I have given away hundreds if not thousands of books in the past few years, but have set aside a few authors. Those authors, I had said, were my untouchable collection.

It’s only when I start to count those books that I realize I have hundreds of them. I thought there were only two authors, or three, but there are a dozen, and most of them were prolific.

I don’t want to pack and move hundreds of books. I just don’t. So, I’m commencing on the big read. I’m going to read the books in my untouchable collection. If it’s good, I’ll decide then whether I need to keep it. If it’s bad, out it goes to Goodwill.

Maybe I should call it the big re-read, since I’ve read most of them before.

There’s something liberating for me in saying that even my favorite authors aren’t necessary on my shelves. But I might have to make exceptions for MM Kaye, and Patricia Wentworth, and Dick Francis… Oh dear.