It’s a decision I’ve been forced into, but I have decided to reduce the number of books I have. Who forced me? Me. I didn’t realise this at the time we bought our abode, but it turns out that the walls aren’t expandable. I’m fed up with having double or sometimes even triple rows of books on the same shelf.

In the process of identifying which books to send off to a new home, I’ve discovered some books I’d forgotten about and now look forward to reading (again). Other books are no longer useful to me. Actually, the process has not been as traumatic as I feared, though I haven’t actually got rid of any books yet.

I thought I would try and sell them, and as I don’t fancy using eBay, or carting a load of books into central London (where there are some excellent* second-hand bookshops, I thought I’d use a book buying service.

I’ve identified three possibilities, these being Zapper, Ziffit and We Buy Books. I’ve started to explore them, but if anyone reading this has any experience of them, or others, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

• Typo corrected. Thanks to Michael Crossland for pointing it out.