The grand library purge & pack has begun. Maybe, just maybe, if I spread this out over three weeks it will not be completely overwhelming. So far, in fact, it's rather fun, as long as I don't think about how much I have left to do.

I'm curious to see how big my library actually is when all is said and done. I mean, yes, I can glance around my small apartment and get a rough idea, but how many volumes do I own? And how much space will they take in my ReloCube?

Are you curious, too? Take a guess, and we'll see how close you get!

Guesses accepted in three categories:

1) How many books will Rachel take with her to California?

2) How many boxes will it take to pack all the books Rachel is taking with her to California?

3) How many bags (paper grocery sized) of books will Rachel give away before she goes to California?

Closest guess in each of the three categories receives (what else?) a book! Which particular books I award are at my sole discretion, but I promise they won't be random worthless books that I'm just trying to get rid of. I may even let you pick.

But it won't be Silicon Carbide and Related Materials.

Some hints that may or may not assist contestants:

1) I prefer to pack books in smallish boxes.

2) If you've been to my apartment: all (except for one shelf's worth) of the books in the living room are mine. Most of my books are in my bedroom.

3) Totals so far: 70 books in 4 boxes (I told you they were small); 5 bags given away. And I'm just getting started.

Miscellaneous Rules:

1) I am the final judge of all questions related to this contest. My whim is law; no appeal.

2) Contest closes on Dec. 20, 2007 at 11:59 p.m., according to the Blogspot time stamp.

3) Contestants may revise their guesses at any time during the contest; only the latest entry counts.

4) Ties go to the earliest guesser who has not later revised their guess in the category in question.

5) Contestants who fail to provide a mailing address and e-mail address within one week of being announced winner may be disqualified. Contestants who live outside the continental United States who are not related to me within three degrees by blood or marriage may be disqualified. (Yes; that is nepotism. Who's making the rules here?)

6) Announcement of winners and actual numbers will take place either on December 28, 2007, or sometime during the third or fourth week of January 2008, depending on whether I get too busy to count my books while I'm packing them and have to count them when I unpack them. Or perhaps at some other time as I see fit.

7) Void where prohibited.

UPDATED 12/09/07: Further specifications on category three:

--Any books I get rid of by selling do not count.

--Any books I get rid of by throwing away/recycling/burning do not count.

--Any books I purchase between Thanksgiving and Christmas expressly for the purpose of giving them away do not count.

--The 325 books that I purged from my collection in October do not count. That was the practice purge.

--I will estimate the number of bags it would have required for any books from my library that I give away on an individual basis.

--Final tally will be rounded up to the next whole bag.

Thanks to Mike and PTr for getting the ball rolling! PTr has a good point about it taking a while to unpack all one's books -- some of my books are too valuable to just divest myself of them, but not exactly of immediate utility in my new situation (unless perhaps I acquire a manuscript for editing that requires fact-checking against the Church Dogmatics, e.g.). Those will basically go straight into storage. So we'll have to count on my obsessive-compulsive tendencies to get an accurate count on my books as I pack them.