As I've mentioned elsewhere, Velcro and I are moving into a new house soon. For the next 6 weeks we'll be frantically packing up our stuff, throwing out as much of our accumulated crap as possible (one recent victim was Velcro's collection of empty PC game boxes, so I really got a kick out of this week's poll!).

Anyway, what do you do with the books you've purchased and read? We've gleaned our library a few times in the past but it was mostly my stuff; Velcro is a packrat who wanted to keep every novel he's ever read (just about, at any rate) Last weekend we FINALLY went after it with a hard eye and ditched stuff we knew we'd never re-read: Anne McCaffrey was the most notable victim. We figured that if Pern was really calling for a re-read, we'd hit a library! :lol:

I suppose another benefit of this, aside from having less to move, is that well buy more new books through SP.

I have absolutely no packrat tendencies whatsoever . . . except when it comes to books. I have every book I ever bought (all 2,000 or so of them). The reason is that sometimes, for no reason I can fathom, I will get the urge to re-read a book, a series, even part of a book. I need to do it then, not after a trip to the library. The books don't even have to be good. Sometimes I find that I want to reread something because of an idea that's there, even if the book is crap. Sometimes, I even reread the Pern books.

I keep all of the books that I purchase. I am fairly selective about my purchases but I must admit that I do have some trash that I will likely never read again. As a result, my collection is fairly large (roughly 600 books) but I am a bachelor with a three bedroom house so I have plenty of room to spare.

I converted one bedroom into a library/office and installed a set of bookshelf units with two 80cm wide and two 60 cm wide shelving units for a total of twelve 80cm and twelve 60 cm shelves. I had pretty well filled those so I added another pair of 80 cm units in the finished basement giving me another twelve 80 cm shelves to fill.

That gives me a total of 2640 cm (1118 inches) of shelf space. That will probably keep me happy for another year or two and then I will have to go out and buy some more units.

Ah yes, the thrill of moving - I mostly used small boxes that I got for free from the liquor store so I had boxes labelled "Books 1" up to "Books 20" or so. At the time of my move, my books took up more space then all of my other possessions combined.

I keep almost all of my books. I only get rid of the ones that i dont like.

Well my collection is now gradually growing larger, and seeing my bookcase filling with books makes my heart leap. I will never get rid of any books I read, if only for the sheer joy of looking at lots of books stacked and ready to read.

I keep all my books as well. I paid good money for practically all of them, so it doesn't make sense to throw any away. And I like building a library of my own... especially considering it's mostly fantasy and classics. Non-mainstream fantasy is very hard to get here in Slovenia, and damn expensive too. (Thank God for Amazon!)

Rallymama, next time put them into a box and ship them to me, I'll gladly relieve you of any extra fantasy you want to get rid of! :D

I've kept all my books too, much for the same reason as dmc...I've read most of my books at least twice, and I go back and re-read the best ones often (ex. LOTR series-9 times, and the whole Drizzt series at least 4 times).

i keep everyone ive bought in the last 4 years(since i started reading) so ive got all 600( i think thats pretty good for being only 14) or so books for the same reason as dmc, i get urges to re-read books, parts of books, and/or series.

Never shall I throw out a fantasy book! Or any good book in general. I have gotten rid of most of my pre-teen books however, as they do suck (things such as Goosebumps and Animorphs), but merely suggesting that I get rid of any of my books is worth the death penalty as far as I'm concerned.
Those people in Candlekeep have the right idea :D

Throw my books?!!!! :eek: No way i paid for them and no matter how cheap or how expensive their value for me is priceless i'd rather throw my brother out of the room than my books ;)

I keep most all of mine, though the last time we moved, I went through the ones I really didn't think I'd ever read again (not many), and donated them. I think the collection is up to 600-700 now.

I need another bookshelf! :D

I'm a Bibliophile, through and through.

Throwing away books is Anathema to me.

Actually, my project for the summer has been compiling a database (a spreadsheet, actually) of my personal library. I have been going for about two months, and am about halfway done.

I have too many and yet not enough books. And yes, I hate to move - books are a b**** to pack, move, and then unpack!

No, never.... I have loads of books, some here, some "back home" and when I get my own place my first purchase will be a good, proper bookcase.

I or someone else has paid good money for them, and they have so many memories that I will not give them up. Never.

Also, like dmc, I like to re-read stuff... and the urge must be satiated immediately and not in three weeks' time.

Sorry if I've left anyone with the impression that we DISCARDED our old books - heaven forbid! :eek: They went straight to the local library as a donation. :good: Seeing as the library was closed and I left them anyway, we didn't even get a receipt for tax purposes. :angel:

I'll NEVER throw away a book. Even if I didn't like it. I keep all my books, except the school books! :D :p :grin:

Having a library of my own is quite enticing idea, especially when one can say: "Yep, read them all" :D

Shelf 1: the Wheel of Time in hard-covers, and The Encyclopedia of Myths & Legends.
Shelf 2: Highschool books.
Shelf 3: More highschool books.
Shelf 4: Computer magazines, highschool/ polytechnic/university memoes (and my collection of Magic -the Gathering cards I never use. They just have nice art, so just can't simply discard them.)

I have a bookshelf thats full top to bottom all the way across my old room. It's getting so bad that I've started to double the rows. I have some books stacked in the corner by it to.

I'm not even close to my parents though. They have a bookshelf in the living room thats full top to bottom, then they have 25 boxes out in one of our sheds full of novels. It's gotten to the point that if I want a book I just ask my dad and he's probably got it.

He has everything from Dune to Helter Skelter to The Once and Future King.

I never throw away books... it's like sacrilege or something...

Twice in my life have I had an intentional book clear out.

Once when I left Norway back in the early 80's, I cleared out the children's books. They passed down to my cousins.

Second time when my parents moved back to Norway some ten years later. I was renting in a shared house then, and I didn't have much room. So I sent all my Norwegian language books back to Norway to the Summer house.

Other books have been lost along the way, mainly when I split with a previous girlfriend, but none have been intentionally thrown away.

Our living room is wall-to-wall books, and there are duplicates of lots of them that my husband and I both own copies of. I also have scary towers of books on my desk and beside my bed, and we use stacks of Dungeons and Dragons manuals as sort of impromptu coffee tables in the office. I find it very, very hard to get rid of books. Even the ones I really hated. I just feel like maybe, someday, I'll want to read it again, or it will contain the answer to a trivia question, or maybe one of my nephews or nieces will like it, or... or... or...

It's totally irrational. I just get attached to them.

Once when I moved I could not afford to ship all my books to my new destination so I had to take a few boxes to a second-hand store. I actually got a surprisingly good amount of money for them, which I did not feel the least bit guilty spending entirely on new books once I'd got to my new home!

Sadly, I don't have my own house, I am yet too young... So space is a problem. I have only three built-in shelving units in my room for my books, and I am running out of space quickly. I usually have to clean the thing out every five years because i outgrow some of the crappy books I had bought when i was younger. Those I donate to my church rummage sale or whatever... most of 'em sell too...
But yes, so many books and too little time and space... *sigh*

Never. Throwing a book away is an unthinkable act to me :)

I keep all the books I've read...Even some of my textbooks from college and law school. You never know when you might need them again.

As for paperback books, I have a place near my house called the Bookateria or Book Nook or something like that. You can swap paperbacks there, or pick them up for next to nothing...Always good for when you're looking for something new to read.

I do clear out my collection of books from time to time. I donate them to charity when I'm getting rid of them. Of course, I do have some books that I will never part with; Issac Asimov's Robot, Empire, and Foundation Series, JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, & Silmarillion, just to name a few.

I've kept most of the books I've had, except for some school books, which I donated to the local library. But I don't think I could ever part with my fantasy books, since I'm striving for a complete collection. :D

Spellbound...Member of the week? That's just blatant favoritism...! I wish I was a cute chick that donated regularly! ;) :lol: :grin: :spin: :roll:

So far, I threw away very few books. (i.e. the Icewind Dale-Trilogy and the first Shannara-Trilogy). Some, I lent away and never got them back.
But someday soon (I hope), when I move from my parents home, I will clean my collection. I m thinking especially of the several Shadowrun and Battletech novels. Most of them are rubbish. I think, I will donate them to the local library.

Ooooh, Bel, you make me blush. :shake: Who best to handle all the money but an attorney! :p

Muwahaaahaaaa....Did I tell you I was going to Rio next weekend? ;) J/K :lol:

Stay on topic please...

Just for the record, I counted the books I re-shelved when cleaning today... 144 of them, and that doesn't include the ones that are temporarily missing, borrowed to someone or back home. They take up 6 shelves.... I think I need a bigger bookcase.

I still have my lunch money from the 3rd grade. I'm a packrat and more so a horder.

Everything I ever owned I still have. (for the most part)

Im not rich enough to buy outright every book i want to read. So I buy them on the basis of return assumed.
This basically means that while selling the book to me for whatever decided price, the guy initials it. Then when Ive had enough of it I can return it to him and he will remburse the deposit. Corruption of a library but with a wider and customisable bank of books.
I get to read a book for $0.25 but have a pretty pathetic library, unless you are going to count my Mech. Engg. texts. Four years of perspiration right there.

I have 250 books. I don't throw them away, even if they suck.

Well, I'm moving house this month, and recently packed my books. Into 2 MFO boxes. This is about 5 tv sized-boxes of books. I really need to ditch some...

I still have all my books, but I've had a stack in one corner which I've been meaning to get rid of for almost a year or two now. I only ditch books I don't like.

Wow, I never knew that some people had book collections that large (600 books!?! That's crazy). But, yes, I also tend to keep all of my books. I also try to buy books instead of borrowing them from the library (to keep them).

Only the ones that I really enjoyed reading. Otherwise, we give them to charity for re-sale purposes.

Well I'm a bit like DMC and Sprite. I have the belief that some random point in time I'm going to have a craving to read one of the bizairre books I've picked up along the ages and never really liked. And of course there are some books that I knew I didn't really understand yet so I vowed to keep them around and read them again later. My Dad likes to donate books to the library but when it comes to books I really like to create my own library -- set up a room with bookshelves and comfy poofy chairs and a fireplace and put all the books I've ever bought in my entire life in there. I'm also a real stickler about keeping my books in order (by their series) and in perfect condition but this really doesn't work at the moment because I've got 4 other people in my family who all want to read some of my collection (and so then the pages get dog-eared or torn covers and the hundred other things my irresponsible things my sibs do to tick me off) and my Mom whenever she finds one of my books around the house likes to just throw it back on my bookshelf at random. Oh to live on my own. . .

I wouldn't throw out any book I've purchased, but I will get rid of them on a pretty regular basis. Like everyone I do have a set of books that I will own for a long time or forever but If i don't like the book and I don't have ani intention of re-reading than I see no reason to keep the books around. (insulation, furniture, WOMD?) I'm all about selling them or taking them to a local place that lets me trade. Even with taking thes actions I still have more than enough bookds to fill the shelves.
So to answer the original question, I moved into my house almost two years ago and It still isn't llng enough ago for me to forget just how heavy boxes of books are. So unless you need the furniture, cut the fat.