Kicked to the Curb

So recently I've run out of room on my bookshelves. Even with my reduced book-buying, space is at a premium. So another purge is in the works. I'm revisiting books I haven't read in over a decade and of which I have vague or no memories at all.

First to go was Imperfect Strangers by Stuart Woods. Brings back all the memories I have of why I stopped reading him. Imperfect Strangers is a silly pastiche of Strangers on a Train, but without the psychological insight. Just a book to showcase how much Woods thinks he knows about the upper class, American lifestyle. Lots of references to snooty wines, hotels, restaurants and private planes. The protagonist buys houses on the Vineyard, a winery and lots of other toys. Yawn. And lets not get started on the dialog - who talks like this? One minute he's trying to roughen up a mechanic/pilot's speech by peppering in swears, 'pal' and 'fella' and the next the guy's using the word phraseology. Talk about a tin ear for dialog. And then there's the sappy romance and cut out bad guy. Ugh. Also added another Stuart Woods that hadn't made past purgings.

Next in the Kicked to the Curb Collection are my Phillip Margolins. All legal thrillers of the lowest order. Transparent plots. Thin characters. Repetitive situations (from book to book not just within one). Uninspired prose. Moronic situations and people. I read about 3 chapters of The Burning Man and gave up. All five are on the pile.

A few ARCs I gave bad or mediocre reviews to are in there along with some chick lit that I have no idea what possessed me to buy. A lot of bad novels and genre fiction that didn't stand up to a first reading, never mind re-reading so they go, too.

Now it's just a question of what to do with the books that have been Kicked to the Curb. I know of a used bookstore/book-swap type place that I may visit. The problem is going there won't help with my reclaiming shelf space. I still have tons of books on my want list and my vague interest list (yeah, I have both). It's crazy and so MORE purging will have to be done. Hey...is that a Howard Stern book I see over there?