The "Overly Attached Syndrome"

That’s the diagnosis given to many book lovers by Alina Tugend in her piece New Ways to Do It Make Giving Away Books a Bit Less Painful that appears in the New York Times today.

“Getting rid of books creates tension for many, although it is often one of the first things people have to do when downsizing or simply trying to organize their lives.” says Tugned.

For some, including the author, giving away or selling their books at the appropriate time is a liberating experience. There is little remorse. For others, the disposing of books from their library is one of the greatest of life challenges.

“People have a love affair with their books,” is how Standolyn Robertson, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, sees it. For the “overly attached” she suggests that people “take photos of the covers of the books and make a memory album” and to try and only keep a small percentage of the books in your library.

For many of us, no matter how many options are available, it will never be “less painful” to release our books into the world.

The piece appears in the business section and feels out of place there. The quandary some people face when having to part with books is far from a business matter. The article seems to cover two phenomena- the process of letting go of your books and the response to the number of extraneous books in the world from the business sector. These are two different animals and each deserves its own cage.

Illustration by Tim Lane, first appeared in Boston Globe