How do you solve a problem like too many baseball books?

From time to time, I’ve written about trying to “cull the herd,” i.e., getting rid of some of the hundreds and hundreds of books I’ve accumulated over the years.

Despite the collection, I do not consider myself a “collector.” I know I’m never going to acquire every baseball book ever published. Not even every book on a given person, team, event, or topic. So what’s the point? Hold on to everything and leave it to my family to deal with after I’m dead? Doesn’t seem fair.

When I was working on 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die, I put those books in boxes according to the chapters. But now that the project has been done, do I really need to hold on to them? There are so many new titles out there, will I really re-read what’s been put away? And all those that presently occupy bookshelves…do I need to keep them? The short answer is, of course not.

One of the problems of disposing of them is the method. There’s something extremely abhorrent to me of just throwing them out. Used bookstores are picky. The local library has strict rules about what they’ll take. I may just have to leave it curbside with a big sign saying “free books.”

So now the process of deciding — very brutally and coldly systematically — what stays and goes?

• I’ve decided to keep anything personally signed by authors. On the other hand I would feel almost disloyal getting rid of books written people I know and whom I  consider friends. I would say I feel disloyal to the others, too, but, hey, they got their money.
• I’ve also decided that I don’t need to keep annuals such as Baseball Prospectus. After a given year has passed, most of the information and analysis, while potentially interesting, does not compensate for the space it takes up. Hmm, maybe there’s a way to calculate that:

interest*(date of publication+relevancy of information)/shelf space =>x =  keep

interest*(date of publication+relevancy of information)/shelf space =<x =  discard

Or something like that.

• Baseball fiction is almost definitely all going. There are a few I have not read yet, if they’ve been sitting round more than a couple of years, I probably won’t get to them at this point.
• Same for everything else, actually.
• Same for unsolicited material; if I didn’t request it, I should feel badly about getting rid of it.
• On the other hand, books I did request I should hold onto for awhile. One of the nice things (I think) about the blog is that it’s not a “flavor of the month” thing. That is, I’m not only interested in the latest thing. I’m just as likely to comment on a 30-year-old book than something that came out last week.
• Sadly, a lot of reference books that come out on a regular basis (Total Baseball for example) are pretty out-of-date within a few months of publications, especially nowadays when just about anything statistical is available online. That’s a good example of the above formula: these books are very big, the data isn’t relevant, and the remaining material (the essays) might not make it worth keeping.
• Some things are redundant, such as the handful of titles I have about baseball movies
• The rest will be pretty hard to deal with: books about rules, books of photography and art and literature, anthologies. Sigh.

But I’m determined. All good things must come to an end. Vaya con Dios, mes amigos.