# Do you keep the books you've read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2005, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746 "2005-04-17T08:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/41 "2005-04-21T14:44:14Z")
[shrill voice] But the books are _my firends_[/SV] A book is just a stack of paper till I read it, then it becomes part of my life, no matter if I enjoyed the reading or not. I can walk along my bookshelf and spot a title and remember where I read that book and how it made me feel at the time. Ialways look for bargains, so there are hard covers and paper backs, reference books, fiction, biographies nad facts mixed in there. Moving is a pain in the butt and I’ve moved house so many times I don’t even want to start counting (at least 20 times in 25 years). My current apt was rented just because it’s a 2 BR place, where the psare bedroom, is den/library. I realized that thebig problem is shelf space. I need about 100ft of shelf space to store all my books (and mind you, all kiddie books are in storage). Buying qualty, good looking bookshelves is fucking expensive. The one I have now is in mudules and can be changedaccording to the room, should I move ahain. Very handy, but it cost about $2.000 for the basic setup. I’m also anal enough to alphabetize al writers and then sort each book in publishing order. That means I have to do The Great Book Migration™ about every 18 months, when the shelf with new purchases is full and I have to start putting those book onto the permanent shelf in correct order. A black mark against me: There are quite a few books I never finished. Life is too short to waste reading a book that I don’t enjoy. I don’t get rid of those books either. They’re there as a reminder. And every now and then I pick them up and give them a new try. I think it took me five years to finally get going with _Harlot’s Ghost_, mainly because the first ~80 pages are dreadful ( I still think so), but the rest of the book is an amazing read. ---
**Author:** ![furthur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@furthur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furthur)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/42 "2005-04-21T14:45:39Z")
If you think you don’t have room for a library, think about it from another angle. This may not work for the OP, but we have combination dining room/library. On three walls are built-in bookshelves; on the fourth is a hutch where I store an antique typerwriter and globe (on top), cookbooks (on shelves), and oversized serving dishes (inside the doors. In the middle of the room is our dining room table. It works surprisingly well. The kids can do their homework or draw/color when we’re not setting the table for dinner. When we are eating, it’s amazing how often we come up with a question, issue, etc. that can be settled by getting up, moving to a shelf, and pulling off the appropriate reference. Also, when we’re not eating, I keep an antique hors d’oeuvre/cookie tray (you know, those multi-level things) piled with bookmarks in the middle of the table for the interrupted reader. 😉 There is also just enough room for a rocking chair in the corner that has two windows. All in all, it works pretty well. When our power goes out, I light the candles in sconces on the walls, put a few jar candles on the windowsills and table, and read away. Last time, I never even knew when the power had come back on, I was so busy reading by candlelight. Moral of the story: Dining rooms do great double duty as libraries. Add class to the joint, too. 😉 Mrs. Furthur Ps - I do occasionally get rid of books, but only those I’m sure I don’t want to read again. Certain things, like children’s classics, I refuse to get rid of. When my kids clap me in the home, I’ll be weeping as they take me away from my book collection. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/43 "2005-04-21T14:46:08Z")
I keep the books I’ve bought. All my books (well, with a few exceptions) are ones that I read at least once before deciding to buy them. They are precious, even the secondhand ones. They’re like my adopted children, or something like that, and there are very few I could stand to give away. Well, maybe to someone I love very much and trust to take care of them, but it would be quite a sacrifice. :impulsively hugs _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell_: ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/44 "2005-04-21T15:30:02Z")
I’m getting better about it… 😃 Most of my purchases are paperbacks from used book stores and are stacked at least 2 deep on the 3 over-full bookshelves. Mount ToBeRead (currently at about 125 books) is in boxes in the spare room. I’m due for another purge… time to look at the language shelf & see what I really want to keep/reread. Maybe check against the library’s catalog… hmmmm I’m also a frequent vistor to the library and usually have something going on ILL. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/45 "2005-04-21T15:43:32Z")
One modifier to my defense of books: out-of-date textbooks. I am, this very period, while the kids are testing, going through the shelves in my classroom and binning every textbook that is past its sell-date. Government books that stop with the Reagan Administration - gone. Books on the Communist Menace - bye bye. Almanacs from the last century - see ya. Now I have room for **good** stuff! Where is the box with my Oxford History of the British Empire? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/46 "2005-04-21T16:56:15Z")
_looks puzzled at the OP_ Throw/give books away? What is this strange concept of which you speak? Seriously, I have problems throwing _magazines_ away. I certainly couldn’t bring myself to get rid of any of my books. I’m going to need more bookcases soon… ---
**Author:** ![Coulbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Coulbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coulbean)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/47 "2005-04-21T22:08:26Z")
I’m not throwing them away!! That would be a sin! I’m selling them on E-bay and giving some to my sister. (When she does one day become the voracious reader that I know she is, she will have a wonderful selection at her fingertips.) Sheesh, I would never throw them away. In addition, I just got hired at Border’s and I have the feeling that my employee discount will directly interact with any attempts to pare down the collection :smack: ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/48 "2005-04-21T22:25:42Z")
This wasn’t asked in the OP, but I’d bet my firstborn\* that everyone\*\* who has said they keep all their books is under 50 years old. \*He’s 40, unemployed, and a big eater, mind ya. 🙂 \*\* Collectors excluded. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/49 "2005-04-21T22:26:19Z")
> [@Coulbean](#): > > I’m not throwing them away!! That would be a sin! I’m selling them on E-bay and giving some to my sister. (When she does one day become the voracious reader that I know she is, she will have a wonderful selection at her fingertips.) > > Sheesh, I would never throw them away. I figured as much, hence the inclusion of “give away” in my post. 😉 But still, parting with books? Nope, can’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/50 "2005-04-21T22:53:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I think readersd of science fiction, mystery, and other genres tend to hoard their books because they’re so hard to find. Some fortunate writers (like Robert Heinlein) have had most of their books in constant print for years. But try to find most of Asimov’s ouevre. Or Jules Verne’s. My local Barnes and Noble, big as it is, doesn’t have any Cordwainer Smith. Fredric Brown wrote mystery, sf, and fantasy, but they don’t have a single one of his works. > Libraries aren’t much better. Try to fing **This Island Earth** anywhere. > If you ever want to re-read even classic genre works, you’re gonna have to store it yourself. True true. Try finding **Galaxy 666** also. I think I have about 5,000 sf books - I’m in the process of indexing them. Our guest bedroom is filled with bookshelves (Ikea cheap white ones are good, with books 2 deep.) My wife’s office is filled with bookshelves - mostly hers, but I have one also. Our bedroom has 2. I’m moving into my older daughter’s space, now that she’s left home. It is still nice to have the first F&SF I ever got. It is real nice to go to used bookstores and see how much some of my junk is supposedly worth. 🙂 My last two moves have been company paid. The movers love us - heavy with no chance of breakage. I **love** books. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/51 "2005-04-21T23:43:46Z")
I throw out magazines everytime I move. This time it’s three years worth of Time, US News and World Report, my teacher trades from the NEA. I found a fun use for my hip-hop music magazines like XXL, Vibe and The Source before I tossed 'em: I cut 'em up for the pictures. Take a sheet of poster board, a bottle of rubber cement, and make hip hop collages. I’ve made two so far but filed the rest of the cut up pictures away in an accordian file folder until I’m ready to do more. Tip for comic book collectors: after sorting through my comics I now have two really big long-boxes of stuff I really don’t care for anymore, although the comics are in good shape. I’ll be making my annual donation to the children’s hospital soon. I really need to toss my paperback collection, or at least find a more pleasing way to present them. I haven’t even read some of these John Grishams and post-TOMMYKNOCKERS Stephen Kings, but when you find brand new bestsellers on sale for fifty cents at the Thrift Stores, how can I say “no?” ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/52 "2005-04-22T00:17:00Z")
slowly but surely the library gets lovely levenger book boxes to line its walls. i have gotten better at keeping only books i will re-read. operation paperback has really helped me cull the shelves. i would go crazy on an aircraft carrier, or sub, or tent in iraq if i had nothing to read! now i just pack them up and some yummy snacks and stuff and off they go to the military. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/53 "2005-04-22T00:38:51Z")
rocking chair, that’s where my paperbacks went too. (Except for the William Browning Spencer, cuz I think he’s out of print, and I’ll read him again.) Not related to the OP, but book-related – the Gaylord catalog came today, and they sell a cover for paperbacks that helps preserve them, keeps the spine straight and corners from being bent. ---
**Author:** ![Vision\_of\_Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/54 "2005-04-22T04:48:07Z")
During the school year, I don’t really have time to read books for leisure, so I don’t buy a lot of books. I keep them on shelves or in storage boxes. Again, I don’t have that many. I sell off most of my textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Coulbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Coulbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coulbean)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/55 "2005-04-22T07:00:44Z")
I didn’t know about Operation Paperback. That would be a wonderful way to ease the pain… knowing that someone will truly enjoy them at a needed time. Are there any big retailers that you can donate through? ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/56 "2005-04-22T07:55:23Z")
Uhhmmm yeah?!? I read them. They are my children now. I come back and visit them from time to time. What kind of question is this? Was I supposed to do something different? Oh, the horror… ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/57 "2005-04-23T00:47:31Z")
you just go to the web site, and fill out the online form, you get a list of addresses and away the books go. i usually give a genre or writer’s name when requesting an address. that way they can be sure the books go to the right hands. some schools, or groups will have book drives. mostly i send out books i’m done with, sometimes people at work will bring me some of their books. they also have addresses for videos, cds, cassettes, and dvds. recently there was a request for books on tape. [http://operationpaperback.usmilitarysupport.org/](http://operationpaperback.usmilitarysupport.org/) ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/58 "2005-04-23T04:21:58Z")
If I like it, I’ll give it to someone or leave it in a public place so someone else can read it. If I don’t particularly care for it, I throw it away to save someone else the waste of time. If I kinda like it,it’ll probably sit on a bookshelf until it has a couple of feet to a yard of brethren, at which point they all go say hello a library, charity, or used book store. Used books stores didn’t work so well for me, since I tended to just trade them. I don’t re-read very much, and I’ve already identified the handful of books I can read every few years and still find entertaining. They survive the purges, as do the textbooks (I have many of my own and my brother’s college books… biology, chemistry, etc). I don’t see the point of keeping a book I have no intention of reading. Let it go forth and be someone else’s entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/59 "2005-04-23T04:41:40Z")
> [@Coulbean](#): > > Just wondering whether most people keep their books or get rid of them. > > I’ve always been a book hoarder… originally so I could loan out my favorites when I recommended them to people. I just love getting people hooked on books that I’ve loved. But when I realized that most of them were never returned, I stopped doing that. Also, I always want to have a copy if I want to re-read them. But I’m moving soon and I just can’t take them all with me. > > It hurts, anyone have any suggestions for coping? Those of you that don’t keep them, what’s your reasoning? I’m trying to focus on the money I’ll be getting (since I’m broke) and the fact that someone else will enjoy them (I buy most my books from thrift stores.) I have 5 bookcases, each with 5 shelves. 1/2 of 1 shelf is my “sorting shelf”, where I put the books I just finished so they can be filed later. When the shelves are full (once a year or so), I pull out everything I can live with knowing that I’ll never read again (about 1/4-1/3 of the collection) and sell it. Pretty simple, really: the number of books are limited to the space allotted. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746/60 "2005-04-23T18:28:27Z")
I love **Politzania** ’s “Mount ToBeRead.” My bed has a large headboard with shelves and drawers to both sides. My side is filled to overflowing with the “to be read” piles, and yet I still accumulate. I finally found an outlet for those few books I have very little need to keep: I bought a bookstore and set up a used book room in the back. My wife thought it would dramatically decrease the size of my personal collection. Alas, it has worked the other way around. I can’t afford to pay a lot to the part-time employees in my bookstore, but I give them all their books at cost. They’re all bibliophiles (maybe even biblioholics), and it’s not unusual for one of them to spend an entire paycheck on books. I currently have many more books at home than will fit on the shelves. All of my autographed and personally inscribed books have their own shelf unit. Two full units behind my desk are filled with reference books. A select few references sit _on_ the desk: a 3-volume unabridged dictionary, two books of quotes, _Chicago Manual of Style_, and references related to the book(s) I’m currently writing. I’m planning to build a bunch of new shelving so that I can pull all of my old favorite science fiction and fantasy out of boxes. Ditto some books I’m not planning to reread. I’d just like to be able to _look_ at some of them. As several others said, they’re my friends and they’re full of memories. I still remember reading the original _Wizard of Oz_ books at the home of a family friend when I was just 7 years old. When he died years later, he left me those books in his will because I loved them so much. Yes, I keep the books I’ve read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-the-books-youve-read/299746.md?page=2)