I see what you mean, it's difficult to find what parts you don't need without clinging onto it all for dear life, cus it's your baby and you can't bear to see any of it go...
...and then when someone else comes along and reads it, you realise a lot of it is constructive description, but most of it really is rambling
so you figure out how to cut down the word count. ^^
But, that's a lot of bookage... Might wipe out a small forest
It'd be hard to cut down if it's 500 or so books O.o