books i'm giving away

This is just for me...books I'm giving away from my childhood/adolescence/young adulthood:

hairstyles of the damned/joe meno
the facts speak for themselves/brock cole
charming billy/alice mcdermott
like the red panda/andrea seigel
reading lolita in tehran/azar nafisi
double decker: double act and bad girls/jaqueline wilson
cheaper by the dozen/frank gilbreth jr & ernestine gilbreth carey
belles on their toes/frank b.gilbreth jr. & ernestine gilbreth carey
i know why the caged bird sings/maya angelou
the godfather/mario puzo (the one book that I don't think is better than the movie!)
cat's eye/margaret atwood
max's choice/cr. by francine pascal
the robber bride/margaret atwood
bridget jones's diary/helen fielding
the count of monte cristo/alexandre dumas
sense and sensibility/jane austen
galileo, science and the church/jerome j langford
dancing on the edge/han nolan
the norton introduction to poetry/j. paul hunter
priestess of avalon/marion zimmer bradley
ten poems to last a lifetime/roger housden
alias grace/margaret atwood
the bluest eye/toni morrison
the complete short stories of mark twain
falling leaves/adeline yen mah
the miracle worker/william gibson
the grapes of wrath/steinbeck
mythology/edith hamilton
the beford introduction to literature/michael meyer (::sob::)
lord of the rings/tolkien
wicked/gregory maguire
a man without a country/kurt vonnegut
wuthering heights/emily bronte (i had two;))
man's search for meaning/viktor frankl
three cups of tea/greg mortenson & david oliver relin
the best american essays 1995/jamaica kincaid ed.
the best american essays 1999/edward hoagland ed.
the best american essays 2000/alan lightman ed.
tennessee williams' letters to donald windham 1940-1965/ed. and with comments by donald windham
awakenings/oliver sacks (and I just told you to read him...I want to keep it, but I have to get rid of a ton of my stuff, and I'm keeping one of his books...it's like I hated to give up part of my Atwood collection, but I have to because I haven't any place to put these mountains of books)
anne sexton: a self-portrait in letters/ed by linda gray sexton and lois ames (ugh!)

Over the years, I've lost countless books to friends, lending them to borrower's. I don't mind that so much, I suppose. But it's hard for me to let go of my books. I know it sounds silly, but when I was growing up, my books were my friends. I moved around so much, it was easy for me to find security and safety and lose myself in them. Fictional characters could be invisible friends, they could know the loneliness I felt, I could relate to the things they felt. So if I hoard anything, it is books.

In fact, I gave away loads more than I have listed here...my mother has made a few trips to Goodwill today alone.

I am donating them all to Goodwill, so I know my loved books will be in good hands. It is just damn hard to let go.

I want to have this list so when I have a job and make my own money I can buy some of these books back one day. More than anything I want to have a library, this massive wall of books, in my home. I want to have a sanctuary of sorts.