I used to pass my books on to my mother, as she and I had similar taste. Since she passed away 12 years ago, every book I read has been packed away into a box, and when the box is full, it's been taken down to my nice, dry (thankfully) basement.
Bill's not a reader, nor are our kids. No idea why. The most I can do is get each of them to commit to reading one book, and one only, on vacation.
There are books down there that I haven't looked at in over a dozen years. The stack of boxes had grown to roughly four feet high by twenty feet long.
Bill had been pushing me to sort through them for years, so I finally agreed that if he'd bring up a couple of boxes at a time, I would make a serious attempt. I'd tried before but didn't get far. I did a better job this time, keeping books by my favourite authors, and a few others that I seriously think I will reread.
Our Children's Hospital Foundation has an annual book sale, so I donated many there, I volunteer at one of our local hospitals, so I saved some for their library, and the Humane Society was having a fundraiser, so I gave the rest to them.
I've saved all of the boxes of children's books for the grandchildren yet to be. We have a huge collection of children's books that I'm looking forward to sharing, hopefully sooner than later.
@dyslexia,
And I think that is crap, generally speaking.
Hello, well with all the books i have read i either hang onto it or just donate it ... but at school, i love reading! it has helped alot anyways yeah ...
@hamburgboy,
Quote:i am a grazer/browser and often have three or more books on the go .
i have a few old german books that i keep going back to - guess i'll keep them for a while longer .
guess it's time to " retire " - usually read for about an hour before i turn the light out - it's an old and time consuming habit ( should do exercises instead ) .
( btw there are about 200 books in the house - about twenty scattered around my bed - the shame of it !!! )
You sound kind of
prolific, hamburger! Not a bad way to be! No shame in that!
@djjd62,
Quote:despite spendius opinion of audio books, i also have a large collection of those, another 200 or so, some of those have been mentioned on the book thread
Never mind what anyone else thinks about audio books, djjd. It is just wonderful being read a terrific story by someone who reads beautifully! I find it a great pleasure.
I think I'm up to about 20 audio books now. I hadn't considered them becoming a problem, but perhaps they will?
@dyslexia,
Quote:I'm thinking the collection of books in one's home is basically an image/identification issue. other than reference materials, the basic amassing of "books" actually says nothing about the person collecting/displaying them beyond their personal need to display themselves as an extension of their books.
Hmmmm ...
You know, there
may be an element of truth in that, dys ... with some people, ayway.
Me, I find it hard to let go of an author I love. Sometimes it feels almost like I'm throwing the
writer away when I discard old books. It's a little like throwing away an old friend. Not always easy to do.
@edgarblythe,
Quote:It's like a few books are an extension of myself. I don't go long without them. Books I still dip into or reread and certain ones that I possibly will never read again provide me emotional comfort.
Yes. I can sort of understand that, edgar.
@mckenzie,
Quote:Bill had been pushing me to sort through them for years, so I finally agreed that if he'd bring up a couple of boxes at a time, I would make a serious attempt. I'd tried before but didn't get far. I did a better job this time, keeping books by my favourite authors, and a few others that I seriously think I will reread.
Our Children's Hospital Foundation has an annual book sale, so I donated many there, I volunteer at one of our local hospitals, so I saved some for their library, and the Humane Society was having a fundraiser, so I gave the rest to them.
Good for you, mcKenzie!
I can see that this was not an easy thing to do!
Quote:I've saved all of the boxes of children's books for the grandchildren yet to be. We have a huge collection of children's books that I'm looking forward to sharing, hopefully sooner than later.
My goodness, you
have saved everything!
I hope you children enjoy reading
their books to their children. Nice.
@Satini Soakai,
Hello, Satini & welcome to A2k!
Quote:Hello, well with all the books i have read i either hang onto it or just donate it ... but at school, i love reading! it has helped a lot anyways yeah ...
So you're still a student?
Which books do you choose to hang onto?
@msolga,
msolga wrote:I'm asking because the subject came up on the
book thread, just now...
I mentioned a (sadly, long gone) A2Ker who firmly believed in recycling (for free) once she'd read a book, or had listened to an audio book. I was one of the the fortunate recipients of her generosity, years ago.
I used to hang on to every single book I'd read (or
planned to read, sometimes) & it became a HUGE problem. There where books in every nook & cranny of the house I lived in at the time. In every single room, on shelves, piled up on the floor, in the passage ... So when I was planning to move to this (tiny) new home, I really
had to offload HEAPS & HEAPS of books. It was rather painful at first, choosing which ones should go took hours of my time ... but once I got into the spirit of the exercise, it became quite liberating!
But I still have way too many & I wonder why it's sometimes so hard to off-load all those books which, most likely, I will never read again. Why IS it so hard?
So I'm asking:
What do you usually do with books you've read?
Do you hang onto every single book you've acquired? Why do you do that? Explain. I'm trying to "get" this.
Do you hang onto many books you "plan" to read, when you're in the "right frame of mind", but find yourself wondering if you actually will read them? (I have quite a few of these.)
Why are books we've read (particularly those which we suspect we'll never read again) so precious to (some of) us?
If you've gotten into the off-loading/recycling habit, are there particular books you could never let go of? Which books & why?
Do you have the same attitude to off-loading paperbacks as hardback books?
What's your response to the "read it & pass it on immediately" idea? It has a lot of merit, I think. But still, there are
some books I can't bring myself to let go of. Many I haven't actually looked at for years & years ... is there a problem here?
(Finally, are you still buying as many books as you did, say 10 -15 years ago? Just curious.)
I have book cases and hang on to them all. I bawt multiple copies of some, put in bookplates, numbered them
and established lending libraries. If worthy thereof, I mark the pages n paragrafs
with symbols in a hierarchy of value, in
colored inks for future reference.
David
@msolga,
my audiobooks are all digital, so they only take up virtual space
@djjd62,
Digital audiobooks are ideal mindsavers at work!
I'm listening to the first book of
Asimov's trilogy
Foundation. With audiobooks, it's the first time I feel comfortable reading more then one book at a time: one physical copy and one digital audiobook.
And as you said
djjd, digital audiobooks take up only a nano sized bit of acreage in the real world compared to a hardcover or a paperback book. As long as audible.com remains a viable/afloat business I'll have access to my audiobooks.
@dyslexia,
dyslexia wrote:
I'm thinking the collection of books in one's home is basically an image/identification issue. other than reference materials, the basic amassing of "books" actually says nothing about the person collecting/displaying them beyond their personal need to display themselves as an extension of their books.
For stating the obvious
dys instead of letting us keep our ego boosting delusions of our book collections...
About three years ago I did The Giant Book Cull at our house. First thing to go were all the reference books we longer needed due to the internet. Next were all the boxes of books my husband had left in the barn for a decade and were stained with mouse poop (He agreed he was never going to actually sort through his undergraduate math books anyway). Next were all the books I loved when I was in my teens and early 20's, and now realized I had outgrown for various reasons (no one needs to read Judith Krantz twice). Anything worthwhile was donated to local library fairs or dropped off in the free shed at the dump.
So what's left? Mostly beautiful art, travel, interior design, architecture, nature and gardening books. These are stacked on built-in shelves for the most part. I have a couple of large baskets full of paperbacks I know I like to pick up and read when when the mood strikes. And one basket of To Be Read books that await winter. A couple shelves of cook books that offer recipes that need to be in a collection and not just searched on the web. I kept some of my favorite books from my childhood and my mother's youth that are more like talismans than books at this point. A few one-of-a-kind books made by myself or friends that fall under the category of "Art" and are in a drawer. All in all, I probably have 75% less books in my house than when I moved here 20 years ago. Mostly due to the computer, but also due to my changes in taste and the final acknowledgement that library inter-loan works, I can borrow my niece's Kindle when I travel, and the world as I know it is unlikely to end tomorrow - and if it does, I will probably not feel like reading anyway.
@tsarstepan,
Quote:...With audiobooks, it's the first time I feel comfortable reading more then one book at a time: one physical copy and one digital audiobook.
Me, too!
It's great!
Quote:And as you said djjd, digital audiobooks take up only a nano sized bit of acreage in the real world compared to a hardcover or a paperback book. As long as audible.com remains a viable/afloat business I'll have access to my audiobooks.
Still using the boxed CD sets here, & they're starting to pile up!
It's the build-up of the books I
mean to read
sometime that's really bugging me. At some point I'm going to have to cull those, too. Seems such a silly thing: to have kept buying even more books, with so many still unread. They all seemed such a good idea at the time!
@msolga,
i understand that, i tend to read an author, and then if i like them i want to get as many of the other books they've written, those go on the pile to be read, and so it goes
@djjd62,
Yeah, well ...
I'm gonna have to stop doing it!
Or else buy second-hand copies & pass them on fairly quickly if I really can't get into them. Looking at the many unread novels I own makes me feel really guilty.
Funny, isn't it? I think, after a prolonged period, the interest in reading a particular book can just vanish.
Books?! I ain't never red no stoopid books and it never dun me no harm!
Books to me are like little parts of me. The ones I've read, that is. The books waiting to be read represent future growth or adventures depending on the type of book. Also they are works of art to be beheld for their beauty alone. Also, in a purely materialistc sense, they represent a choice of outlay of valuable earnings, that careless disposal would somehow seem to devalue. Also, when I enter someones house I judge them a little, rightly or wrongly on their book collections, and so I expect others do that to me, so my books are part of my persona. Nevertheless I've learned to purge, but I don't wonder why I find it painful.
