Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I guess this is why people get e-readers...

I absolutely love the bookshelves Mathew bought me for my birthday but they are filling up faster than I could have imagined! Unfortunately we'll probably be moving in another year or so and making big purchases isn't practical at this point, but that doesn't stop me from lusting over modern decor. I'm thinking the best solution for now is to try to limit the number of books I hold onto after reading to save space but that's easier said than done. It's especially hard because there are no second hand bookstores where I live and shipping them to other people is fun but expensive so I can sometimes hold onto books just because I have nothing else to do with them although I'm trying to remedy that.

What do you do with your books once you're done reading them? About what percentage do you keep for good? 

15 comments:

  1. I keep all of mine. It's like stamp collecting! I love them, love being in my "library"...it relaxes me. No way could I part with any of them!

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  2. i use bookmooch.com and i also donate my books to the library or to schools/hospitals/seniors homes near me. seniors living on a fixed income really appreciate getting to read anything especially the newer stuff.

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  3. I try to keep mine as I want a big library some day but they all seem to go missing when you end up lending them to people and such. I am considering getting an e-reader just to make it easier to keep track of what I have read and such.

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  4. I keep mine, all of them, no matter how good or bad they are. books are just things you don't give away or sell... i rarely lend mine, to be honest. my room is so full of books that i have little place to store them (the shelves are more than just full by now)... but i love them all :D

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  5. My friends tell me I'm a book hoarder. I always buy & hold on to them lol. My father made a beautiful bookshelf for me to put in my home, but I'm afraid it's only 1 - and I'm thinking I may need to ask for another! lol

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  6. P.S. Jamie is lying - he sent me the entire Vampire Academy series! so yes, he does part with his books occasionally ;-)

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  7. I will rarely reread a book, so almost all the books I read get passed on or donated. I love the fact that I can someday hold 3,500 eBooks on my Kindle.

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  8. Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think donating is the best option for me but I wasn't sure where to do it here, I really like Faiza's idea of a senior's home, I just want to make sure they get passed on to people who will actually read them. I do reread occasionally but I'm trying to only hold on to books I really enjoyed, if a book was just okay then it'll probably just be collecting dust here.

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  9. Like Faiza, I use Bookmooch.com. My beloved and I read a lot - his job requires him to buy and read a lot of books - and we only have so much shelf space. I also want the books I've enjoyed to go on to people who will actually read them, so I'm a huge fan of Bookmooch. People don't mooch the books unless they want 'em, and then you get points to mooch other books for yourself.

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  10. I've been a little hesitant about bookmooch because of the cost of shipping books out and the fact that I really don't need any more books, but after so much positive feedback I think I'll have to give it a try. I mean, I can always find more books :)

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  11. Ah, shipping costs. I don't know what they're like in Canada. I do confess that I am usually not willing to send a book outside the USA (including Canada, sorry!) because the rates are so much higher. But within the USA, our media mail rates are such that an average-sized paperback is around $2.50 to mail domestically. I can handle that, especially considering I end up getting a (new-to-me) book mailed to me in exchange for the points that my shipped-off books earn.

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  12. Yeah even shipping books to the States like I sometimes do for my giveaways is about six dollars which adds up, however if I stick to Canada I imagine it would also be pretty reasonable.

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  13. If it's a book I want to read again or have accessible to lend to friends and family, I keep it. If not (and sometimes I have to wait a bit before I can decide!) I give them away (a few), try to sell them (a few), or donate them to a thrift shop or charitable organization (most). Once they're gone I usually don't miss them...it's the actual getting rid of them that's a problem for me.

    I also borrow a lot of books from the library, then buy a copy only if it's a book I'd like to own. That frees up shelf space too.

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  14. I keep 99.9% of my books, which is why I persuaded my hubby to buy me a kindle for my last birthday. We're totally out of storage space!The odd one I do get rid of will go to a local charity shop.

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  15. I use Goodreads bookswap and also the freecycle in my area and recently have started donating gently-used current books to Pine Ridge Reservation, where their library is in sharp need. It's a lot less to pack up a flat-rate box and ship every month or two there.

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