Oh, help.  I am sorting out my study.  Most difficult jobs get very, very difficult when you''re about three quarters through and you wish you'd never started.  This one is already impossible after one filing cabinet and half a bookshelf.

Why is it so hard to get rid of books?  A book doesn't deserve respect just because it's a book.   There's a perfectly good Oxfam shop for the ones I'll never read again (but then again, I might.)  And the ones I've had for years and simply not got round to (but I could meet somebody who really, really wants them.)  Perhaps I had it drummed into me at an early age that books should be respected, or maybe I feel maternal about them - 'if I'd written that book,I would want somebody to care about it'.

At present, I have a pathetic little heap of books to go to Oxfam or local schools and a keep-heap the size of Ayers Rock.   I've discarded one, but that's the 2006 Bed and Breakfast Guide and probably doesn't count.

By the way, in the book world, books become 'titles' , or, at least, they are titles when they're new.  They don't publish books, they publish 'titles'.  My newest title is 'Urchin and the Raven War'.  Look out for next year's Mistmantle title, and I believe there will be some exciting new titles from your favourite authors this autumn.    In the meantime, I suggest you stay and keep cosy.  All you need is a a hot drink, an apple, and a thumping  good title.