No, I'm GOING to read them all, honest!

I just moved 3 blocks to a new apartment, with my 3,000 books. I did sell 30 or 40 of them to facilitate the move.

A lot of this depends also on your library situation. The only way I can read books in English on some of my favourite subjects is by owning them.

I am trying to slowly get rid of books that we will never read again - to have space for new books. But I can't imagine not having lots of books around. Only a thousand or two? I just can't imagine it.

Yes. Libraries cannot be relied upon to carry the books I wish to read and otherwise have around me. That is a primary motivation for me to collect.

James

>4 Keeline: That is one of my criteria for getting rid of a book - there are classics that I can trust will be in the library, should I ever want to reread. There are also obscure books that I'm pretty sure will _not_ be in the library, and those I hang on to...

The first guy makes sense. The second person - ow! She'd donated "hundreds" to bookstores - OK, that's good. But throwing out the rest? I have to be careful when I'm doing cleanup at my library booksale. The leftovers do go to recycling...and I have to forcibly restrain myself from rescuing too many.

Well like MJ said, we can't all depend on our libraries for that purpose. The English section of mine is quite good for it being not the language of the library, but one of the major issues it does result in is that because English is already a secondary language, they don't do works translated into English. So yeah, I can pick up classics written by Americans/Brits, but no Dumas or Tolstoy or Verne or Kafka, etc.

>5 jjmcgaffey: "I have to be careful when I'm doing cleanup at my library booksale. The leftovers do go to recycling...and I have to forcibly restrain myself from rescuing too many."

Exactly. I get this feeling that the poor books are beings in great danger and I just have to rescue them...

Dare I admit that a fair number of the books I'm discarding are going into the recycling? Quite honestly, by the time I'm ready to admit that I don't need it any more, no one else does either.

Obviously, English language exceptions (mostly read once novels) go to the exchange 'library', and almost all German language discards go to the local branch of the library, who either keep them or put them out to be grabbed.

Dear >8 MarthaJeanne:

When My Dad Died some 11 years ago, I contacted the German Department of Melbourne U.
Dad, even though a Latvian, really liked German Literature, I think he had more than 30 novels by
Ernst Junger out of 130 books of German Literature. Well Melbourne Uni (German Dept.) sent a PhD student to check out his books. They took the lot. Wheras the Mathematics Department would NOT accept any of his Classic Mathematical Books. His field.

Go figure?

Guido.

Getting rid of anything from my collection/hoard is impossible for me at the moment. I realize this is stupid and completely mental, but I'm just a person who is comforted by owning things. Books that do not fit on my shelves, are in boxed (labeled, catalogued) in the attic. I might be able to get rid of them one day. I do not visit the library. On the hand they don't have what I like (I like SF, new novels in original English and old any way I can get them, neither of which the library offers), on the other hand, I have a MTBR of about 1450 books, so why pay for more?

A selection of my hoard, about 400 books come from an internal booksale at the library I was working at at the time. A man donated his entire SFF/Horror collection, but most of it were duplicated or weirdly rebound. I got them for about €50, and I love them.

Throwing away books feels like such a waste. I bring them to the local charity shop. (Them being books not selected when someone just gives me a box of old books to rummage through). Now I know that the charity shop bins them when they don't sell (after a year or so I think, they mark the month the book was first put on the shelves) but I choose to ignore that fact.

Getting rid of anything from my collection/hoard is impossible for me at the moment. I realize this is stupid and completely mental, but I'm just a person who is comforted by owning things.

I'm pretty much with you. It's not so much "owning things" as I buy things that I care about, for one reason or another (a memento of a trip, imagery of favorite things, BOOKS!, nostalgic stuff, whathaveyou), so I do not like to get rid of it. In my own view of things, I love books, so why would I want any of them to leave?!

We'll be moving in within half a year. I've known for about a year by then, and I'm slowly getting accustomed to discard some of my books.
The problem is most of them are books I was given or bought myself as a child. Most of the ones I've bought since I then are Pratchett's, and there's no way I'm getting rid of any of those.
So it's hard.

I was given a tip; if you put your books on the shelves with their spines level with the front of the shelve, there's room behind them. You can put books there that are important enough to keep, but not good enough to look at...

>12 JerryMmm: I keep those I've read in rows behind, with the as-yet-unread ones in front. ;)

I found that once you take the initial plunge of getting rid of books - those you hated, those you started once and know you'll never finish - it gets easier. I don't use our library much - it's inconvenient to get to, and the selection isn't good (I go frequently to get books for my son, but almost never get anything for myself), plus it locks me into reading a particular book Right Now. So I've started viewing the library booksale and cheap online sources like Better World Books as "rentals" - for a few bucks I get to keep the book as long as I like - including adding it to my permanent collection if I want to - and then I can pass it on. Books deserve to be read, and I've decided that it's not an insult to a book to pass it along to someone else if I know I'm not going to read it again. (I just wish there was a "no-kill" used bookstore - don't sell it to someone who will butcher it for an art project!)

The primary reason for getting rid of books is, of course, to make room for More Books. I already double-shelve mass-market paperbacks, and we just don't have room in the house for more bookcases. I'd rather have books I like than books that I liked in high school but now cringe to think about.

Yeah, I'm quite low on space myself. I'm sure there are some genre fic MMPs I could get rid of... but...

I have books for so many different reasons. There are books I had as a child, or were my daughter's books, and those are just gently packed away (no grandchildren, sadly). There are books that are rare (I have some of those cataloged here, but not all). Then there are books that I know I'll read again...and there's all those technical books (although I have far less of those since I've retired).

I came here (to LT) specifically to catalog those books I couldn't part with, and yet knew I'd probably never read again (or in some cases, ever).

My biggest problem is estate auctions (yes, at least I know it's a problem).

https://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=83076

Several of these are children's books (some very rare, some not), but there's a wide collection. Now how do I not want to own this?

Large format Dante's "Inferno," and "Purgatory & Paradise," published by Cassell and Cassell, Peter & Gallpin. Numerous quality b & w illustrations by Gustave Dore.

(I expect to be outbid, but you never know)

There's also a very large collection of paperbacks (being sold a shelf at a time), mostly fantasy, and some science fiction (many titles are recent).

Books are wonderful. They're windows into other worlds, or into the past, and I love them all. I have bookcases in most of the rooms in my house.

I double-stack myself too, I've made a second, smaller bookshelf 'behind' or above the larger one, so I can still see about 5cm of the book stacked behind. My books are stacked alphabetically by author (then by series order, then by non-series title alphabetical order).

When I started buying second-hand books I became cheap. Nearly all 'new' books are from charity shops and library sales, or gifts. I only buy new-new when they are on sale or in the UK (where books are about 66% cheaper than here in The Netherlands). Even when someone gives me a full-price book as a gift I feel bad because they are too expensive.

>14 lorax: You know how some bookstores sell books by the foot, for decoration? That breaks my heart too. Butchering is worse (worse if it is for art than for scanning). I sometimes joke I run my own no-kill shelter for books, as most of the people who know me donate to me first when they are cleaning up their bookshelves...

>17 divinenanny: I bet you're peeved about De Slegte, then, eh? I literally almost squealed with joy when my husband told me the ...son? whatever family member it is, had re-bought the Belgian locations from sucky Polare and was putting them back to rights. SO EXCITED!! They're one of my main sources of books. Because I'm the same, I just don't have the funds to go buying brand new books all the time. So I get used/remaindered books for cheap, or else I'd barely be able to buy any!

I'm shocked that books are so much cheaper in UK than NL, though?! How is that?? Everything is more expensive in the UK! lol.

>18 .Monkey.: On the one hand yeah, because book store, on the other hand not really, because they are way too expensive. The remaindered books can be nice, but if you like searching for books charity shops are much better. And I go on an annual trip to England, officially on vacation, but I sure bring a lot of books back.

No "vaste boeken prijs". So, new books are cheap (bestseller paperbacks on sale for 2 for GBP7). Which means people are less attached to them and bring them to charity shops. I have bought books on the bestseller list for about GBP2, older ones for about GBP1. Heaven I tell ya! We find the UK not that expensive by the way. Groceries are a lot cheaper, and campsites (we're caravanners) about the same as here. Public transport (trains) can be expensive, so can museums and other historic sights, but then again, the NS and Rijksmuseum are not cheap either.

Oh yes, NS is kind of nuts. I loooove De Lijn, they have pretty much the best prices of any country we've been. And NMBS isn't bad, either. My husband had a friend/classmate when he was in Uni in Enschede who when it came summer and therefore the student reduction no longer applied to his subscription, he would fail to buy the ludicrously expensive one, and instead pay the €250/mo fine, as it was cheaper! Insane!

De Slegte, too expensive?! I've bought countless of their used books for €2-3.50! Plus the forever 2+1 gratis on MMPs makes it even cheaper! There is one 2ndhand bookshop that has a section of 5 for €5, but the interesting titles they've got are few & far between. I know of no other place that sells anything for cheaper than De Slegte. There's a couple other 2ndhand ones that have comparable prices, and I do like to support the smaller shop also, but it's certainly no cheaper.

Where are these super cheap books sold?? I know their list prices are certainly no cheaper than over here, with the rate of the £ against the € they're extra more money. I had contemplated buying one new book from amazon UK because it's from a favorite author and I REALLY wanted it NOW, as opposed to the 6? 9? mos later that it was being released in the US, for nearly half the price, but in the end I couldn't justify that huge waste, so I waited.

jjmcgaffey: The first guy makes sense. The second person - ow! She'd donated "hundreds" to bookstores - OK, that's good. But throwing out the rest?

Exactly my thoughts. I wonder why she didn't donate them to the library instead? Library didn't want them? Wouldn't come pick them up? If the library didn't want them, I wonder why she didn't take them to various secondhand shops instead. Unless they were in awful condition, throwing them away seems like such a waste.

I'm not saying she might not have had good reasons. I'm just wondering what those reasons might have been.

>20 .Monkey.: Whenever I look (or looked) online at the De Slegte website (NL) the minimum price was €5,00 for any second hand book, no matter what state it was in. Too much for me. Same for the stores in Den Haag and Leiden (and from memory Amsterdam and Utrecht too). I've never seen any 2+1 deals there, but if they were there, maybe it is a good thing I never found out ;).

And super cheap books in England: Supermarkets for the deals on new books, Blackwells (3 for 2 on bestsellers), Waterstones' some, although they've gotten less good with deals since new management, WH Smith has some good deals sometimes. And all charity shops (which are everywhere except London) with the wonderful Oxfam Books as the winner for best selection. I am talking about paperbacks, although hardbacks are usually about GBP10/12 in stores, marked down from a list price of 20. Even Amazon has good deals usually. I do have an aversion to shopping online, and I usually wait for any new releases until I find them somewhere cheap (the only books I ever got right when they came out, no matter the price were The Deathly Hallows and A Dance with Dragons).

When we stop on the motorway, I usually find two books at WHSmith that get me half off the cheaper one. And again at our next stop, and again...

>22 divinenanny: I've never looked on the site, only in stores. Heck, they only added price labels to the books like 2 yrs ago, before that it was all done by hand in pencil and manually entered on the register! I'm pretty sure they've never added things online! Must be a BE/NL difference, I guess. I'm positive I've gotten them there (in NL, that is) for under €5 though, as 5 is pretty much my upper limit for a 2ndhand regular ol' paperback novel. I prefer not to go over €4 on them, or it adds up! We don't regularly go over the border and drop into them, haha, but we've had occasion to go in here and there. Last time was probably around 3yrs ago, though. I could swear they did 2+1 over there, too, but that one might just be my memory being tricksy. My husband has a miserable memory and can't say, lol, all he comes up with is "they probably did?" when asked if he can remember them doing it, haha. But yeah, I've gotten some as low as €1.50 at the ones here, but since I prefer mine to be in as close to new shape as possible, I don't often wind up with the cheapest ones, and avg around €3-4 per, and usually go for 3 or 6. :P

Unfortunately, reading in English, over here, there's really nowhere to find newer titles on shelves unless I want to pay upwards of €13, generally. That's why when there's specific ones I want, I need online ordering. I most certainly prefer shopping in stores, though, for a variety of reasons! Well I guess when I ever wind up going to England I will have to take an extra bag along for bringing books back, lol. Do you go to the Deventer Boekenmarkt? Or the Boekenfestijn? Those are where I do a lot of my book buying, heh.

>23 MarthaJeanne: LOL, I'd probably be doing likewise in that situation! :P

>5 jjmcgaffey:, >7 geitebukkeskjegg:
" . . . I have to forcibly restrain myself from rescuing too many."

And isn't that exactly how the crazy cat lady got started.

Maastricht had a 2+1 last year when I was there, so did Den Haag stores.

I get my English language books from the UKP 0,01 + shipping paperbacks from Amazon MP. Cheap enough.

Yay, glad I was remembering correctly! Haha.

>25 Taphophile13: Oh, I passed 'crazy book lady' a long time ago. Though I do take care of them - no musty/moldy books here! But ~5000 books in a one-bedroom apartment... and probably half or more unread (because of the Sunday sale and the like - a boxful for $4 means anything that looks moderately interesting comes home).

I'm double-shelved everywhere - I have 12-inch wide shelves, so there's room for a double row of books, all but the largest hardbacks. They're sorted by genre and then by author, for fiction - non-fic is harder, though I do try to sort them into categories and group by author. I'd like to do Dewey, at some point, but it hasn't happened. And then there's the more recent acquisitions, after I ran out of shelf space - those are in boxes, again by genre/subject (more or less), but not well-sorted by author. I tried, but it's not complete. Which makes it a pain to _find_ a book when I want to read it (it is on LT, at least, so I know I have it...). I have, in the last month, bought a book that I found at a yard sale that I have, but have been unable to find and I wanted to read it. So now I have two copies of Envious Casca - which is actually a pretty good book and one I want to keep, but not two copies.

Right now I'm trying to remember where Good Omens is. It's in one of the SF boxes that aren't sorted yet - which is up to...4? 5? at this point. Maybe I just need to have a sorting day. But I've got too many things going on...bleah.

When I was living at my dad's, I only had 2 shelves on the long floor-to-ceiling shelves in the bedroom I shared with my younger sisters. They had a couple shelves each, and the top shelves had my parents old text books and gardening books, and the bottom shelf their records and record player, and old encyclopedias. My paperback books were all triple shelved, so I could get something like 500 books on 2 shelves. Managed to stash another couple hundred on homemade shelves made of 1x6 boards and cinder blocks, stacked on top of my dresser and my desk.

>21 TnTexas:
I've decided that I really want to move to a smaller place sometime in the next few years. So last fall, just after I finished cataloging my books on LibraryThing, I contacted a number of organizations trying to donate books. Most only want the most recent/popular/resellable . . . Most had no interest in the 200 books (out of 2000 owned) I had identified to give away. So I took paperbacks to the recycling center (we have curb recycling, but they won't take them, so I had to drive across town). The hardbacks, many old and at one time cherished, went into the garbage; our recycling center won't take those at all.

Most/Many libraries don't want donations . . . they're trying to get rid of things, also only want newer/popular books, and shifting to ebooks (at least here). I don't have the energy/inclination/money to pack books in boxes and mail them to another state to an organization that may or may not have use for them.

So, unless you have actually tried to give your books away RECENTLY, please don't judge anyone who gives up and decides to take drastic measures to downsize. Me, I'm 200 down, 1800 to go . . . though I'm sure I won't be able to part with all of them.

>24 .Monkey.: & >26 JerryMmm:
Whew, I'm glad I never found those 2+1 sales ;). I do feel they've/had gotten more expensive after they joined stores with Selexyz/Polare whatever. Way less fun to browse at after that. Especially when they killed the SF section in the Leiden store...

The 1 cent books at Amazon MP would be the death of me, I never look there. And you are right, PolymathicMonkey, new English novels are way too expensive here. I usually get them at the American Book Centre, with the 10% discount card and maybe a voucher from their review program (or the voucher they give out at Thanksgiving). They are still expensive, but I love that store and the people who work there, and they have some good discounts sometimes in the markdown sections of the store.

I've been to the Deventer Boekenmarkt once, when I was very little. I've always assumed the books there to be too expensive (above €3,00 for second hand, which is my max most of the time). I've never been to the Boekenfestijn either because I assumed 1) an overload of Dutch language books (I almost only read English) 2) prices over €3,00.

I do admit, some of my assumptions about (high) book prices in certain stores/at events is a form of self-protection. Even without visiting those locations I managed to acquire nearly 400 books last year, and 160 this year already. Maybe I don't need to enable myself more ;)

>31 divinenanny: Yup, I did NOT like the merger/switch, bad bad bad. That's why I am so excited the guy bought the Belgian ones back from them!! :D Fortunately there's little new that I really care much about, only a select few fav authors, but even them I normally don't mind waiting a few years to read, I mean I've got hundreds sitting here waiting, I probably wouldn't wind up picking those up right away anyway, even if I got them when released! So, instead I just get what I happen to find 2ndhand, it generally works out pretty well.

Duuuude, GO TO THE BOEKENMARKT!! There's more Dutch, of course, but there's a good deal of English (I normally come back with 30-50 books, and that's restraining myself!), and lots of places just trying to move inventory, especially once it starts getting to the afternoon and they just want it gone, there's plenty that do €1/book. Including the bookstores there, lots also have €1/book, even explicitly on English sections sometimes! The Boekenfestijn also, naturally, has a large percentage Dutch, but also has a huge amount of English (there is so. many. books. it's insane, it's literally like walking through a book warehouse!), including most Wordsworth Editions classic titles for €1.50-3.95 (2.50 is avg), along with a seemingly quite random selection of fic from €1.50-5, avg €2.95. There's also books on any hobby, cooking, reference, pretty much anything, for remaindered prices as well. But those you have to skim titles for English. The fic is sorted out by itself.

My feeling is, if I don't go to those places, then I will miss out on the good deals, and may wind up paying those same amounts I spend there, for a fraction of the amount of books! This way, I spend money and use up all potential shelving space, hahaha, but I'm going to buy books anyway, so I may as well buy them "in bulk" for the best prices! ;D

25> "And isn't that exactly how the crazy cat lady got started."

Huh. My cat lady ain't crazy!

>31 divinenanny: I remember because I bought 2+1 @ Dominicanen last year. Not terribly cheap, but still.

Re: Deventer, I just find out my wife has kept from me that it is this coming Sunday... Probably for the best, financially speaking :/

>34 JerryMmm: First Sunday of August, every year!

>32 .Monkey.: You are trying to bankrupt me aren't you? I know now I need to go to the Boekenfestijn. My husband will love this ;)

ETA, especially the Wordsworth Editions classic titles will sway me :D

I had to give up all of my books about six months ago. All I have left are my eBooks, and I don't have the heart to start a new collection. It's like loosing a close friend. You know how you're always reaching for the phone to call her and then remember she's gone? It's the same with the books.

I was seriously ill at the time and my daughter took charge of sorting out my property. I think they took most of them to the library, but afterward I remember her saying that every time they opened a box or closet they found more books. I think they finally started throwing them away. She didn't really say, and I didn't ask. I don't think I want to know.

Anyway, I have a great eReader (I know, not quite the same) and I'm creeping up on 200 unread. At least I know I'll never have to part with them no matter what happens.

>36 divinenanny: I've bought nearly all of them, at this point, that I've got practically any interest at all in, after 3 years of going, LOL. I've got somewhere around 40 of the things, which includes most of their "mystery and the supernatural" line (Stoker, Le Fanu, etc, the original Gothic & horror tales), and many of the "classic" line, plus a few of the children's ones. :P And I'd have more except some I already had other editions of, of course, hahaha. I'd buy them anyway, I may as well buy them brand new, for no more than a third (if even that) of their regular price! :D If you haven't found it yet. ;)

>37 JackieCarroll: Oh man, I can't imagine! *sends book-loving hugs*

>34 JerryMmm: Really? Hmm, interesting... It's 1.5 hour by train for me, though...

>30 LucindaLibri: You are so right. I've had a heck of a time downsizing my late husband's 3000+ books. Used bookstores are stocked to the gills. Few will buy; the best I've been offered is trade, which is exactly what I don't need. The university library that took his papers didn't want his books, except for ones that had significant marginalia or ones they did not already have in their collection. (I admit I get a kick when I go on WorldCat, and there's only one copy cataloged, it's at that library, and I know I gave it to them.)

Local libraries have shown little interest except to put them in the Friends of the Library sales. I've sold a few dozen online, but sometimes for only a penny (plus shipping).

I've heard the same from others. Margot Adler, who just passed away, told me in 2010 that she still hadn't gotten any firm offers for her grandfather's library. After all, he was just some nobody named Alfred Adler.

I moved the books cross-country and it cost me a small fortune. Now all I want to do is get rid of them and not take a total loss. I'll be gone myself soon enough, so I just want to do whatever I can with them before they wind up abandoned in the storage locker.

What it has taught me is, our treasures are our treasures. Once they leave our hands, or once we're gone, they're just stuff.

>40 PhaedraB: My late father had another name for "stuff" but I'm sure we all know what that is. The corollary to that is trying to buy and sell 'stuff' called antiques. My wife has resorted to sending it to auction just to get a "check."

In the late 70's and early 80's there were some auction houses that specialized in books. Those are all long gone. There used to be an auction house in the Eastern Pennsylvania area that had two good book auctions a year but they have even stopped that.

I just keep collecting the "goodies" and try to move some along with little to no success. I guess it is better than the casino. Enough. Back to indexing! Got to stop buying duplicates. LT works great for that IF it is up to date(2 years behind anyway).

>41 ulmannc: There are still auctions for books, and if they're rare, or unusual, they go for serious money. I'd mentioned one earlier in this thread that's going on right now (>16 Lyndatrue:). I even know people who specialize in various types of old books, although the market for most books isn't what it used to be, sadly.

I know that when I visit the sales put on by the Friends of the Library from donated books, that most books there are destined to be remaindered, loaded onto pallets, and sent off to destinations that most of us hate to see. Then again, not everything is worth saving.

When I decided to reduce my library, I was genuinely shocked at the prices I sold some of them back to Amazon at (mostly technical books). I sold at least two for more money than I'd paid for them. I'd already reduced the technical portion of my library by about 75% when I retired in 2006 (I donated them to the central branch of the Los Angeles Library).

I try very hard to be discriminating when purchasing new books, even the antique ones. It's clear that I'll be outbid on the Gustave Dore, but I expected to be.

One thing I try nowadays is to check on paperbackswap.com if anyone has requested a book. You only get credits there, but you can at least transfer them to the sister sites and redeem for DVDs or CDs. I don't usually bother to list if an item isn't on anyone's wish list, though.