I have been replacing my bookshelves this week and I realized that I have a lot of books that I will probably never read again. They are either cheap pulp paperbacks that I bought at some airport or something to have something to read on a plane (hello Dan Brown), but also stuff like dictionaries and encyclopedias that become more and more out-dated and really useless in this day and age of teh intranets.
Now, I've been raised in a culture/family where books have been always valued and treated unlike other utility objects. The thought of throwing a book away or burning it fills me with horror, and they are often in a shape that is too bad to give them away to some charity or school or whatever (I have a propensity to read books intensively, which means most paperbacks are seriously damaged by the time I'm done with them).
So I am considering locking them away in the attic or something, but I realize it is a sub-optimal solution.
So how do you deal with these issues?
I give/sell them to the local used book store.
Or I would just toss them if they are particularly crap books or worn out too bad to be used again. Right now my bookshelves are stuffed with history books.
I also have like a cartload of various D&D and Warhammer books. :nerd:
I tossed some shitty sci-fi in those packages sent to soldiers. They got nothing else to do than read Kevin J Anderson. I sold off my crappy history books in a yard sale. Otherwise they stay and take up room, and eventually get put in the storage unit.
I don't even let people borrow my books. THEY BEND THE SPINES.
I usually give them to charity shops along with unwanted clothes. Though in a bout of poverty, I sold quite a few to the book stall in the market and got a good price (they pay particularly well for sci-fi, apparently).
There is no excuse for keeping Dan Brown anywhere.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/21/oxfam_donations/
:P
If you have a mix of "good books you do not want" and "bad books no one wants", sell them in boxes together. sell by the bundle (estate auctioneers trick).
Quote from: saskganesh on October 08, 2009, 09:03:02 AM
If you have a mix of "good books you do not want" and "bad books no one wants", sell them in boxes together. sell by the bundle (estate auctioneers trick).
CBA.
Quote from: Martinus on October 08, 2009, 08:52:46 AM
The thought of throwing a book away or burning it fills me with horror, and they are often in a shape that is too bad to give them away to some charity or school or whatever (I have a propensity to read books intensively, which means most paperbacks are seriously damaged by the time I'm done with them).
So I am considering locking them away in the attic or something, but I realize it is a sub-optimal solution.
I give them away to a charity or lock them in the attic. If they're seriously damaged, though, go for the throwing away.
Donate them. The Red Cross will take them. Or I give them to libraries' for their book sales.
I keep them. The thought of giving anything away disgusts me, as does the thought of throwing anything out, or selling anything. Who knows, I might feel the need to reread some crappy fantasy novel that I read in grade school again. And I know I'll want to read some classical sci-fi at some point.
I give them to an organization that sends books to prisoners who request reading material. I don't know if any thing like that exists in Poland, though.
Quote from: Neil on October 08, 2009, 09:43:50 AM
Who knows, I might feel the need to reread some crappy fantasy novel that I read in grade school again.
Elric lost its magic as soon as I turned 18. :cry:
Give them to Monkeybutt.
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 08, 2009, 09:48:13 AM
Quote from: Neil on October 08, 2009, 09:43:50 AM
Who knows, I might feel the need to reread some crappy fantasy novel that I read in grade school again.
Elric lost its magic as soon as I turned 18. :cry:
Yeah. Nevertheless, I might someday feel like reading them again.
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. :bowler:
The only books that are in my bookcase are ones of particular sentimental value or unread.
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?
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.
I don't get rid of books.
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.
Quote from: BuddhaRhubarb on October 08, 2009, 02:12:38 PM
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.
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.
I also do lend out books (unless it's precious to me) but I never expect to get them back.
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!!! :mad:
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.
Quote from: Alatriste on October 08, 2009, 03:45:27 PM
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! :hug:
I hope you are feeling better after your bout of flu.
Quote from: Agelastus on October 08, 2009, 03:52:14 PM
Quote from: Alatriste on October 08, 2009, 03:45:27 PM
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! :hug:
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!
Quote from: Tyr on October 08, 2009, 11:08:26 AM
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.
QuoteThe 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.
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.
Quote from: Brazen on October 08, 2009, 10:46:29 AM
1. Why pay when you can read them for free?
Highlighting passages, notes to the side, etc.
Quote2. Why would you want to keep them once you've read them once and are very unlikely to read them again?
Reference material.
Quote from: Neil on October 08, 2009, 09:43:50 AM
I keep them. The thought of giving anything away disgusts me, as does the thought of throwing anything out, or selling anything. Who knows, I might feel the need to reread some crappy fantasy novel that I read in grade school again. And I know I'll want to read some classical sci-fi at some point.
:hug:
I could never give a book away. I always know I'll get nostalgic and want to reread something several times.
I don't even like to let people borrow books. They might mess them up worse than I would. Or never give them back. :( My sister hasn't given me back 3 books that I let her borrow months and months ago, even though she has already read them. :mad:
Quote from: Korea on October 08, 2009, 08:53:22 PM
My sister hasn't given me back 3 books that I let her borrow months and months ago, even though she has already read them. :mad:
Ask her to return them. If she doesn't, just visit her one day and leave with them.
A lesson for everyone. When you find your one true love and make the ultimate gesture of merging your book collections together, never, ever get rid of the doubles. That could lead to eventual loss of autographed Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books, including the copy of Restaurant at the End of the Universe signed by all the radio cast. For instance.
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 08, 2009, 09:48:13 AM
Elric lost its magic as soon as I turned 18. :cry:
But he returns as a comic, rather than tragic, figure later in your life.