You priceless ass!! You gave away *that* book?

Cafe Society
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Or: Why Getting Rid Of Books Is A Bad Habit That Will Break Your Heart

OK, OK, I’ll grant there are exceptions. When I was a kid I had about sixty Time Life Books, including the complete Nature Library, and a half-dozen titles each from the Science Library, Great Ages Of Man, and Artist. This was when they still published anything besides books about cowboys, home repair, the paranormal, and the Library Of Art. Out of all those, I have saved perhaps fifteen for their interest as ephemeral objects, and also for sentimental value. And naturally, there are a couple more that I wish I’d hung onto, but most of that sort of information, both textual and pictorial, can easily be found online these days.

But when it comes to a number of other books I’ve hauled to thrift shops, not so much. For example, a copy of Yeoman’s Guide To American Coins, familiar to numismatists as The Red Book. No, I’m not a collector anymore, and besides, the coin values included in the book are likely to go out of date while the book being delivered to the store. But regardless, the book includes beautiful black-and-white, actual size illustrations of just about every coin known to have ever been minted within our borders. But I had to “save space”. The book is only slightly bigger than a small paperback novel, but I got rid of it. To save space, you understand. :smack: !! And also :rolleyes: !!! And also %&$##@@!!!

But that’s still small-time stuff we’re talking about. I’m saving the worst for last.

In a moment of insanity while preparing for a move, I picked up my copy of every cartoon published in The New Yorker from 1950-1955 and dropped it into the “Donate” box!

(Happily, I found a free download in Google Books, and I’m doing that even as I speak. I hadn’t thought the individual cartoons would be out of copyright yet, let alone the album. I’m grateful for this, but it’s not as good as holding the book in my hands. I spend too much time at my computer as it is.)

What books have you given up, to your lasting regret??

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Not voluntarily, but a roomie moved out on me while I was at work and he stole my entire bookshelf of oversized books. Mainly D&D - complete run of 108 issues of Dragon magazine, an almost complete set of official D&D modules up through Maze of the Riddling Minotaur, my unopened play testers copy of D&D from the 73 Gencon and the book I miss the most, that probably ended up in the garbage, my now deceased Dad’s bootcamp ‘yearbook’. :mad: [and all 3000 or so miniatures, about half of which were painted.]

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Once I got rid of nearly half my whole library – a couple of thousand books – during a move.

Never again. You just have no idea how often a book, even a fictional one, bubbles up is your mind as the inspiration for something – and then you want to go look up the reference and… arrgh!

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I loaned a book that I never got back that had belonged to my step-father. It was about the Bolshevic Revolution in 1917. The part I remember most is when these people finally make it across the river and pull themselves up on land, and watch the fires burn on the other side. I can’t remember the title or author’s name but it was so well written I felt like I was there.

Did I learn my lesson? No. Many years later I loaned another book of my step-father’s, a collection of poems from the 1800s. Every week or so I asked the person if she’d finished it yet. Finally I came up with an excuse as to why I needed it back. When she returned it she said she hadn’t actually gotten around to reading it.

I learned my lesson.

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ETA: Should have been:

The Library Of Art was one of the good series; I didn’t mean to include it with the cowboys, home repair, and the paranormal.

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You useless git! I would have bought the coin book from you. Did you toss any vintage Lovecraft? If so, I hope you get eaten last.

Joking, I love it when I find wonderful books at yard sales and thrift stores. People like you feed my addiction.

While I was homeless, my highschool yearbooks got tossed. I do regret that. Not because I want to look at them but because genealogists want them.

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I once had one of those “School Memories” books that had every report card from every six-week grading period from Kindergarten through High School, names of teachers, room numbers, class photos, etc. I didn’t precisely give it away but when the backpack containing my stuff was stolen and all I was carrying tossed out onto the floor, it was among the things I walked away from rather than trying to take it with me.

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My biggest regrets on lost books aren’t ones I gave away, but ones lost during precipitous moves. One special regret is Le dossier d’Alcools. I’ve a paperback copy of Alcools by Guillaume Apollinaire, but Le dossier was a treasure I chanced upon in a used book store (in France?). It contains contemporary reviews of the poems and, most interestingly, a record of poems’ early drafts. (Zone in particular was amended for a general audience before publication. :wink: )

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I recently donated a 19th Century Bible to the cooktown Historical society. It had belonged to one of the pioneer families of the district and had names and personal details, along with clippings of their prevvious life in Sweden.

It was a conscious decision but I loved that book.

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I gave all my Ramonas (new copies) to my sister-in-law for my new nephew, in hopes that when he grew up, he would appreciate them as much as I do. Boy, did I regret that one! (I replaced half of them, though, and now have half old and half new [IOW, half with original artwork and half with modern]).

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I’m just about to chuck out most of the paperbacks that are cluttering up the spare room. I’ve looked at the resale value and it’s basically zero (even bulk-buying services like Zapper won’t accept most of the titles). Charity shops won’t take them. The only option is to chuck 'em in the skip, which seems a crime for books, but what else can you do?

Granted, most of it is recent-ish (last 10-15 years) modern paperback fiction rather than anything interesting.

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We give the books we don’t want anymore to small town libraries. Even if they don’t want them they sell them at the yearly book sales for a dime or a quarter.

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Yeah. I never regret giving away my books. Of course now I make sure I get them on the Kindle. :slight_smile: I also give them away to the library.

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When I “loan” books to friends I assume I am “giving” them, and will never see them again. But about ten years ago I loaned the first two volumes of Time/Life’s This Fabulous Century to my friend Michael, as he was always diligent about returning books–then he died, and his brother gave all his books to the Strand!

Every time I look at that shelf I think, “gosh I miss Michael” and “gosh I hate his stupid brother.”

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When I was in college, my parents moved and threw away every book that I hadn’t taken with me.

Damn. Just…damn.

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I used to have all of Vonnegut’s books, mostly hardcover. A buddy of mine who was not a reader saw Breakfast of Champions on my shelf and was intrigued by the cover. He borrowed the book, loved it, then asked for more.

I put all the books in a box and lent them to him to read at his leisure. A week later he died of a a cerebral aneurysm.

His estranged daughter inherited all and was at the funeral. I could not ask her for my books back.

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When I was in college, my parents boxed up ALL my books and mailed them to me (when they said “do you want your books” I thought they meant “do you want your one shelf of special books”). I culled them down to one boxful I was actually willing to drag with me throughout my entire life, and took the rest down to the local used book shop (12 boxes). I got $20 for a couple of the nicer horse books, and gave them the rest for free.

They’re only things.

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I have lost three libraries due to moves. I am building my fourth and last, to SWMBO’s dismay. When the kids moved out, I got one of their bedrooms to use as a physical library / office. It looks like a bomb went off in there as I slowly try to get my books ordered on the shelves.

This is why we fell in love with the Kindle. I can now buy books to my heart’s content and not have them filling all the available space in the house, and that makes SWMBO happy. And if she is happy, life is good!

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I would have been cool with that. I would have been cool with “take anything you want to keep, because we’re throwing away anything you leave.” But getting the phone call that pretty much everything is gone…that was cold.

Very much a first-world, white male problem, I grant you, but cold.

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Since this thread seems to be primarily about books (and the giving away of them), I’m going to move it to Cafe Society.