Rationalizing my Collections

So - I finally got around to re-organizing my library, storing some books, placing others in the "give away" pile.   I'm pretty happy - nothing beats the satisfaction of spring cleaning and bringing things back in to order.   Next is my storage closet for boardgames and as yet unstarted miniatures projects, to be followed by my under table storage of project materials and unpainted figures.

When I was sorting through books, it struck me that there were periods and books for which I was just NEVER going to do any miniature gaming.   A combination of events - organizing my library and watching the movie "Warhorse" brough that into focus for me.  

As an example, I have a great interest in WW1.   My WW1 library had grown to about 4 shelves of materials.   Watching Warhorse proved to be a fairly depressing event for me....the bleakness of the trench warfare scenes, the brutality to the horses...I'm an animal lover, so those parts were hard to watch.

What it did, however, was bring into focus what I most likely wouldn't game - for example, 1915-mid 1918.    I had a lot of books on that period...the Somme, Gallipoli, etc.    I just don't want to game it.  However - I DO want to game 1914, and the open period of 1918.   Just a completely different war than the middle years.

So - those books on the Somme, Gallipoli, etc., are off the shelf, as are the big "picture" books, Time Life series of ACW books, etc.   The stuff that was "nice to have" on the shelf made way for the "got to have" on the shelf.

It's really been nice to identify my main interests:

ACW
Napoleonics
FPW
Austro-Prussian
SYW
AWI
Zulu War
Sudan Wars
Early/Late WW1
WW2
Ancient - Rome/Gauls/Germans, Successor Wars, Punic Wars
Medieval - WoR, Crusades

These are all periods that I have stuff for, either "finished" collections, pieces of collections, or boxes of materials waiting for their turn.

Looking at the above list, it doesn't look like much of a reduced list!  However, it does help me avoid the temptation of doing "oddball" periods - Paraguayan war, Chaco War, Mexican Revolution.   It struck me that its OK to be interested in historical knowledge, but some periods are just not what I want to game.   

Enough of that - a quick photo to finish up the post.