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Did you get rid of your print books?

7K views 41 replies 36 participants last post by  Ros_Jackson 
#1 ·
Our neighbor showed up the other day and he was complaining about having to get rid of the numerous books his wife had accumulated over the years.  She recently died of a long illness.

We used to have over a thousand print books in a room we used as a library.  When we got Kindles, we started weeding out the books and only kept a few print books for crafts and other reference type books. We didn't keep any of the novels since we can read those on our Kindles.

Have you reduced or eliminated your print books?
 
#2 ·
I did. My only print fiction books are my Harry Potter collection. I do still have all of my crafting and cooking books, although with some of them, I also have the Kindle version. If I am going to be referencing a topic a lot, I like having it in print to refer to. Although I have used my phone or tablet in the kitchen some.
 
#5 ·
I've made a few passes through my print books over the years and have cleaned out a lot that I have re-purchased electronically.  I need to go through again, but there is a lot of stuff piled in front of my bookcases and they are hard to get to right now.
I do plan to keep my first edition Harry Potter hardbacks, my Lord of the Rings, and all of my Pratchett.  Everything else that I have electronically should leave the house at some point.  I also have a room of children's books and will probably keep those since most of them have sentimental value.
 
#6 ·
Yes, one of the great joys of ebooks is not having piles of books in every room in the house and overflowing bookcases. I got rid of everything except reference books and favorites I reread every few years. Generally, I'm too cheap to buy the ebook version of something I have in paper, but I think that day may be coming because I no longer enjoy reading most paperbacks (print too small) and some of those I kept are in that form.
 
#12 ·
Well many books I had to leave behind when I moved from one continent to another. Hard to pack all those heavy books in the suitcase.  :p. Not that I haven't accumulated more books since then, but I don't have any space anyway in my apartment. So I have one large bookcase and its pretty much some cookbooks, some keepers and my stack of kindles. Yes, I put them in the book case. I do have a few of them.  ;D. I do have a box of some rare books that I can't get rid of. I can't read them, font too small, but there is no ebook version and I don't think there ever will be so I get to pet them at times and look at them. They are old and fragile.

I read only ebooks though as I can't read paperbacks anymore due to font.
 
#14 ·
tsemple said:
I only wish I could get rid of them short of throwing them in the trash. I would keep a few shelves of them, and would be willing to give away the rest, but it is hard to find takers. I fantasize about scanning some of them but there is little time for that.
You might do some googling. Lots of cities have "book banks" similar to food banks where people donate books to folks who can't afford them. Libraries may take them if they have fundraiser book sales, but ask first -- they don't always just take anything because they need to feel like they'll be able to resell it. Charity shops sometimes have book sections as well but, again, may not take things they don't think will sell.
 
#16 ·
If you can believe it, I still exclusively read print books. There's something magic to holding that print copy that I just can't give it up. I keep only the ones I love, but there are still plenty of those filling up my shelves at home.

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#17 ·
I reached a compromise that works for me.  I read print books at home (after work, glass of wine), but the Kindle pretty much everywhere else.  I did get rid of some of my print books (Goodwill or friends) because I was downsizing everything in my home, but I still buy them.  I've just adjusted to where I only buy print books that I want to keep and read all others on my Kindle.
 
#18 ·
I've been weeding mine out for years. I still have my Harry Potter books (hardback and paperback). Same with my Susan Howatch books. There are still some favorites and books not kindlized yet on my shelves.

Most of them I gave to Goodwill. However, I'm clearing out my mother's books and I'll be donating them to a new library five minutes away from me opening in August. She had quite a few very gently used hardbacks.
 
#19 ·
I've weeded it down to about 5 shelves' worth.
  • All my Terry Pratchett books
  • All my Roger Zelazny books
  • Assorted hard-covers that have either sentimental value or possibly some collectible value
  • Assorted books that I feel I may want to re-read some day and are not in ridiculously small fonts :)
 
#24 ·
luvmykindle3 said:
i have given boxes of books away to my local library. Sometimes they act as if they don't want them. Most of my books are in excellent condition. I have romance, mystery, self help, etc. I guess they just don't feel like logging them into their system : (
This summer i plan to go through more bookshelves and purge more books.
They may not want them. They probably can't shelve them for borrowing. And unless they have fundraiser book sales, they aren't much use to them.
 
#25 ·
I've made one sorting pass of print books, but really have not cleared the shelves. Gave some away in the first pass, to folks who I know, and I took the others to a used book store for credit, which I haven't used, but at least someone could end up getting use from those print titles.
 
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