The Book Unhaul and New Bookcase Tour 

Interesting video! Though I admire your minimalism, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work for me. I have a completely different relationship to books and owning books. Books have a special place in my heart as well, but not only as their content but also much as objects. I'm not afraid to let go of them, I just don't want to - why would I get rid of something that I love? I love touching my books, smelling my books, looking at my books. Books soothe me. The mere presence of them does. I get rid of books that I didn't like (which are few in number), but all others stay and when I look at them they remind me of times that I read them or thoughts and emotions that I connect to them. My tbr-pile isn't a pile of books I'm putting off reading, it's the embodiment of excitement and projects for the future. When I used to be depressed I could look at my bookcases and think: no, I can't die now, look at all these books that I haven't read yet. (no lie, either, I really love books to an incredible extent) Getting rid of them would feel like a loss, not a gain.

I love her accent, it's so relaxing. And I love your bookcase

The bookcase is called the GERSBY, if anyone cares! :)

I keep a lot of books even if I didn't massively enjoy them partly because I think reading ANY book is an achievement and even if you don't know it straight away you get at least something out of every single book you read so it's kind of like a symbol of something you're proud of, but also because I don't see having books as any different to having ornaments or plants decorating a house, they're pretty and make houses look cosy and loved! I do think your outlook is admirable as well though Candice because books mean different things to everyone!

your voice is so soothing. i love listening to you talk

I went through a similar revelation at the start of this year about accumulating books that I no longer cared about and had never read, so I donated a huge pile! You have made me think about other areas of my life too. I am probably holding on to parts of my identity that no longer excites me or is important to me. Lovely chat, I hope your new house and country are the right mix of exciting and bewildering!

Thank you for making this video, Candice! I've been saying for a while now that I need to weed my books again, and this is just the push I need!! I currently have 4 bookcases loaded with books, and I look at them and think: that's too many books! I move too often to have this many books in my possession. I will definitely get on paring down my collection again. Watching this, my first thought was I won't get rid of my Jane Eyre copy (even though I've read it a dozen times)! So I was relieved to see you kept yours too. :) I used to only own one bookshelf, and I'd weed when it was full, but when I bought a house that changed and I just kept my books and bought more bookcases, and it's gotten out of hand really. So thank you for this reminder that I need to do this! =)

I find it admirable that you can get rid of almost all of your books. I have thought about getting rid of a few books (and I have), but I also like looking at my collection of 200-ish books and I have fond memories with them, as they are all my favourites. I am however guilty of harbouring books I have not read or books that I didn't like very much. I just thought about it while watching your video, that there's an opportunity next week for me to sell books at a flea market and I think I'll take a look at my shelf tomorrow and get rid of some books that I don't want to spend my time on. Thank you Candice, for making me realise this. (if it even made sense, it's 1 AM, I apologize)

Big WOOO for the Dick King Smith and non-fiction books about horses at your parent's house - I also have those books are my parent's house :) haha

Up until a few years ago, I used to keep ALL MY BOOKS including the ones I had already read. I never got rid of any of them. Then, four years ago, I bought a brand new apartment and knew that I'd be moving out of my parents' house soon. The thought of having to pack and transport ALL THOSE BOOKS to my new place completely overwhelmed me so I made a decision: I'd purge my collection and donate all of the books I read from that point onwards. I'd only keep the books I REALLY enjoyed (like, the 5-star books). Four years later and I'm STILL waiting for my apartment building to be built (condo buildings take a looong time to build here in Canada) but I've kept on top of my book collection! I've not accumulated much more and, again, I only keep the books I rated 5-stars. The rest I'll donate to family, friends, and my local library.

Hah, I also started to give away books one year ago! I just kept the ones that I knew I would read and those which reminded me positively of my reading experience (does that happen to you? like, you look at a book spine and think "oh, I remember wanting for that lecture to finish so that I could dive into the novel and find out what would happen in the story". That's the best thing about physical books for me, not even the reading but the remembering!). Now that I've moved twice I just keep the books that I intend to read and as soon as I visit home I bring back the ones I've read (if I loved them; otherwise, I give them away). Moving makes you realise how you actually don't need much stuff!

I completely understand how you feel about letting go of possessions. I find it hard to get rid of my old teddy bears but I have far too many so I had to get rid of some. They remind me of my childhood and I can remember how much they meant to me when I was younger and I think that's why it's so tricky to let them go. They don't mean as much as they used to any more because I've grown up but they're parts of my childhood and it's hard to get rid of that.

i respect your choices even if they are mostly different to mine! i also moved country a few years ago and my parents made me limit my books to two or three boxes (still a lot haha!) which i was pretty upset about as i collect books. they put them on a table outside our flat along with everything else we were getting rid of, however, and i got to listen from my room as people came by and picked them up (they were mostly jacqueline wilsons and the kind) for their younger sister, or hear them chat about authors with my parents, which was kind of lovely. this video had me chuckling as now, two years down the line, my room is once again populated by hundreds of books, most of which i haven't read - though they are all ones i want to read! i'm just slow. i have to say, i love it. i love having a newly-cultivated, wholly age-appropriate collection, literally surrounding me. i love having a house with hundreds of (carefully-selected) books piled up everywhere, as much as i enjoyed getting rid of/sorting most of my other belongings. and maybe there'll come a time when i feel the same as you, but i don't see the books i love now meaning any less to me when i'm decades older. :)

I've had a really rubbish past few days and this video cheered me up to no end. I'm going to do a clear out of my room next week.

Hi Candice. I found this very interesting and you have obviously put a great deal of consideration into this whole process. I tend to hold onto far too much and find letting go of certain possessions extremely hard. I really need to adopt some of this method in order to really understand which books are the ones that mean the most and which i'm holding onto for the wrong reasons. It seems especially hard now after having children to part with books which have brought such joy. I will though, revisit my bookcase and look at it with fresh eyes. Also, Lost and Found, both book and film, will be staying on my shelf. I hope that you and Brian settle well after your move. Helen.

I'm getting ready to move from Scotland to California and although I've always kept a relatively small collection (a bookcase like that one and a half-sized version of that one) it's taken a long time to pare down since I always have so many books coming in. I've gotten rid of probably 250 books in the last few months and I'm trying to get it down to ~60 to actually ship across. (I've made a couple of videos on it if you're curious.) I relate to the part about chapters of your life: I had quite a few books that I'd held onto because they were favourites at the time I read them, but realistically I won't re-read them and if I want to I can get an ebook. Well done on getting yours down so much!

Good for you, but I could never do that. To me books hold memories of every time I've read them, and even if I don't still connect to a book I'm still connected to the memories and rereading them is very nostalgic and nice and also books are just visually pleasing and nice to see everywhere

Really interesting ideas. I realise that I've recently become a bit of a hoarder when it comes to books. I'm 18 and ever since I got my first job about two years ago I've suddenly become slightly obsessed with acquiring books. Before I had any of my own money I would always borrow but now owning books has become really important to me. I think it's partly that fantasy of owning a house one day with walls filled to the brim but also the fact that I love spending time around books in book shops and often can't resist picking up a couple (especially second hand). I don't know if I really want to change my relationship with my books just yet but your thoughts have made me think more about why I feel the need to present myself as someone who owns lots of books. Also a lot of them are unread, but that's partly because I've just done my a levels and didn't read much (for fun anyway). Hopefully by the end of the summer I'll have gotten though a good number

It's so funny that Candice would put this particular video out today. I am currently packing my house to move on July 22nd and I was thinking about packing the books from the bookcase this very night! I think it is a sign....I had better get packing! :)

Ahh, I couldn't do that. This speaks about my degree of maturity, but the books I read when I was 8 years old or when I was 15 years old, are still as interesting, comforting, fun and important to me as the ones I've gotten now that I'm past 30 years old. So, I can't get rid of anything. xD I need them all in my life, I continually re-read them (usually, once per year) and they still teach me things, remind me of things, keep me centered and focused and refresh me when I'm collapsed or tired or just too depressed. And some of them are just a lot better than any newer stories I've gotten my hands on! Hahaha! I do believe that I have to be better at keeping up with what I have unread before buying more books. I was falling into the very dangerous pit of buying everything I saw and wanted at a particular moment, just because I wanted to have to read it eventually, and so my unread books pile has grown a lot more than I wanted it to grow. So, I'm trying to read now everything I own before purchasing anything new and trying to restrict myself to only get new books at my birthday or Christmas, instead of buying books almost every single week of the year. That's proving to be a challenge, but being very short on money is helping making it work, so we'll see. :D But, yeah, I couldn't be such a minimalist with my books. They are too important and dear to my heart, even the ones I read as a child, so... :S Though I admire you for being able to get rid of books and being able to find yourself disconnected from some of them and giving them up. I can't do that for the life of me and we also moved recently (within the same city, but still, it was a big move, after living 15 years in the same place, having to pick up everything and moving it to a different place) and the first thing I carefully packed were my books, and the first boxes in the new apartment where my books (and my stuffed animals xD). Hahaha! :D Take care and get a hug! :*

I'm about to move in a couple of weeks and I've been feeling the urge to purge a lot of stuff, including some of my books. This made me feel much better and less stressed about letting things go. :) My bookshelf is now looking less cluttered and considerably more happy. It seems like many book lovers mainly hoard books for more aesthetic purposes and not because they ever intend to reread them (which I'm guilty of). I'm also bad about holding on to things for sentimental reasons. Lately, it has felt quite pointless to keep so many things that sit collecting dust on shelves or remain packed away unseen in plastic bins.

I loved this video! I too have been reevaluating my massive amounts of books after watching that Rosianna video and you articulated so many of the same feelings that I have about intellectual worth but also books as a symbol of school debt and so much more.

This is really interesting. I do have a fair few books for a seventeen year old, but all of them are books that I love and have read and re-read. I've always wanted to keep all my books and have never had space until this year, but I realised that actually some of the books I just wanted the memory of, so I've started writing down every book I read. I'd really recommend it to anyone, because you still feel like you can go back to the list and retrieve the memories of reading it and if you really miss something then you can get it from the library or re-buy it.

Great video, and I loved hearing your thoughts on this! I am actually going through pretty much the opposite experience at the moment. Though we are (oddly) the same age, I've spent my years since turning 18 moving around a lot, so I haven't been able to accumulate really any books until I graduated uni, when I made the active decision to stay in my current city + country for the foreseeable future. My collected books now amount to about 50 odd and they are pretty much all secondhand barring some fantasy novels I purchased new because I liked the author and couldn't find them elsewhere. I love them, but I also curated the collection pretty cheaply, with the aim being that I wouldn't be able to tell myself "oh but I spent $x" to avoid letting go of them if I needed to.

This has really made me think about the books I have. I've never actually gotten rid of any of my books. Like ever. In the past if I'm running out of room, I'll put books I don't want in the attic or on the communal bookshelf that anyone in my family can use. Thinking about it, it does mean that there's a tonne of books on my shelf that are actually quite childish and I won't ever read again. Thing is, it's the sentimental thing. A lot of them mean something to me or are a great series, just not one I have the time or particularly want to read again. I think for now, it's okay to keep these books, but in a year or twos time I may have to say goodbye

I recently moved to the US; because I carried everything I needed in my luggage I could only bring ten books. I spent several hours trying to decide which ones to bring and which ones to donate. I have to say it felt good to purge. There are still many books in my parents' house which I wasn't sure what to do back then, but now I can say for certain I want them gone. Due to American libraries, my reading habits have changed so much that I feel disconnected to those books.

aww ur voice is so soft and sweet

Before I moved out of my parents' house, I had the same issue, owing tons of books. I had no place to put half of them, didn't read a lot of them, yet kept buying new books. Finally, I got rid of a lot but it was tough. A lot I had no problem getting rid of, but the majority I wanted to read still, or had already read the title and liked it so wanted to keep it, but realistically if I ever wanted to reread it I could just go buy it again. I'm down to about five shelves myself, but after watching this video I feel like I could easily get rid of a bunch more haha

like you, I'm definitely going to be forced to reckon with all of the objects I've collected when I move out/go to college next month... going to be tough since I'm for sure a sentimental hoarder type but what you've said here reaffirms my feeling that bringing too much stuff from the past kind of weighs down the present if you're trying to start a new.

I loved the Angus Thongs books by Louise Rennison when I was a teenager and I still have all the books. I can't bare to get rid of them but I've got mew books and only a small bookcase so I need to do something with them. I've just finished uni and moved all my stuff back home so I'm in the process of having a big sort through of everything and getting rid of stuff I don't need. I've decided that if I didn't use/wear something whilst at uni or it doesn't have a sentimental value then it's going. I think the Louise Rennison books will probably go in the loft though because I really don't want to get rid of them but I know I won't read them.

I'm going to face a similar challenge when going to university - my aim is to only keep books I think I might read again. At the moment I have about 30 unread books staring at me from my (second) bookshelves, but I do sort of need them in order to widen my reading before personal statements and interviews and all that lovely stuff. I also just like books as physical objects that have beauty in their own right. (Interestingly enough, I also own just The Ask and the Answer, it was a gift about 5 years ago and I've still not read even one of the trilogy)

I only buy books that I've read before, ones I know that I'll read again, or love completely. Then I have my childhood books, which I know I'll never read again, but I have trouble getting rid of them. I still live at home, and probably will for at least another two years, in a very small bedroom. The current count stands at around 320. While I have trouble getting rid of books, my friend is amazing at it, and regularly clears out her shelves. I'm the one who regularly takes in her books...

i just did a bookcase cleanse as well! i don't know what to do with the books now though because i too am feeling sad about how much money i've spent on them. especially the books i bought and didn't read. it has been a lesson to me now to buy books only as i really want to read them. or just a lesson in not impulse buying.

Your bookcase is so aesthetic

I have started to purge my bookshelves because somewhere in the next few years I'm hoping to move back to Australia from Canada.... I finally invested in a kindle so I don't have to let go of my entire library, but I still hate giving away the actual books!

I have had variously "Biggles", Sherlock Holmes, Sci-Fi, car manuals and art history collections when I was younger. Now I have most of the classic novels and history of civilisations non-fiction at 61years old. What will be next?? There are very few modern writers I can bear to read but I guess it's an age thing.

You introduced me to More Than This by Ness which I loved. I haven't been able to get into the Chaos Walking series but I hope to at some point (whenever that mysterious "time" arrives). I know you mentioned you weren't sure how the second book in the series made it to your bookshelf, but I just have to ask- how did you mange letting go of More Than This? Were you basing more on re-reading value?

It's a Finnby bookcase if anybody is interested!! But I have to say, I have two of those bookcases and a whole DVD tower filled of books....I definitely need to stop hoarding them and do an unhaul...

I can easily get rid of books I read and didn't like. But unread books I can never part with, I see them as little magical moments, little snowglobes, time travel cases to a different world, waiting for me to dive in. You never know how much you'd have enjoyed that book, maybe it would turn out to be your favorite? I always think: there's a reason this got here on my shelf and I want to give this book a chance before throwing it out and never knowing. I just can't do it.

I have the same Emily Bronte Penguin collection!! I love it.Lovely video but I could never do like you: i prefere re - reading rather than reading so I always keep books. Too many books.

the 'I'm a failure who hasn't read this russian classic' resonated with me because I've had war and peace sitting on my bedside table for months, i am excited to read but Ive just been super busy with exams :(

You've mentioned Russian classic and it made me chuckle - I am Russian and I understand that feeling of failure. My favourite classic author is Dostoevsky, I absolutely adore his despair-filled works. But he is quite lengthy author and it is difficult to find time and right mind state to read any of his books. That being said, if you haven't read it yet, read "The Kreutzer Sonata" by Leo Tolstoy. It is a short novel about transformation of romantic relationship's nature by gender roles and society's expectations. I don't know if it was planned by author or not (probably not), but it shows the unfairness that we, people who live in society with much more gender equality that there was ever before, most likely haven't experienced by ourselves.

Interesting to see in English literature major from Ireland have so many American books as her favorites :)

Somehow, for me the most difficult part is not so much sorting out which books I need to let go off, but the practical getting rid of them. I don't know why I find it so hard to arrange to sell them... :/

I wish i had a childhood home where i could've left stuff i dont really need but dont want to throw out. I had to throw a lot of sentimental stuff out because they couldn't fit in my tiny flat. And now my mom is moving abroad and i'll be storing her stuff that she doesn't want to get rid of. This whole thing seems to be a bit upside down.

How did you go about selling your university books? :)

i have the same bookshelf TWINNING

The bookcase might be a Finnby - I have that in turquoise :)

Great video I often unhaul books to the charity shops I never make any money back on them people just don't seem that interested in books near where I live and if I do sell them I only make a penny with the expense of posting it etc so I donate to charity I am a book hoarder but my selection is all to read or books I've loved want to review etc x

interesting opinion and view on books! completely get where you are coming from. ps u look lovely.

Where did you move to?

very interesting but i just dont think i will be strong enough i am such a hoarder i have so much crap in my room but i have made exuses for, i am getting better at throwing things away

And you had been squating for quiet amount of time :)).

You look a bit like Kiera Knightly!

aww u have a hicky on the neck i am connected to my books too i have like 500 books i dont read much of them tough

May I suggest you leave your childhood books for your children it will mean a lot to them to have something from your youth.

First (I think)!!

waaaait.. I haven't finished this video yet. I stopped at "I'm 5'9" whaaat. That's pretty tall and when you stand beside brian, You look tiny. I can't imagine me. I would look like a 10 year old tho I'm 19 whaat