I've thousands of book organized by subject, two-thirds of which have been catalogued in an Excel spreadsheet that includes such details as purchase price, first edition, antique, used, etc. The catalogueing takes forever - I always want to dip into the book I pick up. Most are neatly stowed on shelving in logical areas: computers and business in the study, cookbooks in the kitchen. If you're having a clear out and decide to scale down by a book or two, check out bookcrossings.com. You can register you book before you release it into the wild. When you think back, wasn't learning to read one of the most joyous events in your life?