Keeping Books Under Control

I love books and am thrilled that my son does too. We spend a lot of time reading, and he has his preferences that change from week to week. Some of the illustrations and pop-ups are truly works of art. The problem is that I want to keep the quantity contained to what fits on his shelves, and we have two languages worth of books to manage. Right now the shelves are filled, so each new book means weeding out the old.

Here are reasons I may weed out a book: 

•  Grammar errors (one book had an unacceptable lay/lie error) 
•  Unappealing art 
•  Questionable messages (e.g. showing people as stereotypes) 
•  Too young (he is only 15 months old and is already growing out of books) 
•  Too old (he is only 15 months old and isn’t really into books that are too wordy, aren’t board books, or aren’t pop-ups) 
• Wrong season (Christmas books got packed up with our Christmas decorations) 
•  Duplicate theme (we don’t need three books by the same publisher with similar photos of farm animals—he’s enjoyed them all, but no more room!) 
•  Poor condition

However, some books get a save and end up on our family bookshelf in the living room. Here are some reasons I might store a book on these shelves that are also tight on space: 

•  It is really a beautiful, classic book that I’d like to share with young guests 
•  It is an appealing book in French that he may enjoy in a few years (French books are harder to find and more expensive)

Knowing that I need to remove books when new ones comes in curbs my impulse book buying. Plus, there's always the library!