love, love my books - Downsizing Step 5

A friend asked me a couple of days ago how I was doing with my downsizing task and then proceeded to say  "and how does it make you feel?"  in that therapist tone that makes you cry.  I thought about it and realized that downsizing our book collection is by far the biggest source of stress & sense of loss during this process.   Books are special to a family of readers.  How can I sift through hundreds of books representing so many years of collective reading all around the house?    Thankfully we have partially shifted our reading to our kindles/tablets in the past couple of years but still, its overwhelming.

It's funny to talk about this to my pragmatic friends who say  "are you planning to read these again?". If the answer is no - there you go.   I don't even mention this to our daughter ( who's out in college and the biggest hoarder of books ) because her answer is always "I want to keep it".  So for now, we won't touch her bookcase but the rest is up for grabs because we will be limited to books that fit in the bookcases in the apartment.  It will make zero sense to pay for a pricey storage to keep books for secula seculorum so it is time to let go.

So here were my baby steps:

• first was to start with the recipe books - I counted 30 and use none to be honest  because I google all my recipes nowadays - yet, after extensive deliberation I couldn't part of 12 of my recipe books - that will have to be on round 2!   
• then I ran into our high school guidance counselor who told me that they could use gently used SAT/AP test books --  we got dozens of those!  
• finally I heard of a Children's Book Drive for underserved children in Harlem/Bronx- so I quickly collected & delivered a box full of preteen/teen books  that I am sure no one will miss.  Still, I managed to keep some classics & favorites like To Kill a Mockingbird, Nicholas, Harry Potter & Unfortunate events series.  These seemed to precious to pass on- yet!

And now I wonder - how will I tackle the next step?  What will be my criteria to sort through the hundreds of books in our bookcases/attic/garage?   Any suggestions for criteria other than "are you planning to read it again" are welcomed!