I'm going through a serious purge this week. It began last week and will continue until the purge is complete. Fact of the matter is, I'm purging books in a very serious fashion.

My goal for the middle of August is to have given away at least 90% of the books I have here. It's pretty drastic but I have my reasons. The first is that I never read anything twice. Never - so why hundreds and hundreds of books line many shelves is a mystery.

Actually, it's not a mystery at all. You buy the book, you keep the book and as the years pass by, they grow into something called a collection...

...and then I read something that rang an alarm bell right in the ear drum. I realised these books were all still here because I thought they said something about me I needed other people to know.

But nobody ever comes round and if they do, they have better things to do than stand around looking at my bookshelves. It's an interesting question to ask of yourself but I also realised these books were dead. They're not books if they're not being read. They're just paper sitting on a shelf. For them to be books, they needs to be out in the world being read... though what other people choose to do with them after that is up to them.

The purge is going well. It was tough to begin with but now, not so much. A few things will stay - something like twenty books that are special editions or mean something to me - but not many more. There's also a few art books that will stay but the upshot of this is that I will be left with a few books that have a soul and I will have gotten over the biggest stumbling block in my minimalist head.

The point of such a thing?

Freedom of course.