Culling the books. Sigh, probably one of the last at this late date in life span.
It's possible I had 300 or so books at the peak, starting from my teens into the post college years. In my 30s and up there have been 3 or 4 times when I winnowed out a score or two at a time, donating to the library, while continuing to add on.
There was this time when I went cross country to Boot Camp, lugging a very large box of books, knowing nothing about what Boot Camp would be and that there would be *no* space of time to refer to them or physical storage to stow them. Actually, it was a touching moment when all of us, the last time in civilian clothes and with our belongings, were told to put our stuff on the ground in front of us and the fellow in charge passed in front of us like browsing at a flea market to tell us what we could keep with us and what would be shipped home, and when he paused at my spot, he almost teared up until he collected himself and told me the books had to go. Actually, it was something of a relief, like taking a burden off my back.
Forty years later, I was on the giving end of things, having boarded a very small plane, and an ancient professor was taking up my assigned seat with a humongous bag of his books that he was temporarily looking to stow some place. I was in another seat waiting, when somebody said to me, "You're in my seat." I said I was just waiting for my seat to be vacated. The ancient professor was a bit embarrassed. I wasn't pissed at him, just reacting to the woman who reproached me, and I said to him, "You know there are now devices that can hold a thousand books." Actually, it's not likely that most of the old books are digital. Goes around, comes around...
Anyway, today did a lot of culling down and even more dusting off. Am down to probably 125 or so. Some things just don't need to hang around. I mean, once you've read how pitiful POE's horrendous life was, and the push and pull strains TCHAIKOVSKY's consisted of, I'm not going to read those again.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It literally means ‘reading pile’.
Tsundoku is a combination of several Japanese words, including “tsunde,” which means to stack things; “oku,” which means to leave for a while; and “doku,” which means to read.
Somehow I became less hard on myself after knowing this.
I hear ya, indeed.
I believed strongly that a good library at home was a sign of intellect and knowledge. Even if I hadn't read everything, I was very proud of my collection. Guests would often scan the titles and authors, and usually would be dully impressed.
Now, approaching my 72nd birthday, my "library" consists of various serial killer biographies, cookbooks, and some poetry.
Guess my intellect took a hike some years ago, along with my waistline and good looks. 
Has a lot of oldies on it
There are some other sites, such as Library of Congress, that you can access.
I feel for you. I have books that belonged to 3 generations before me, and all the ones I picked up (16 boxes for $3 and 11 boxes for $5 at sales) over the years, I probably have a 1000 books. But I'll let time cull them 
Good luck to you. It isn't fun.
I have a bunch that I've never entered into the database for whatever reason, so I suspect I'm pushing 950. Most of mine were acquired from a retiring PoliSci professor in my senior year of college (forty years ago!). Everything from the Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, to The Communist Manifesto, to the Origins of Totalitarianism. I haven't been able to bear to part with them, and darn few people would want a lot of them, so I guess I'll keep them for the foreseeable future. Always dreamed of having a good library to put them in, but not sure that's ever going to happen. 
