By Susan G. Haws
I recently said good bye to some old friends and advisors. I have so many books I want to read that some of the ones I have read had to leave.
In my Ideal world I would have a library like the one in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. But alas in this world I have run out of bookshelves. (I have not stopped buying books.)
But maybe with e books we can have a tidy house and a library the size of a castle at the same time. Just keeping some dear friends in paper form.
I love the texture of the paper and the crick of opening a new book for the first time; the new smell of a new book and the musty smell of an old one. On the other hand paper books are heavy and bulky. After about 5 boxes you think kindles should be mandatory and out of print books should scan themselves in.
Another thought I had upon taking my boxes of books to the resale book store was that some of the books would be recycled (I couldn't bear to do it myself), and some would find new homes and enrich new lives just like the previously owned books I buy. As writers we want our books to have resale value rather than end up in the recycle bin.
What are some titles you just can't part with?
I recently said good bye to some old friends and advisors. I have so many books I want to read that some of the ones I have read had to leave.
In my Ideal world I would have a library like the one in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. But alas in this world I have run out of bookshelves. (I have not stopped buying books.)
But maybe with e books we can have a tidy house and a library the size of a castle at the same time. Just keeping some dear friends in paper form.
I love the texture of the paper and the crick of opening a new book for the first time; the new smell of a new book and the musty smell of an old one. On the other hand paper books are heavy and bulky. After about 5 boxes you think kindles should be mandatory and out of print books should scan themselves in.
Another thought I had upon taking my boxes of books to the resale book store was that some of the books would be recycled (I couldn't bear to do it myself), and some would find new homes and enrich new lives just like the previously owned books I buy. As writers we want our books to have resale value rather than end up in the recycle bin.
What are some titles you just can't part with?
My David Eddings & Terry Brooks' books add the Amelia Peabody series, Brother Cadfeal oh dear I'm out of room in my small library too. I like my Kindle but it's not the same. And I keep thinking if the worse comes, won't electricity be the first to go then all those books on Kindle would be inaccessible. Am I the only one who worries about that?
ReplyDeleteI am with you Terri. I haven't got a Kindle yet just put them on my PC. It isn't the same and what if my PC dies?
ReplyDeleteI have ebooks on my phone and read those now. I do still love the feel and smell of books. I cannot part with many sappy romances from my grandmother. When she passed away I picked a few I remember her reading.
ReplyDeleteI also have a few prints of Gone with the Wind. My favorite is Clan of the Cave Bear series and Child of My Heart, Sidney Sheldon, The Stars Shine Down.
I am a geek and keep MANY of my textbooks also. I love looking back at them.
Leesa, I am with you it is not only the stories and information in the books but the memories associated with them, like the ones I received as gifts or awards.
ReplyDeleteI made my husband's day a couple of weeks ago by filling 7 boxes with books I realized I would probably never read again. He happily took them down to our local used bookstore (I had stipulated over the phone that anything they didn't want could be given to the local library.)
ReplyDeleteI kept all the classics, of course, along with Barbara Kingsolver's works and several other favorites...even though I now have a Kindle with over 80 books waiting to be read and an iPad with even more. (One app has over 23,000 free books available for download!)
Yes, you can have a library in the palm of your hand. And it was somehow liberating to be able to give away an entire bookshelf. Difficult, but liberating.
Tanya,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about the 23,000 free books app wow.
I'm constantly culling my shelves to get rid of books because I am always needing more space. I can't give away seven boxes worth at a time, though. I just reach a point where I can part with this or that and I go with it. I still haven't made the Kindle plunge yet. I love books, but I also love cheap. It's an internal war.
ReplyDelete