20 bags of books

[Michread]

UGH!  I have 20 bags to get rid of!  That's what happens when you don't watch much TV and enjoyed reading in the age before e-books.  Um - yes, I also have been a regular patron of the library system my whole life.  I did heavily purge books about 4 yrs ago too. 

How about you?  Have you done any major purging/de-cluttering lately?

[Nancy]

Yes, I donated two more sacks to little free libraries, friends, and the public library. I'm getting close to being free of books (trying not to be attached to/own many possessions). Currently sitting at about 40 books, not including comics. It's been a long journey.

[SwordGuy]

My wife and I could ditch 20 bags of books and no one but us would ever guess we had done it.

You can have our books when you pry them from our dead, cold fingers... :)

[Emilyngh]

I got rid of maybe 5 bags a few months ago.    I'm really not a book keeper.   Other than maybe 20 or so favorites, if it were only me, I'd get rid of all of the rest.   DH isn't ready to part with all of his yet.

I don't get the need to keep books.   I now get almost everything I read from the interwebz or library.   It's such a beautiful system-read for free and return.   I do have reference books in my office, but even then I don't use most, and could get rid of all but maybe 20 or so.   But, then I'd have a whole wall of near empty bookcases, and as a professor, I can't really have that, now can I.

I have to say there's a real snootiness among my colleagues regarding the possession of books.   I personally just don't get it.   Why pride oneself in being inefficient?   Maybe in other fields there are old texts that one needs personal copies of b/c of how hard they are to get.   But in the sciences, journal articles are where it's at, and even then, I keep most copies electronically.

[Zikoris]

In my building, people leave unwanted books in the laundry room. They sort of end up circulating. We've gotten rid of a lot of stuff like this (and picked up a few good reads as well).

[ShortInSeattle]

We just hauled about 10 bags of books to half-price-books. Made about $100.00

We're downsizing from 1200 to 450 square feet so we are in "everything must go" mode. :)

[NV Teacher]

I've always tended to be a pack rat and hang onto things, but I've been trying to clear things out for a while now.  I've been selling things on Ebay, donating some stuff to a humanitarian group, and putting things on the give away table at school.  It's a slow process but feels so good.

[SwordGuy]

I don't get the need to keep books.   I now get almost everything I read from the interwebz or library.   It's such a beautiful system-read for free and return.   I do have reference books in my office, but even then I don't use most, and could get rid of all but maybe 20 or so.   But, then I'd have a whole wall of near empty bookcases, and as a professor, I can't really have that, now can I.

...
Maybe in other fields there are old texts that one needs personal copies of b/c of how hard they are to get.   

Exactly!

For the books we're interested in, no local library will have them.  Period.  We have to use interlibrary loan to get them (maybe) after waiting one to ten months for them.   And we refer back to them quite a bit, so that's simply not workable. 

Photocopies simply don't measure up to high quality photographs in the printed books, plus, if the book is still under copyright, that would be stealing from the author(s).

[FireYourJob]

Is there not a viable alternative to half price books that would benefit both the buyer and the seller?  You basically get pulp prices at HPB as the seller and the buyer seems like they could get a better deal in an online auction system.

Certainly something like this exists.

[TheKbob]

I have moved so many times and know of the three to five boxes of "books" I carry with me and I really don't want to do it again.  However, some are sentimental (all of Harry Potter in hardback shared between my family), some are textbooks, and some are game books, but I dread packing them up again for another move.  I think I'll have to cut back if I do it again.  I've already purged a ton of DVDs (and may get rid of all that's left save the Blurays... streaming isn't quite "there" yet for me.  Don't worry, I'm a <$5 movie buyer usually).

Part of me does hate a chunk of the stuff that's "followed" me.

[totoro]

After 20 years of carting stuff around I say get rid of the books unless you will reread them or they are your prized possessions.  I sell books at the used bookstore and buy more and repeat. Also use the library.  I have less than ten I keep.  I use online sources for how to and info now.  I plan on cleaning out the garage tomorrow And being ruthless!  Well I am not actually ruthless - I have just realized I really don't miss the stuff when it is gone.

[deborah]

No way will I ever get rid of my reference library of sewing/craft books - they were mainly bought second hand, and would be extremely difficult to get otherwise. However, I have been gradually getting rid of a lot of other books - books that I won't re-read, aren't reference material (this does include some sewing/craft books), and/or are easily available from the library. Not sure whether I am up to 20 bags though.

[TheKbob]

After 20 years of carting stuff around I say get rid of the books unless you will reread them or they are your prized possessions.  I sell books at the used bookstore and buy more and repeat. Also use the library.  I have less than ten I keep.  I use online sources for how to and info now.  I plan on cleaning out the garage tomorrow And being ruthless!  Well I am not actually ruthless - I have just realized I really don't miss the stuff when it is gone.

This is probably true.  I have switched to just buying eBooks primarily.  My Kindle never gains weight and the cost to use it is very low.

[former player]

Where I am, second hand dead-tree books are often cheaper than e-books, and we are fighting to keep the mobile library coming to my village.

I'm with SwordGuy, except that I am currently going through the rather un-mustachian process of having my unused garage converted into a study, with fitted bookshelves everywhere the windows, door, piano and large desk aren't.  (It is my current ambition in life to have all my books out of boxes and on the walls, in beautiful order and accessible whenever I want.)

[Lutra]

Last time I was going to take books to the library, they didn't want them.  Scary to think that even libraries are bursting at the seams with books.  There is no book buyback place around here anymore, the one that was is gone.

[Doomspark]

Last time we moved, I donated 12 boxes of books to the local library.  We still had over 40 boxes of books to move.  That's what happens when two bibliophiles combine households.  We had very little overlap in our individual libraries. But I digress.

A few months ago, I did the math to see if it was reasonable to get a Kindle and replace some of our books with the Kindle editions. The answer was a resounding "no".   It would cost upwards of $1,000.00 to replace those books that ARE available, and would make a VERY small dent in the collection anyway - most of our books aren't available electronically.

We keep a box under my desk, and when we find a book that we're not interested in keeping, it goes in the box.  When the box is full, it gets donated to the library or gifted to one of the ubiquitous fundraisers my agency holds.  We do the same with DVDs, although it's rare for us to buy a DVD that we don't watch multiple times.

[totoro]

I agree that for some people a book collection is wonderful, and a study with book-lined shelves ideal - I used to be one of these people. 

It just isn't for me any more and I read a book every day or two.  I'm not someone who re-reads books unless they are recipe books or ones with very interesting ideas and lots of content I might go back to.   I've moved too many times to be enraptured with a personal library.

I find that even with recipes I use online sources now.  Ditto for landscaping and gardening.  And as far as e-books go, our library has a lot you can check out for free.

[Michread]

I find that even with recipes I use online sources now.  Ditto for landscaping and gardening.  And as far as e-books go, our library has a lot you can check out for free.

Yup, that's part of the collection that I'm getting rid of - cookbooks, gardening/landscaping which were good resources before the internet age.  Now I used the internet a lot for those things. 

Unfortunately there are still some books that I want to read are not available through the library system.  BOO HOO! 

[MrsPete]

Since I started using e-books, I find that I read more . . . AND the problem of overflowing bookshelves is improved.  Not solved, just improved.

I rarely keep fiction books.  They're easily found again.  Reference books, though, I keep.

We have a spot at our school where teachers can leave/take books of all types.  It's not monitored in any way -- people drop things off, take what they want, and lots of us seem to enjoy it.