3 ms·

I ditched 700+ books the last time I moved. From a purely physical perspective, books have an ownership cost that is as bad as anything else. Once you have more

I ditched 700+ books the last time I moved. From a purely physical perspective, books have an ownership cost that is as bad as anything else. Once you have more than 100, they become heavy and tedious to move around, require a lot of space, shelving systems, etc. I wrote a personal wiki type program that hooks up to a barcode scanner and lets me keep track of the books I have read. I just scan the book, it populates an entry, and then I have places I can store quotes and thoughts about the book. (I wrote this before Delicious Library and other such programs were widely available) I've found keeping track of what I read has made me a more careful reader and alleviates the need for keeping the physical book around. However, I still have a number of old books that I wouldn't bear to part with.

randallsquared 19y ago
Yeah, I've probably bought and given away more books than anything else, and the vast majority of books are not worth keeping around after you've read them once. I look forward to the day when all or virtually all books are available for download. Webscriptions.net is a wonderful example of this for fiction, given that they have pure HTML books, and not just PDF or some proprietary reader format.
- sbraford 19y ago
  Amazon Prime makes this even worse -- especially easy to accumulate books that you'll only eventually skim through or half-read. Moving out of a bigger apartment/house into a smaller one, especially under a tight deadline, can be a great way to shed some stuff as well. (inc. a 50lb FedEx package to the parents back home =))
- Goladus 19y ago
  I don't understand how people, other than those with perfect memories, can be satisfied only reading a book one time. Any book that I thought worthwhile enough to finish the first time, is at least worth picking up again to see if I still think the same way. Even if I don't find it as useful the second time through, I recognize the perspective I've gained.
  - randallsquared 19y ago
    Well, a novel is less likely to be rereadable than, say, _ANSI Common Lisp_, because you'd use the latter as a reference. I sometimes reread novels, but only the really especially good ones, if I remember that I've read it before. In general, I don't read novels for perspective, though it's really nice when there's some to be gained, rare though that is. I've probably read somewhere around 10K books, the vast majority of which were novels, and way more than half of which were not really worth reading had my time been as limited as it later became. When I was a teen, it was easy to finish two or three books a day of stuff I'd throw against the wall by chapter two, now. The fact that I've read it and finished it is no indicator of worth. :) Anyway, I used to own a coupla thousand books, but after moving several times without having looked inside most of them, it dawned on me that carrying around all this dead tree was not very useful.
    - Goladus 19y ago
      I think the main difference between us then, is that I don't have a great interest in reading lots and lots of books. I generally don't have the patience to finish a book once, unless it's a book that I'd read several times. I wind up reading far fewer books than yourself. So for me, the comments I made apply to novels as well as reference material. Second reads give me another chance to observe things like structure, or enjoy knowing what's going to happen. Actually though, the biggest factor for me was recognition of my own mortality. When I was a kid, I'd keep books and reread them 5 times. When I was a teenager, I'd reread them twice, and keep them expecting to read them more. Now, I realize there's a limit to how much reading I'll be able to fit into the rest of my life.
jmzachary 19y ago
Books were hard to part with, but I did it, too. Actually, the easiest books to donate were CS and math, especially programming related books. I refuse to part with my copies of CLR and Common LISP, though. In the end, I shed a couple hundred books and it was cathartic, kind of like start over with a beginner's mind. P.S. Local universities are great places to make instant friends when you have books to donate.

randallsquared 19y ago

Yeah, I've probably bought and given away more books than anything else, and the vast majority of books are not worth keeping around after you've read them once. I look forward to the day when all or virtually all books are available for download. Webscriptions.net is a wonderful example of this for fiction, given that they have pure HTML books, and not just PDF or some proprietary reader format.

sbraford 19y ago
Amazon Prime makes this even worse -- especially easy to accumulate books that you'll only eventually skim through or half-read. Moving out of a bigger apartment/house into a smaller one, especially under a tight deadline, can be a great way to shed some stuff as well. (inc. a 50lb FedEx package to the parents back home =))
Goladus 19y ago
I don't understand how people, other than those with perfect memories, can be satisfied only reading a book one time. Any book that I thought worthwhile enough to finish the first time, is at least worth picking up again to see if I still think the same way. Even if I don't find it as useful the second time through, I recognize the perspective I've gained.
- randallsquared 19y ago
  Well, a novel is less likely to be rereadable than, say, _ANSI Common Lisp_, because you'd use the latter as a reference. I sometimes reread novels, but only the really especially good ones, if I remember that I've read it before. In general, I don't read novels for perspective, though it's really nice when there's some to be gained, rare though that is. I've probably read somewhere around 10K books, the vast majority of which were novels, and way more than half of which were not really worth reading had my time been as limited as it later became. When I was a teen, it was easy to finish two or three books a day of stuff I'd throw against the wall by chapter two, now. The fact that I've read it and finished it is no indicator of worth. :) Anyway, I used to own a coupla thousand books, but after moving several times without having looked inside most of them, it dawned on me that carrying around all this dead tree was not very useful.
  - Goladus 19y ago
    I think the main difference between us then, is that I don't have a great interest in reading lots and lots of books. I generally don't have the patience to finish a book once, unless it's a book that I'd read several times. I wind up reading far fewer books than yourself. So for me, the comments I made apply to novels as well as reference material. Second reads give me another chance to observe things like structure, or enjoy knowing what's going to happen. Actually though, the biggest factor for me was recognition of my own mortality. When I was a kid, I'd keep books and reread them 5 times. When I was a teenager, I'd reread them twice, and keep them expecting to read them more. Now, I realize there's a limit to how much reading I'll be able to fit into the rest of my life.

jmzachary 19y ago

Books were hard to part with, but I did it, too. Actually, the easiest books to donate were CS and math, especially programming related books. I refuse to part with my copies of CLR and Common LISP, though. In the end, I shed a couple hundred books and it was cathartic, kind of like start over with a beginner's mind. P.S. Local universities are great places to make instant friends when you have books to donate.