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Joel Capparella asked a great question in Twitter. “After you’ve read a book, do you purge it or keep it?”
My reply, “Purge fiction. Keep nonfiction.” Of course, if I hated the book, out it goes.
@RobertHruzek: I keep it if I like it. I’ve still got books from forever ago!
@Vanessa_LW: I’ve been purging a lot more lately. Or better yet, getting from the library.
@elisapr: Keep!
@stenoknight: I keep it; books are my favorite element of home decor. Also, if book is worth reading once, it’s often worth rereading.
I like what @stenoknight said because it’s true in my home. My small home office squeezes in one tall bookshelf. The newish add-on loft is more of a library (and dumping ground for kid toys). AND we still have bookshelves in each kid’s room and one in the game room. I also organize the books. (You’ll see two bookshelves in the picture, but that’s not how it’s set up anymore.)
I rarely buy fiction books. Most of my fiction books from library book sales, or borrowed from the library. Besides, I read little fiction with the work I do with non-fiction books. I don’t like to read a book twice as I have too many waiting for me. Instead, I refer to a non-fiction book again as needed.
For book club reads, I buy them cheap as I don’t want to worry about library due dates. Besides, I prefer the feel of a retail paperback and hard cover over the library covers. This may sound weird, but I love how a book feels in my hands especially those with the soft paperback covers.
I’ve been making an effort to use the library more often. My son brought home the Scholastic Book Club catalog (I managed to not go crazy buying too many as it had a lot of goodies this time), and he circled a book I would love for him to read. The book was hardcover and more than I wanted to spend (almost as much as I spent for the entire order). So I’ve put in a request through the library’s online system.
When I came across a book title about applying to college (I have a 10th grader), I reserved that through the library and read it quickly. The college application process changes so much in a short time, so it’ll probably be outdated before kid #2 (5th grader) starts the college hunt.
Now that I have a Kindle
I also wonder how people decide what ebooks to buy, if they still read pbooks (print). I browsed the Kindle catalog and can’t decide how to handle this. It’s a shame you can’t send your print books to Amazon
Children’s books are another story. I move books from oldest to youngest as they outgrow them or grow into them. I’ve moved books that the youngest has outgrown to another shelf in another room. I’ll sort through them later to decide what to keep. I bought children’s books long before I had children, so they won’t all disappear.
P.S. I just returned from the library where we checked out books for my son’s book club 🙂
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Well darn. When I moved a year ago I sort of vowed (yeah, I know…) to get rid of many books simply because they are a pain to move. Instead I’ve been saving Amazon boxes because they are perfect for moving books.
I’ve learned to live with many of my inconsistencies.
But purge from an ebook reader? Arghhhhhh I don’t have one and I don’t know what I’d do…
The reason I don’t have one is I doubt they can survive the beach and tub… but maybe that’s an answer in itself.
.-= Anne Wayman’s blog …Be A Freelance Writer In 3 Easy Steps! =-.
I’m a fan of out with the old and in with the new (except for keep sakes), and flowing books to people that need them more than I do.
.-= J.D. Meier’s blog …Dust Your Dreams Off and Let’s Make Them Happen =-.
Meryl,
I can’t read print books anymore because of my eyesight, so I’ve eliminated a lot of them. I keep a collection of several hundred autographed paperbacks. On occasion, I even buy a print book to get autographed and an e-book to actually read. 🙂
I purge books from my Kindle as soon as I read them (or as soon as I’ve reviewed them if I’m writing a review). The books I’ve bought from Amazon.com are stored at Amazon, and I can download them again any time I want. E-books I’ve converted from other formats are in my Calibre library, and I can transfer them to the Kindle again.
However, I seldom read a book more than once because there are so many books I haven’t read. Right now, I have about 40 books on my Kindle to be read … and next week, I’ll download a bunch more. There will be a lot of free e-books available during Read an E-Book Week.
.-= Lillie Ammann’s blog …Scripture for the Second Tuesday in Lent =-.
I’ve pretty well kept all my books, and I’ve read most of them more than once. I’m not sure that I could go for anything like the kindle, I like the feel of the pages as I turn them and I’m not sure the kindle would have the same feel about it.
Besides, if I was to fall asleep with a kindle and it hit the floor, how likely is it to survive the shock?
.-= Sire’s blog …Membership Drive For Where Bloggers Meet =-.
It’s always wrenching for me to part with my books. Eventually I do, but I make sure they are recycled so they can be read again. I bring professional books to clinics for interns. I bring fiction and some non fiction to thrift shops and libraries.
I wait years before I part with a book. Even then I will find myself looking for a book that is no longer on my shelves.
A good book is precious. And yet, room on the shelves for new books feels like a luxury.
It’s a continual challenge, and actually, while indeed wrenching, is a creative self assessment experience.
Joanna
.-= Joanna Poppink’s blog …The Play of Your Life and Your Recovery: Act I, II and III =-.
I’m a bit of a pack rat when it comes to my books to the tune of a couple thousand books and shelves stacked three deep. In my defense, though, I routinely reread books.
I also have a very special relationship with my library. I can request books online, so I do so…on a daily basis. I picked my house partly because it’s walking distance from the library, because I go there multiple times a week. The librarians know when they see me coming, they need to go grab the stack of whatever I’ve reserved this week (and there’s never any logic to what is in that stack).
.-= Thursday Bram’s blog …Ask Me Anything: Getting Started and Copyright =-.
@Anne, great idea on the Amazon boxes… of course, you need to buy something to get them and hope the boxes are big enough (they usually are way too big for the item). eBook reader is a fun gadget, but still picking pBooks over eBooks.
@JD, that’s a great principle and it works for many, many things — books included!
@Lillie, I never considered how great eBook readers are for those who need large print. We always had to get large print for my grandmother. But thinking about it… she read most of the popular books. So I imagine many of the books on my shelf would not come in large print. Thanks for sharing your story!
@Sire, it’d be interesting to know if anyone has dropped an eBook reader while falling asleep. Most of the time, I manage to put book on my chest and wake up enough to put away. Still love the pages and seeing how far I’ve read by the thickness of the pages left behind.
@Joanna, I like the idea of paying it forward to the right places. Most of the time, I donate my books to charity that picks up clothes and other things. I should be more mindful of where they go depending on the genre.
@Thursday, funny you talk about partly picking your house because it’s walking distance to library. When we looked for houses, I tried to go for one near a library (I grew up two blocks from one) and it didn’t work out. What do you know? The city built one about a mile from me. Easy bike ride or good jogging workout.
It’s so interesting finding out people’s relationships with books.
I’m a keeper and have thousands of real ones – don’t think I could part with them!
I have brought ebooks (non-fiction PDF’s) but not a kindle – partly because I love the feel of real books and partly because screen-reading doesn’t give that special connection.
Sometimes of course, it would be handy to have a kindle, books are so heavy to pack when travelling but if I had a kindle, I know I’d be torn when deciding between purchasing a hard or soft copy.
Do people ever buy both I wonder?
.-= Reeta Luthra | Stress and Health’s blog …When Personal Disaster Strikes, Do You Have Backup? =-.
Man I totally forgot about the pleasure of looking at the thickness of the pages I’ve read. Reckon Kindle could solve this by having a bar across the top or bottom that displays either the amount read or the amount left to read.
.-= Sire’s blog …In Defence Of A Bloggers Right To Review A Product =-.
@Reeta, that’s a problem I am facing. So far, I’ve yet to pay for a Kindle book. I’ve been downloading free classics and transferring PDFs I’ve had.
@Sire, Kindle does have a progress bar (like a Flash loader), but it’s not as satisfying as the thickness of the pages you’ve read so far.
Cool, in that case I reckon I will stick with my books. I’m just going to pick up a few of my favorite and stroke the pages. 😉
.-= Sire’s blog …Where Bloggers Meet, A Forum For Bloggers =-.
A little of both. I keep a lot of books, and my library is large. But I also give a lot of books to the little library in my town. I look forward to moving to an electronic pad of some sort. I just want the dust to settle on this new technology for a bit first.
.-= Kendra Bonnett’s blog …Author Conversation with Linda Joy Myers, Part 2 =-.
@Sire, almost finished with a 500-pager and it’s great to feel that pages I’ve already read while I read the current page.
@Kendra, sounds like we have a similar keep or purge philosophy.
I have a Kindle now and I’m just about to purge my paper book library of a bunch of stuff. It’s the big post-CD vinyl clear out again except that now you don’t actually have to buy the books in the new format until you actually need or want them. It’s enough to know they’re out there in Kindle-land. (Although in the UK not all the books I want are available – yet.)
As to whether I keep my ebooks on the Kindle after I read them. NO. I like my Kindle home page and my Kindle-for-iPhone home page to show books that I am currently reading. I can always re-download old books if I need them.
.-= Matthew Stibbe’s blog …The title for your next book =-.
@Matthew, thanks for sharing how you manage your Kindle books. I am still trying to figure out what works for me… but so far, haven’t read a single book on it (blush).