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You people are wussies Larry Send a noteboard - 12/07/2012 07:56:20 PM
Having a finite amount of space, I have tried to cut back on book purchases. However, with the euro down and the various amazon.com outlets in Europe not repricing books I made some more acquisitions (Balzac's Comédie Humaine in 12 volumes, Rabelais in one volume, Corneille in 3 volumes, all from Pléiade, as well as Orlando Innamorato and volumes 18 and 19 of the Italian history series I've been buying, and Heinrich Mann's Professor Unrat and Karl May's 6-volume Orient series). *

This meant that I bought several large "Really Useful Boxes" and carefully stacked all of my old Dungeons & Dragons hardcovers into them, then moved them into my games closet, to make room. They stayed in a nice place, unlike the Jordan books and Martin books, which were thrown into boxes and banished to the garage and the tender mercies of silverfish (though I spray for bugs regularly).

There are books that are not perhaps the best, or the nicest, but I can't bring myself to remove them from the home library and send them to storage. A few crappy paperbacks of some H.P. Lovecraft stories I'm particularly fond of and can't find in hardcover, the Principia Discordia, a somewhat naive book about S&M, a few dubious "histories" of episodes of Russian history by sketchy authors that are probably pure fantasy, televangelist Jim Bakker's autobiography (signed by the author), a dry and used book on the Reformation I've had since college, Carlos Castaneda, a dog-eared book of Soviet propaganda in English...

So I guess I'll make it a survey since ultimately I'm wondering what other people do. Please elaborate as much as possible.

1. How do you make room for new books in your home?


I periodically (every 2-4 weeks lately) get a box of 20-60 books and take them to a local used bookstore/media center.

2. If you get rid of old books, how do you figure out what to get rid of?


I get rid of unwanted/unsolicited review copies, books that I have decided that I will never read, and books that I've read once and likely will never want to read a second time.

3. Are there books that you aren't sure why you keep but can't bear to get rid of or put into storage?


A few, but not many. I limit myself to a set number of unshelved books and when something comes in that I want to keep, something else goes out. Surprisingly painless after a while. I must have traded in 700-900 books over the past 2.5 years and bought 500-600 there in return (mostly foreign language). Space is slowly being made, but the chances of discovering something older yet potentially good have gone up as well. I'll post a picture of 8 books that I bought today (1 was new) after trading in 21.

* Other than Orlando Innamorato, I was able to get all of the aforementioned books in hardcover.


Nice! I have that in a green smallish tradeback in Italian and a large softcover in translation.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie

Je suis méchant.
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/Survey: the changing face of home libraries Tom - 12/07/2012 12:27:26 AM 2160 Views
Well... jh - 12/07/2012 10:08:20 AM 806 Views
The obsessive compulsive in me won't let me stack books in corners. Tom - 15/07/2012 01:53:57 PM 675 Views
Not even if you stack them in really neat piles? You need to get your C.D.O. checked. *NM* jh - 17/07/2012 08:07:42 PM 295 Views
My collateralized debt obligation? I hate those things. Tom - 17/07/2012 08:15:30 PM 689 Views
No, no... CDO is just... jh - 18/07/2012 11:19:20 AM 671 Views
Ah...see I'm not quite that bad in that respect. Tom - 18/07/2012 01:19:06 PM 1048 Views
And neat piles are still clutter. *NM* Tom - 17/07/2012 10:29:00 PM 323 Views
Um nossy - 12/07/2012 02:05:17 PM 804 Views
You had a free bookshelf above the headboard of the bed in a spare room? Lucky you Tom - 15/07/2012 01:52:42 PM 728 Views
Maybe if we constructed some kind of spatial distortion device? nossy - 16/07/2012 02:55:50 AM 763 Views
we just keep buying more bookshelves... and putting books in different rooms *NM* temeraire - 12/07/2012 04:26:56 PM 305 Views
That worked for the first ten years in this home... *NM* Tom - 15/07/2012 01:48:35 PM 310 Views
Karl May? Interesting. Legolas - 12/07/2012 07:36:42 PM 717 Views
The Führer loved him, so I'm sure I will too. Tom - 13/07/2012 04:46:10 AM 703 Views
Heh. Legolas - 13/07/2012 11:00:41 PM 763 Views
You people are wussies Larry - 12/07/2012 07:56:20 PM 987 Views
I got the BUR edition in a little box. Tom - 15/07/2012 01:48:04 PM 651 Views
That is odd Larry - 17/07/2012 02:56:52 PM 789 Views
Well, you know my opinion of used books Tom - 17/07/2012 05:00:13 PM 744 Views
I must not be very sensitive to those smells Larry - 17/07/2012 05:57:35 PM 785 Views
When I run out of space on my bookshelves... HyogaRott - 12/07/2012 08:50:13 PM 828 Views
And what will you do when you run out of space for bookshelves? Tom - 15/07/2012 01:42:18 PM 735 Views
I take books I haven't read in several years to Half Priced Books... a tiny refund on my purchases. *NM* Macharius - 13/07/2012 01:44:18 AM 300 Views
Books from paper ? How peculiar. Orange - 13/07/2012 09:48:50 AM 684 Views
Some of us hate eBooks. Tom - 15/07/2012 01:40:27 PM 677 Views
Thankfully I haven't had to make such hard decisions yet A Deathwatch Guard - 15/07/2012 08:11:57 AM 745 Views
Yeah, I can't go and buy a 21st bookcase. Tom - 15/07/2012 01:38:56 PM 629 Views
*snorts* We'll see how long that lasts this time. *NM* Legolas - 17/07/2012 10:56:16 PM 273 Views
A long, long time this time. *NM* Tom - 18/07/2012 03:50:45 AM 318 Views
I could have sworn I saw a hardcover Lovecraft omnibus. Ghavrel - 18/07/2012 01:25:00 AM 1012 Views
I have it. It doesn't have lots of things. Tom - 18/07/2012 03:50:28 AM 669 Views
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