Why do we have so many . . . books?

In honor of the Big Move, this is the first of several installments of "Why do we have so many. . . ?"

[After P broke the news about this to our Bible study group last night, I figured it was free game and that our solemn oath to never divulge was just a fleeting moment of insanity. Of course we'll divulge.]

So, LibraryThing. I blame my good friend Joyce for introducing me to this; it just shows how well she knows me, though. Several months ago when she sent the link, I thought - hah, interesting - but who'd actually *do* that? I mean, catalog all of your personal books? Why?

And then P and I started thinking about this ginormous move. We know that it'd be silly to take all of our books with us, but, nerds that we are, it makes us uncomfortable to think that the majority of our books will be stored somewhere where they can't be easily accessed (i.e. the free storage in my parents' shed). How do we keep up with what we've got?

So at one point in discussion, I casually, and unrealistically, noted that we could make an Excel spreadsheet with titles and such, and use that to keep track. (I'd been working on a project in which I was doing something similar with an imaginary library collection, so go figure.) Of course, when you have hundreds of books, that seems not just a little insane. And, as I expected, we both chuckled briefly at the thought and then went on our merry way.

But then, a few evenings later, P tells me he's been looking online for cheap bar code scanners. Huh. Strange. Apparently, he's having trouble finding what he wants on our tiny Pocket PC, and he wants me to vacate the laptop for a moment (according to him, he has had to use the Pocket PC for a week now, as I've "hogged" the laptop a lot lately). Then he explains that he's discovered this software that lets you keep a catalog of your books on file - and it just needs a bar code scanner to work (or something like that).

You see where this is going.

After I got over the surprise of him taking my earlier suggestion seriously (and actually putting research into it), I immediately showed him LibraryThing.com, and the rest is history. Or, well, the rest is made apparent by my new little widget on the side here. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we spent all weekend typing in bar codes and cataloging our personal library. And it was fun. (And we actually managed to get rid of a few books in the process, which is a small miracle in itself.)

Come to think of it, I don't guess I actually discussed why we have so many books. . . but then again, if you've read any of my posts, I guess you know.