Books and you

[Slargos]

I used to think that way, Marty, but then I realized: "Shit, this isn't the 15th century and books are not a precious commodity. Infact, once I've read them and if they're unlikely to be read by me again they're worthless trash and it's doubtful if I can even gather the energy to try to pawn them off on someone else."

Get with the millennium. 

The only books that are in my bookcase are ones of particular sentimental value or unread.

[Brazen]

My folks never saw teh point in keeping books other than for reference, so we only had a multi-volume encyclopedia, dictionary and thesaurus at home until I started my own collection. Reading books were borrowed from the library.

1. Why pay when you can read them for free?
2. Why would you want to keep them once you've read them once and are very unlikely to read them again?

[Josquius]

I keep all books. I too value them and find the idea of throwing them horrid. And I too rarely reread.
I guess when I have a spawn it'll enjoy snooping through them? - if they're anything like me when I was young at least, with the internet existing that is doubtful.

[The Brain]

I don't get rid of books.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I purge whenever I do a big move. for example when I moved to Japan. I put a dozen or so books that had sentimental value (mostly given to me by friends, or rare hard to find things) in storage and gave away/ sold a few hundred. Same thing when i left Winnipeg for Van.

When I left Japan I gave away 300+ books, mostly of the quick read variety. Now I've gotten a bigger collection again. Weird thing I almost never use library books anymore. I used to buy tons of books and take out libray books on top of that. I've found I have less time for both these days. I blame the internets.

[Neil]

I purge whenever I do a big move. for example when I moved to Japan. I put a dozen or so books that had sentimental value (mostly given to me by friends, or rare hard to find things) in storage and gave away/ sold a few hundred. Same thing when i left Winnipeg for Van.

When I left Japan I gave away 300+ books, mostly of the quick read variety. Now I've gotten a bigger collection again. Weird thing I almost never use library books anymore. I used to buy tons of books and take out libray books on top of that. I've found I have less time for both these days. I blame the internets.

I agree.  The internet has changed the way I read, without a doubt.

[Habbaku]

I don't think I've ever thrown away a book, though I've sold the occasional one that I knew I wouldn't ever want to read again.

Most of the books I purchased are still sitting on shelves one place or another.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I also do lend out books (unless it's precious to me) but I never expect to get them back.

[Agelastus]

I am also in the "horrified at the thought of throwing books away". The main reason I disliked my Grandfather's girlfriend (former "bit on the side") was because she saw nothing wrong with throwing books away. The very thought still makes me shudder.

As for loaning them out? Only to my Uncle, because it is impolite to say no to a family member.

Although I wish I could say no; despite his repeated comments on how well I keep my books HE STILL BENDS THE SPINES!!!

[Alatriste]

I also belong to this cult that forbids burning or throwing away books (we really need a secret handshake, by the way... ), the mere idea of a book in the garbage can is unnerving. Makes one understand what a taboo is.

I have given them, and sold them cheap - at least once several hundreds of them - and probably will do again in the future but I can't see myself destroying a book. Comics included.

[Agelastus]

I also belong to this cult that forbids burning or throwing away books (we really need a secret handshake, by the way... ), the mere idea of a book in the garbage can is unnerving.

Good grief, we have something in common!

I hope you are feeling better after your bout of flu.

[Alatriste]

I also belong to this cult that forbids burning or throwing away books (we really need a secret handshake, by the way... ), the mere idea of a book in the garbage can is unnerving.

Good grief, we have something in common!

I hope you are feeling better after your bout of flu.

Much better, thank you. And I used the time to read some books... fever is a feather, boredom is a mountain!

[CountDeMoney]

I keep all books. I too value them and find the idea of throwing them horrid.

Yup, all books are kept.  I will, however, reread an ocassional one every few years or so if the mood strikes me.

[The Minsky Moment]

The situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated. This holds not only for the art work but also, for instance, for a landscape which passes in review before the spectator in a movie. In the case of the art object, a most sensitive nucleus – namely, its authenticity – is interfered with whereas no natural object is vulnerable on that score. The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced. Since the historical testimony rests on the authenticity, the former, too, is jeopardized by reproduction when substantive duration ceases to matter. And what is really jeopardized when the historical testimony is affected is the authority of the object.

One might subsume the eliminated element in the term "aura" and go on to say: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art. This is a symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition  . . .

An analysis of art in the age of mechanical reproduction must do justice to these relationships, for they lead us to an all-important insight: for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the "authentic" print makes no sense. But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics.

[Martinus]

I have no problem with loaning my books to friends but I do not like the idea of selling books or giving them away. For me books are like clothes - personal items. Almost intimate.