Earlier this year we cleared my parents house prior to selling it, which meant dealing with my father's book collection. He had wide ranging interests, from jaz

Earlier this year we cleared my parents house prior to selling it, which meant dealing with my father's book collection. He had wide ranging interests, from jazz to town planning, and it was quite a task figuring out what of the 1500-odd books was junk, what was worth donating, and what was worth selling. Some was easy: the 200 or so mountaineering books were gratefully received by the Alpine Club library, and the few first editions (Dylan Thomas, John Betjeman, folks like that) got £750 from a bookseller. The ones that have been most difficult to find a good home for are the large format art books, which no-one seems to want. And I've kept too many fascinating volumes, so it hasn't exactly helped my book collection, but we've found homes for most of them.