of it—what happens to most people’s libraries, in the end. I love having the books. I love it. I cannot be a digital library person; I need the tactile nature of the object, and to be able to see the books all lined up when I’m thinking about a topic or an author.
Sometimes, though, I struggle with the focus on books as objects, with the collecting and the book hauls and with my own desire to always get more books. I think about how, in Nalo Hopkinson’s Blackheart Man, one character treasures the object that is a book, while another is part of a tradition of memorizing their contents. (That tradition does keep copies, too, but that’s practical, isn’t it?) There’s a difference between stories about how stories are magical and stories about how books are magical. It’s a thin line, hard to trace, but I feel it’s there.
“A book is just a box of words until a reader opens it,” wrote Ursula K. Le Guin. As we say about many things, it’s what’s inside that matters. But the second part of that phrase is key: the reader. The books going into these boxes aren’t just any old books; they’re my books. I’m their reader. They are something more than a pile of paper and ink to me, because I experienced them, I carried them around, I sometimes scribbled in them and very rarely chucked them onto the floor in annoyance. The words in these little boxes are in the boxes, but also in my head.
And so I continue to love my books, to move them, and move them again, and go through phases where I want to get rid of all of them, only to come around and think of all the things I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of in the past. I will put them in boxes and take them out of boxes, take them off shelves and put them on shelves, dust them and rearrange them and keep them until I don’t need them anymore. Moving is a chore, but also a time to reconsider everything: books, clothes, keepsakes, the art I’ve never gotten around to hanging on the walls. I love that, too, but the books get placed first. That, I think, says something.
The last time I moved, my boxes were about one third books, one third kitchen stuff (because most of it is odd shapes and you have to carefully pad all the fragile things) and one third everything else.
Preparing for my last move was also a little frustrating because, for whatever reason, my past trick of going to the bookstore and getting a ton of their used boxes was not nearly as fruitful as before. Boxes used to ship books are, unsurprisingly, the perfect size for packing and moving books.
I’ve only bought more books since then and I hope I don’t have to move them again any time soon. Even if I do, it’s worth it.
I, too, still have art to hang, but the books came out almost immediately.
I’m lucky enough to work at a bookshop, so when I moved recently I was able to borrow the boxes from work – 25 of them!
Had to move in April for the first time in 15 years. Despite culling a couple hundred books I still had about 2,000 and I must confess that is too many. Hasn’t stopped me from continuing to accumulate books since the move, but it has made me work more diligently at reading the unread books and passing on the ones I didn’t love to someone who will. (Or to my sister whose utter lack of sentimentality about any object means she will dispose of it efficiently once she’s done with it and I will not have to agonize over it).
Tried something new with this move after I was gifted 20 large warehouse book totes from a publisher. They got heavy fast, but I padded the tops out and we didn’t end up with any crushed boxes so over all a success. I’ve kept the totes, though may try and hunt down the smaller size for the next move and use the big ones for breakables instead!
As someone who has never been able to hold onto her stuff for long (for various reasons), two thousand books is a scale I can hardly visualize. That’s so many! How many shelves does that take? How on earth does one GET two thousand books?
Joking aside, I know the answer is usually time. And money. Both of which I have lacked until recently. I’m still young and my life is just now getting started so I know there’s no rush, your comment just made me realize how much I’m looking forward to seeing the breadth of my experience visualized with a seemingly vast collection like yours. <3
Oh, we have over five thousand, but we have a sprawling house and a lot of bookshelves (though my husband said several years ago that it was *my* turn to build the next set).
My number one moving recommendation is to use any suitcases you may have for books. Clothing is light! Clothing doesn’t need to go in suitcases! Putting the heavy things in the wheeled, handled containers saves at least a little bit of arm strain.
The best argument for ebooks to me is the pain of moving actual books – but I still do it. Moved recently actually and the first things I packed and unpacked were books.
So true. In my last big move, over twenty years ago, I lost the box labeled “LON-Mac”. Actually, I didn’t even know that was the label, but it’s the hole in my shelves. So, when I got into e-books, I bit the bullet and started replacing all the dead-tree-books. I still have a couple of hundred I can’t find in E form, but less than 20, I think, that I would miss
I absolutely love this – especially since I have just packed most of my books for a move that is upcoming.
For my last two moves I’ve used tote bags for moving books. They are hard to overfill because they only hold so much and they have handles. The untold number of tote bags I’ve accumulated from various library conferences really paid off picking up.
Replace deadtree books with ebooks when you can; cull your deadtree books. Make sure that your ebooks are secure (deDRMed if possible, save on computer/Dropbox/Carbonite).
I still have ~2000 deadtree books :) but now most of my books are e.
I need to invite someone from the university library to pick over my deadtree books and take what the library could use. Many hundred-fifty-year-old novels. Volumes of al-Tabari that I’m sure they don’t have.
After I my move in 09, and I unboxed all my books- also includes several long boxes of comics, I bought my first Amazon Kindle. For the next several years, 90% of my book purchases were on Kindle.
I divorced and moved again in 2020 and i had to move all those books again, but this time I finally had my own room to make into a library..soo,, Now my book buying is 90% real books. No regrets.
However, it is my books -and art- that means a little house or van living will never be an option for me
I strongly recommend A4 printer paper boxes for moving paperbacks in bulk – you can stack quite a few inside, with little wasted space, and the lid makes it nice and sturdy. And they stack well.
More importantly, it’s impossible to overload them – even full they’re easily manageable.
Moving coffee table books is trickier – that’s the real packing jenga. Box weight is such an underrated concern.
I am 74 years old and still buying a book or two every week. I love my books, the shelves, the colors, the random assortment of chaotic stacks. I’ve thought about putting stickers on some of the that say, this is a really good one, or this one has an author’s autograph, or this one is out of print, or maybe a just a post it note that said, please read page 89. But there will be a time when I will look at them the last time, and maybe not even know it is the last time I see them. And then my kids will have to box them up, give them away, sell them or maybe if they are lucky, they might find some new treasure that I had missed.
No, I’m not going to box my books. I’ll let some one else do it.
I moved two years and a month ago after having lived in the same apartment for 14 years. I got a house on short notice and had only a month to move, on the heels of three years of several of the most dramatic life changes one can endure, so it was an emotional process in a number of ways as well as a huge amount of work under a ticking clock.
I’d been through enough moves and the heartbreak of realizing I’d stupidly gotten rid of books, music and movies I never should have, that I long ago became more conscientious about the things I bring into my home so there was no purging this time. Even the few inevitable disappointments came along because my books aren’t possessions, they’re memories and placemarkers of my life as well as reminders that life will always have its share of letdowns.
My living room has enough space that I was able to turn a large corner into a library, complete with wing chair, desk and lamp. Needless to say, the books were among the first things I unpacked, a process that is always slightly heartwarming and even a little exciting because books are memories and pieces of our lives that, unlike so much else, we get to hang on to, touch and relive. I have a similar relationship to my even larger collection of CDs, DVDs and blu-rays. I’m happy to see that I’m clearly not alone as physical media sales across the board have been on the rise as culture lovers wake up to the harsh reality that streaming was just another of capitalism’s endless vials of snake oil.
Moving books is work but it’s the kind of work that defines us and gives our lives meaning. Books and the responsibilities that come with owning them are a huge part of what defines a reader and separates us from ebook consumers and their cold, dead screens of hollow content.
Moves are indeed a pain when you have books –but relocation takes it to a whole different level.
I have relocated twice. The first time, going from a bustling metropolis to a sleepy, Mayberrian town in the deepest recesses of flyover country, I sent my books by USPS. They all made it and, thanks to the Mayberry-ish quality of the town, the mail carrier put all the boxes inside the apartment so they stayed nice and dry waiting for my arrival.
That was ten years ago. The second time, last year, I moved from Mayberry II to another bustling city, and at the same time downsized from a house to a tiny studio, so I had to weed my library. It was a painful, but necessary process. I donated a full minivan of books and movies to the local library, and still had enough boxes to fill most of a midsize U-Haul truck.
Considerable as it still is, my physical library is peanuts compared to my digital one. But being surrounded by books is a comfort I’m not willing to forgo.
If you have access to a comic book store, try getting some half comic boxes or magazine boxes–they are great for mass market or trade paperbacks, and won’t be too heavy.
Last time we moved, our local comic shop set us up with “Diamond Boxes”. Diamond being the biggest comic and graphic novel distributor at the time.
Of course, Diamond is bankrupt now. :( Too bad, the boxes were great!
I just moved a couple weeks ago, and have moved multiple times over the last decade. My go-to for all my books is reusable shopping bags. They’re sturdy enough for my hardcovers and I can grab one (or more) bags in each hand. Granted, it ends up being 25+ bags, but since I do most of my moving on my own it’s the easiest way without struggling with heavy boxes. Also way easier to bring up/down stairs.
I have a lot of “things”-collections is a kind word- but of all my possessions my books are the most precious. Some I’ve carried around since childhood, Stories That Never Grow Old storybook, The Bobsey Twins series, a list too long for this space but more valuable to me than any furniture or jewelry or thing that I own (I guess that excludes the cat because who really “owns” a cat? )
Last year I moved from a good size apartment to a tiny house. My books are still all packed in our storage box. Now we just from the tiny house into a class A motorhome which has even less room than the tiny house did. I miss my books. Thankfully, I also have a Kindle reader.
I profoundly disagree. I have 19th century books from family members who bought them in Paris well over 100 years ago. How can I get rid of them?
Best bet is to see if the local college wants them.
Yeah, into the boxes, Tetris style! I might choose a new method to order them next time anyway.
The second time I moved, after 19 years, I started packing my books two years in advance. The minute the youngest child was out the door, we were moving. I donated so many books. The fourth time all my books came with me. I culled later. I still have a credit at the used book shop for the manga I had to let go. But I had a whole room to fill with what was left.
And now we have to move again. I’ll have to be ruthless this time. But the Agatha Christie that’s falling apart my grandmother bought stays with me. There’s a note inside with the only message I have left from her.
I’ve always loved books but I read thru the library mainly because I didn’t have the money to buy ,,, having kids to tend to. After my kids were out of the house , I started buying and boy! did I start collecting books!
Few years ago we moved to a retirement community and my daughter convinced me to donate my over 2 thousand books , keeping only my most treasured. It’s been 4 years now and I mourn those books ! In 4 years I have at least 100 books and yes read books. Running out of room for shelves now since we down sized. I refuse to get rid of them , I’ll wait for my kids to get rid of them when I’m gone.
l Love my books sooo much!!
I loved your article about the angst of book moving. I too am getting ready to move l hope for the last time. The first time l moved from my first house l had to literally give about a third of my books away because l just couldn’t take them all. But l will be taking them all this time. And it will be hard to repack some of them without starting to peek back into their pages. My books are the most valuable items l own and many cannot even be priced, so dear do l hold them. I don’t know what percentage of the population can be categories as book lovers but we are surely a minority. Here’s to book lovers every where.
Well l really enjoyed reading the comments about moving books from fellow book lovers. It is so true, they are such cherished treasures so full of memories that l personally could never replace them with E-book copies. Besides, many of my books aren’t for enjoyment but for learning, complete with personal notes filling up the margins till there’s no white page left. For years l would visit and buy books from Curious Used Books in East Lansing, MI. Sadly the owner confessed to me that young people today don’t read like older generations and he had to close one of his shops.
Controversial opinion but books are not actually my least favorite thing to move, I think they get a bad rap! If the boxes are small they’re easy to lift and they pack so easily. Lamps are the true bane of my existence. Why Are They Shaped Like That. I love your point about how your books are special because they’re yours, that’s so true to me.
it’s worse when you’re moving to another country for X years (turned out to be 5 years) and then back to the US and your company gives you a strict weight limit. While there my husband talked me into a Kindle (over 400 USD at the time) and I haven’t looked back. The only DTBs I’ve kept are my 4 bookcases of cookbooks since I collect those. Most of the rest, when we moved back to the US, I went through and tossed if I had or could get cheaply a digital copy. They went to the Friends of the Library to sell for the local library’s benefit.
It’s nice to walk around with 600 unread books in one hand.
I had more than five filled bookcases. Discovered that I was allergic to the dust from old books. (Some were from when I was in Junior High School. Am now i n my late 70s.) Broke my arm and couldn’t hold a paper book to read. Almost completely switched to eBooks. Sold almost all my entire paper book library and haven’t looked back. If I can’t find an eBook that I want to read or the eBook is more expensive than I want to pay, then I usually can find the book at my local library.
At some point ago, I had to stop thinking of my books in terms of quantity but rather in linear feet of occupied shelf space (not all of which is fiction, though much is, there are also a lot of art monographs). For a while, I was moving fairly often, and of those things you discard in moves, most of what I miss are books.
But, as to the efficient moving of books, if you’re willing to go the extra step, start by arranging them in by size (width, height) large to small. With careful selecting, you can usually fill book boxes more completely (but they’ll also be heavier).
The last time I moved books, it was my dad’s SF collection from his town to a storage spot here. I still want to clean out the shop so I can move the books there. Anybody want a drill press?
We’ve moved several times, both in state and to different states. The in state moves are so much easier, however the out of state moves aren’t bad once everything is sorted. We have a system where first we sort through everything; it gets a designation of keep, donate, toss, and then we start packing up by room. I’m a firm believer in having a plan is half the battle and it really does help with organizing and packing. Each move is different, but also the same. At some point you just get used to it, and make it work.
I’m going to have to move all my books at some point in the near future and am NOT looking forward to it. I have books in every room of my house, (yes, even the bathrooms & GARAGE!) and probably own between 5000+. Old decrepit hardcovers from the late 1800’s-early 1900’s, 1950’s paperbacks, lots of 60′ & 70’s pulp series like Dark Shadows, The Shadow, The Avenger, Doc Savage etc… LOTS of coffee table books, hardbacks, paperbacks, cookbooks, graphic novels, those ubiquitous looooong boxes of bagged comics and doujinshi. On top of that I have 3 kindles, a nook and a kobo all stuffed full of downloaded fanfics and ebooks. I am a firm believer in physical media tho (considering I’ve already lived thru one bricked kindle and thought I had another thanks to the ongoing server outage right now.) Disney+ and Netflix can remove streaming content but if you’ve got the dvd, cd or bluray you can still watch your favorites! And if the powers out long enough for the ebook readers to all die I’ve still got my beloved physical copies.
Yeah, there’s a lot of books. Every single one a memory or an opportunity to meet a new friend. And I will move and cherish every single one.