high volume of volumes

Today I went through the book shelves trying to find duplicates and other books I could donate to Betterworld.com so that I can make the bookshelves look nice and not so haphazardly crowded so that someone will see the apartment on Sunday and say, “What lovely orderly bookshelves! Why, I think I’ll buy this apartment!” I was only able to cull about 30 books, and betterworld.com would only accept 3 of the first 10 whose isbn numbers I entered, so I think I may just give them to Paul, the guy who sells books outside of H&H bagels. He picks them up and he always brings me a bagel and coffee. Getting rid of books is very hard. The two things I hoard are books and shoes. Because…you never know when you might just have a yen to read The Hapsburgs by Andrew Wheatcroft wearing the cream-colored suede sneakers that look like bowling shoes that you bought at the Tod’s outlet in Tuscany. What was I thinking? They’re both coming out of their respective reject bags right now. Well, the book is, anyway. It’s illustrated. There’s a wonderful photograph of Emperor Franz Joseph I in hunting clothes that I could not find on google, but while looking for it I did find this photo (See the guy peering out the window?):