Ah books, I love books, and I collect and keep them. It is a weakness I know - but my 15 large bookcases are full to overflowing and each volume is a treasure. Seriously though, I am an avid collector and never regretted keeping them. Both my husband and I had large collections when we met as we are avid readers, and once the girls came, we just added books for them. At Easter and Christmas and on Birthdays etc, we encouraged books instead of candy and now the girls love books as much as we do. When I started homeschooling, I found a lot of times the library was out of the books I wanted when we needed them, so I scoured second hand shops, Amazon second hand etc and built a collection with that, I also got a lot from antique shops when I was still living in England - the prices were never that bad. The girls were always keener on books than other things, and would willingly give up toys but not books. Of course we have donated some books over the years, but the real books and classic books we keep. My husband is now putting built in bookcases along the walls of our basement so we can house our library. Some people use their basements as media rooms, that is what our neighbors are doing, and we are installing a library and our media room is a small tv in the living room, which we seldom watch. I think library books are great for those books that you only need to glance at once in a while, but for those classics and special books if you can own them it is a true blessing. I told our relatives that it was books that the girls wanted, and they happily obliged, that cut down on the clothes and toys that otherwise were always coming our way. Books can be treasured friends for ever, and that is how our family looks at them. So if you can start a collection, I doubt you will regret it. Welcome by the way, this is such a great group, and you will find lots of friends here.
