# BOOKS, what do you do with them?



## Caroline (Feb 11, 2009)

This is inspired by Norhtener who keeps all books that have been read.

What does everyone do with their books once they have been read? I like books, but have a small house so tend to pass them on once they have been read to family, friends or the charity shop. I only keep a few books that I intend to revisit (The Lord of the Rings being my favorite all time read).

Working where I do I have millions of titles to read at work and not enough time to read them in. For books to take with me there is also a good book shop and I get discount, but even so have to be selectie in what I buy. I like books as much as I like chocolate, but at least a book wont make my sugar levels rise, and if it is a heavy one may even make them go down!


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## aymes (Feb 11, 2009)

I keep all my books, I friend told me about ebaying some of hers the other day and I was horrified. I love to have full bookshelves everywhere.

It's my ambition when I own my own house (hopefully one day!) that I will have and entire wall bookshelf to display them all.


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## Caroline (Feb 11, 2009)

I'm greedy and have ideas above my station. When I win the lottery and can afford a big enough house I want a WHOLE ROOM of nicely catalogued books. I am a book geek, or I have worked in a library too long!


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## aymes (Feb 11, 2009)

ooh, a whole room would be even better! but I probably wouldn't go for the catalogueing, organised chaos is more my style!


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## Einstein (Feb 11, 2009)

I buy another bookcase or build some more shelves for them. Most of mine are reference of one form or another and I hate not having information I once had available at my fingertips.

If I can, and used to do with some legal series and journals I'd buy the annual publication on CD/DVD-ROM and then pass the paper copies on to juniors to build up their library.

Now, I don't need to double subscribe to save space.


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## JohnForster (Feb 11, 2009)

I hate parting with my books.  I have shelves and cupboards full.  I did give a book to a friend last week, she had a better use for it than I did.

A couple of years ago, a work colleague asked me if I would like her surplus Archaeology books.  Of course my reply was - yes please.  The were seven bin liners full.  I raised a load for a local charity with the surplus.

JOHN


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## Caroline (Feb 11, 2009)

The last book I finished reading was given to my sister in law to read then pass on. If I don't pass books on and I don't want to read them again, I find piles of books sticking out all over the place, so I have to be hard on myself with them. Since my books are in good condition when I pass them on places like the charity shop is able to make a little more out of them.

I do know people who have had a great deal of success selling stuff on EBay and Amazon, just depends on how much work you want to put into the getting rid of books.


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## Northerner (Feb 11, 2009)

I have a room filled with bookcases, and another room filled with boxes of books that I can't fit in the bookcases. I realise that it's an obsession. One of the worst things for me (financially and space-wise!) was the discovery of amazon about 12 years ago - not only every book I could possibly think of, but cheaper than in the shops too! Now there are other temptations, like Abebooks, who even have books you can't buy in shops because they went out of print years ago!

My problem is that I have very varied interests, and if I become interested in something I'll want to read all around the subject. For example, I'm interested in languages and started to learn Chinese, then I became interested in the current politics and culture of the country, then the history, then I became interested in China's relationships with other Far Eastern countries, so started reading about Japan and Korea..and so on and so on...!

I did once give some paperbacks to charity, but can't help regretting it. The only comfort is that maybe someone who couldn't afford the full price book would get the pleasure for the charity shop price, and of course the charity would benefit. But there's another problem - books are so cheap in charity shops that I can't bear to leave them on the shelves if there's something I'm vaguely interested in!

My latest unnecessary extravagance was buying 'The Discovery of Insulin'. As I read it, it seemed vaguely familiar...Yup! Sure enough, I'd bought it over 20 years ago and forgotten that I'd already got it...


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## mikep1979 (Feb 11, 2009)

well like most of you on here i like to keep all my books. i have a very extensive range of army books and also historical books. i love autobiography's to. i one day will have a reference library of military books that will be the envy of the world!!! ( well i can wish can't i??) lol


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## Lizzie (Feb 11, 2009)

Like the rest of you, I have many many books. My shelves are double-packed with them, there are more in the wardrobe and piled on the floor. I like crime books especially - Agatha Christie, Sara Paretsky, Ian Rankin.


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## nicky_too (Feb 11, 2009)

Northerner said:


> My problem is that I have very varied interests, and if I become interested in something I'll want to read all around the subject. For example, I'm interested in languages and started to learn Chinese, then I became interested in the current politics and culture of the country, then the history, then I became interested in China's relationships with other Far Eastern countries, so started reading about Japan and Korea..and so on and so on...!



I so know what you mean! It's worse with music in my case, but with books it happens too.

I have a few hundred books. Because I'm a real collector I constantly have to limit myself in what I buy, since I don't only collect books. 

When I moved in October I immediately went to the library. In the UK that's free! Wow... In the Netherlands you have to pay.

Thankfully I'm not bothered if I have to return a book. And the books I do buy and keep...I read them more than a few times. That's why I keep them.


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## Copepod (Feb 11, 2009)

*Bookcrossing or sell on Amazon*

We have lots of books - as my partner often points out, more acquired by me than him! However, I have sold a considerable number over the years on Amazon marketplace - particularly non fiction, textbooks, some books I've won as prizes, and some fiction that I don't intend to read again or know anyone else who would like them.  

Another option is "Bookcrossing" - leaving books for others to find and enjoy eg on buses, trains, hostel & cafe book swap bookcases etc. See www.bookcrossing.com 

But overall, the number of books in our house is not decreasing - and we may need to build a new bookcase soon.


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## Ikklemo (Feb 11, 2009)

Like most of you I have loads of paperbacks and did not know what I could do with them apart from the local charity shop, and then my sister-in-law introduced me to:

BookCrossing, (www.bookcrossing.com) where 747,448 people in over 130 countries come to share their passion for books with the world. Where books take on a life of their own.  BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure.
Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym - anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book's journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person.
Join hundreds of thousands of active BookCrossers daily in our many forums to discuss your favorite authors, characters and books in every genre throughout history right up through current releases.
 Join BookCrossing. Help make the whole world a library and share the joy of literacy. Reading becomes an adventure when you BookCross!

And, should any of you join BookCrossing I would appreciate it you say recommended by Ikklemo.


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## Caroline Wilson (Feb 11, 2009)

This is a wonderfull way of making contact with others. One of my husbands finds on the tube was The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Since I have a copy on my I will read again shelf we deposited it in the local charity shop. A few days later there was a very happy man who had bought it for about 75p because the shop wasn't  sureof the books true worth and the man hadn't been able to afford the full price but had wanted to read it for a long time.


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## Northerner (Feb 11, 2009)

*Bookcrossing*

It sounds like a great idea but, and I know this is very selfish of me, I really couldn't bear to leave a book I had read and loved just lying around. I have big problems lending books out to friends too, as often they simply do not care for them as I would hope - heaven forfend that they should lose or damage a book of mine!


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## Ikklemo (Feb 11, 2009)

Be brave Northerner! If you register and "release some of your paperbacks into the wild" you can also register to be notified when books are released into your area.

Ikklemo


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## Caroline (Feb 12, 2009)

As part of my job is caring for The National Collection I am always very critical of the way others care for their books. Even the little one is in trouble for damaging books...


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## Copepod (Feb 12, 2009)

*even before bookcrossing (or internet)*

Even before Bookcrossing was "invented", I used to carry a couple of paperbacks when travelling (Europe and Middle East, hitching, trains, buses, hostels etc 1984 onwards) I wrote my name and address (no emails then!) inside the cover with a note to send me a postcard and say what you thought of the book, where you found it and where it got to. Then I swapped with travellers or left on swap shelves of hostels - I didn't want to carry extra weight when backpacking, and books in English were hard to come by, and very expensive if you could. 
And, yes, I got several postcards over the years. See post #12 for first mention of Bookcrossing in this thread! But I'm not sure if I registered on the Bookcrossing website, and just continue to "release" books as an individual when travelling - most recently, left and collected books in Sardinia and Estonia.


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## Northerner (Feb 12, 2009)

Caroline said:


> As part of my job is caring for The National Collection I am always very critical of the way others care for their books. Even the little one is in trouble for damaging books...



There's nothing more likely to infuriate me than people who deface library books by highlighting lines, underlining, writing in margins, bending over page corners...GRRRRRR!!!!


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## Einstein (Feb 12, 2009)

Agreed Northerner, there is no need for it, though the practice had died out now we have post it pads!


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## Corrine (Feb 12, 2009)

Northerner you sound very much like a friend of mine.  He has lots of books and is always recommending books to me - but he would rather buy it for me than lend me his. We both really enjoy books and do own lots of the same between us.  I cant bear to give mine away but I am quite happy to lend them - as long as I get them back of course!


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## Northerner (Feb 12, 2009)

Corrine said:


> Northerner you sound very much like a friend of mine.  He has lots of books and is always recommending books to me - but he would rather buy it for me than lend me his. We both really enjoy books and do own lots of the same between us.  I cant bear to give mine away but I am quite happy to lend them - as long as I get them back of course!



I often buy books I think they'll like as presents for friends, but sometimes they look so interesting I have to buy myself a copy too!


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## Caroline Wilson (Feb 13, 2009)

Northerner said:


> I often buy books I think they'll like as presents for friends, but sometimes they look so interesting I have to buy myself a copy too!



Me too. I do part with books and lend them, but if I have a book someone else will like and I can't bare (bear?) to part with it, I'll buy my friend a copy too. Books make brilliant presents, they are the gift that can be opened again and again.


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## WHT (Nov 14, 2018)

I love the smell of new books....the unbroken spine and the crisp pages. I no longer lend books as too many never were returned to me. The last being a small pocket oxford dictionary (can no longer get). Any books I have sit on my bookshelf. Can't bring myself to give them away as no one will look after them like I have taken care of them. Admittedly, some bleached by the sun when they sat on a window sill. However, now in a bookcase. I own a kindle but love the breeze of the pages when you fan it's pages. I have one book that has an embossed front cover and is still like brand new. Cherish books, cherish knowledge. Keep on learning and keep the grey cells alive.
p.s Support your local library.


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## C&E Guy (Nov 15, 2018)

This is a thread after my own heart.

I read loads of books (sometimes 3 at a time. Upstairs on Kindle, downstairs on a real book. But different types so I don't get characters or plots confused). Last year I read 84 books and I'm on my 55th this year so far.

I have tended to keep them up in the loft intending to read them again one day - but that'll never happen. I keep the "fresh" new ones beside the hatch for easy selecting.

Mrs C&E Guy is always moaning to get the loft cleared out so I have really been making an effort to tidy them. I give all my read ones to the local Oxfam Shop where one of my daughters volunteers. But, I do draw the line with signed books. I have to keep them.


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## Ljc (Nov 15, 2018)

I lost a lot of books moving house a couple of times , once was all my own fault.  Until I bought my Kindle I was gradually filling up my bookcase again  . I’ve not counted them but I have around 100 , all are paperbacks.
I just can’t bear to part with them even for a short while.  I love re reading them, some must be 20 years old and going a nice  ,not , shade of yellow and I still love them.

I have 343 on my kindle


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## Northerner (Nov 15, 2018)

Well, nearly 10 years on from this thread starting, I can confirm that I haven't changed!  The removal firm needed 3 vans to move me from Southampton - not because I had a lot of large, bulky items, but because I have a personal 'library' of around 10,000 books  I really, REALLY ought to 'rationalise' my collection!


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## C&E Guy (Nov 15, 2018)

Of course, the trouble with a Kindle is that it is far too easy to download books.

I've got over 200 on mine, and some of them are anthologies. Enough probably to last more than a lifetime.

But, at least, Mrs C&E Guy doesn't see them cluttering up the loft!


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## Janey5 (Nov 16, 2018)

I recently bought some more shelving for my books.

 I give some of my read books to the charity shops, but a couple of shops in our town no longer accept books.

I love my books, like the feel of them, but I also enjoy my kindle.


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