cleaningSaturday was laundry day in our house. In one of the odd little rituals a large urban building like ours can develop, it reminded me that it’s time for my annual Calibre library purge.

A bench in the laundry room has become a sort of informal freecycling drop-off. People leave all sorts of things there, and they usually disappear within a day or two. During yesterday’s laundry room visit, I saw a bundle of cast-off Nora Roberts paperbacks. They were in decent shape and I’m sure they’ll be gone in a day or two.

Of course, my e-book purge is much more straightforward, and I won’t have to manually haul anything down to the laundry room to do it! Just a quick press of the delete button, and I’m all done! So, what are my library-pruning goals this year?

1) Book Bundle Extras. I have bought a few Humble Bundle and Story Bundle packages because a few of the titles interested me. But, as is the nature of such bundles, you get the whole thing. There are some books these came with that I am quite sure I will never read. Away they go!

2) Binge Topics. I do this all the time: I become interested in a topic, download a dozen books on it, read two or three of them and then feel done. Time to purge the library and Kindle Unlimited wish lists of all these extras!

3) Large Omnibus Books. I find the send-to-Kindle app tends to choke on large files. I’m going to split these up and then delete the space-hog originals. I need versions I can actually read with my software.

I know that in today’s techie world, disk space is cheap. But there is something very cleansing about a good declutter, and I have found that goes for my virtual bookshelf too.

If I am never going to read it, why keep it around? Time to spring clean!

Related: Chris Meadows on the latest Calibre features.

Image credit: Here.

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"I’m a journalist, a teacher and an e-book fiend. I work as a French teacher at a K-3 private school. I use drama, music, puppets, props and all manner of tech in my job, and I love it. I enjoy moving between all the classes and having a relationship with each child in the school. Kids are hilarious, and I enjoy watching them grow and learn. My current device of choice for reading is my Amazon Kindle Touch, but I have owned or used devices by Sony, Kobo, Aluratek and others. I also read on my tablet devices using the Kindle app, and I enjoy synching between them, so that I’m always up to date no matter where I am or what I have with me."

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