A dumpster full of books..... :(

@maxdancona,

i am loving how "used" went to "pre-owned" and is now "pre-loved"....as if anyone can say what the previous owners emotional attachment to the stuff in question was. this goes to show that in modern times honesty is not considered to be a requirement in communication.

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@hawkeye10,

Do you think it ever was hawk?

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@spendius,

spendius wrote:

Do you think it ever was hawk?

ya, I think that back in the olden days people often made an effort to conduct their daily life with some honor. now there is no shame, anything that gets us what we want is OK.

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@hawkeye10,

They do sound kind of arrogant.

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@roger,

roger wrote:

They do sound kind of arrogant.

spoiled and out of touch...acting pre great recession post great recession as we flirt with depression is to be massively out of step with the times.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

spendius wrote:

Do you think it ever was hawk?

ya, I think that back in the olden days people often made an effort to conduct their daily life with some honor. now there is no shame, anything that gets us what we want is OK.

Wow! Is that ever a really really naive sentiment:
1. Snake oil salesmen:

http://travsd.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/traveling-medicine-show1.jpg

2. The Tweed Machine:

http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/e/e9/Tammany_Ring%2C_Nast.jpg

3. That this is a thread on books and book recycling and not a here's a perfect medium for my political agenda no matter how digressive or irrelevant to the thread.

Yep. The good ole days! Where everyone's a saint with no personal agenda or ability to lie. Keep it up Hawkeye and you'll drown in your own sentimental tsunami of self delusionment. Rolling Eyes

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

Raising money is an important part of any charity work. But it isn't about saving the books.

In this model, a book is no different than an unused shirt that one gives to the Salvation Army

But, whatever the motive for donating the books, thousands books have been saved!
And recycled, to be read again ....
I disagree about them being no different to "unused shirts" .... they are donated by people who care enough about books not to just toss them in their garbage bins (much easier than carting lots of heavy boxes to collection depots) ... sorted by volunteers who love books (& who end up buying quite a few of them!) & then sold online & in opportunity shops to people who want to read them .
Sure the online book buyers are supporting a charity they want to support, but I'd say their main incentive is to buy affordable books, which they actually want to read. (Books are incredibly expensive to buy new in Australia compared to say, the US & the UK.)

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@msolga,

Quote:

But, whatever the motive for donating the books, thousands books have been saved!

I suppose where we disagree is whether it is important to save physical books (i.e. the glued together sheets of paper).

Books are just cheap packs of pieces of paper with words on them. They are abundant and dirt cheap to produce. And they are heavy and a real pain in the neck to move and store.

It is a mistake to confuse books with literature. If "Tom Sawyer" is ever lost, meaning that it is no longer easily available for the cost of a McDonald's happy meal, that would be a travesty.

Me throwing out one hundred or so pieces of paper that have been glued together and on which Tom Sawyer happens to be printed is really no big deal.

Saving literature seems like a worthy goal to me. Saving books doesn't.

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@maxdancona,

On further thought...

I realize that my argument is based on the fact that books are dirt cheap, and in the US they are. I suppose that if I were in a country where books were difficult to buy my opinion would be different.

Why are books more expensive in Australia?

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@maxdancona,

Well, if you want original Mark Twain, it might be best to hang on to those pieces of glued together paper. I understand Huckleberry Finn was considered offensive. Those pages won't change. Your ebooks might, even after you "bought" them.

I use quotes around "bought" because it turns out, you didn't. You bought a conditional license. In fact, there was an Amazon recall involving just that issue. Licenses to some particular book were pulled because it turned out they didn't have a right to be selling it. The book disappeared from Kindle, and accounts were credited.

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@roger,

My opinion on this thread has very little to do with ebooks.

My points are that the books in question are dirt cheap, mass-produced and easily replaceable stacks of paper with words and pictures printed on them.

The original copies obviously are in a different category. One copy from the tens of millions mass printed copies is worth very little either economically or culturally.

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

One copy from the tens of millions mass printed copies is worth very little either economically or culturally.

I disagree...we have seen so much book banning and story changing though history that I have no faith in e-book versions of todays books being available tomorrow. every single printed copy in the hands of the people protect us from the whims of those who rule us, from their urge to try to take away from us words that they dont like.

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@hawkeye10,

One problem I had with ebooks is if something like the Yellowstone super volcano let go and we lose the very high technology needed to manufacturer e-readers we then had lost access to human knowledge base once there is not paper books arounds.

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@hawkeye10,

That's crazy Hawkeye. Are you suggesting that you would never throw away a book?

I buy between 10-15 books each year. I am in my mid-40's. Yet, I only have about 20 books in my current possession, and the books I don't read any more will be disposed of one way or another.

The only google site I can find suggests that 3 billion books are sold in the US each year.

I find it hard to believe that this represents is any kind of shortage. If you really believe that books can't be disposed of in spite of the fact that more books are printed each year than there are people, I hope you a plan to store all of this paper.

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

I suppose where we disagree is whether it is important to save physical books (i.e. the glued together sheets of paper).

But why not?
I like passing on what I've read to other people (for free) & am perfectly happy to pay for pre-owned books.
Apart from anything else, it's wasteful to throw away perfectly good books simply because you, personally, are through with them when other people might want to read them.
But then I'm an enthusiastic recycler. If I no longer want (just about) anything which is in good condition & I think someone else could use it, then it makes perfect sense to pass it on .. whatever "it" is.
And think of the trees! Remember, many people still buy books.

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

On further thought...

I realize that my argument is based on the fact that books are dirt cheap, and in the US they are. I suppose that if I were in a country where books were difficult to buy my opinion would be different.

Why are books more expensive in Australia?

Oh, copyright rules & protection of Australian authors, I think ...
A few years ago there was a push to change things, but no go ...

Quote:

Books are expensive in Australia. They have been for decades. According to the Productivity Commission, book are currently 27 per cent more expensive than in the US and 13 per cent more expensive than in Britain. The same books in the same language

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/australians-deserve-access-to-cheaper-books-20090716-dmvk.html

This is the online sales site of a bookshop I used to frequent a lot. When I was wealthier. Wink

Here's their current fiction page.
Check out the prices (for mainly paperback novels) compared to where you are!:

Readings Carlton/Fiction Highlights:
http://www.readings.com.au/collection/fiction-highlights

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@msolga,

Quote:

Check out the prices (for mainly paperback novels) compared to where you are!:

we really did not need another example of how Australia fails to function, but here we are......

you might watch those stones you throw at the US of A Missy!

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@hawkeye10,

Crikey!

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so I looked....this year my district is spending $9,300 per student for operations and another just over $21,000 PER STUDENT for building and improvements.....I am supposed to believe that with all of this money sloshing around my poor babies are not going to get properly educated because of a shortage of books??!!

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@hawkeye10,

The $30 grand is not spent on the kids hawk.

It's not only e-books that can be changed. Any edition apart from the first might be.

1 Reply

A dumpster full of books..... :(

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