See if I care. OK, allow me to explain. Recently there was a column in Inside Higher Ed, "Bookshelf and Self," discussing another column, "The Unabridged Rules of Library Management," and a small Klein blog post, which led me think a little. Let me put in plain English: there are no rules. Keep whatever books you want on your bookshelves. If you actually have time to come up with petty little rules with corollaries, you probably have too much time on your hands. May I suggest you read some more of what is on the shelf?
Seriously folks. I think you should keep the books that make you happy. I think Klein suggested about your shelves reflecting the kind of person you want to be. That's not bad advice, just don't come to my house and look into my workstation. It may make you wonder what kind of person I am or aspire to be. For a while, I was drafting a post on how I organize my books at home, but it got longer than I intended since, when it comes to my workstation, I do keep some arrangement. But in terms of what goes where, most everything is eligible. Have I read it? It can go on the shelf. Not read it yet? Put it in too, I'll get to it (or at least I hope I will). Read what you like, and keep what you like as well. I do believe that you can tell a lot about a person by the books they read and/or keep. From being laid back to being a pretentious snob, you can tell from their books. At least from the ones you see. In my case at least, I have a few in closed cabinet (mostly ones I would not like my child to find just yet). So hey, it's your bookshelves, put what you want on it.
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