ServiceMaster should be here within a day or two to fix the drywall they cut open to dry out the house after our little adventure with our previous dishwasher. Yesterday a friend helped me move several large, heavy bookcases from their usual place to standby locations, so that a crack in the drywall behind them can be repaired as part of the process. While that's being done, I'm going to try to go through my library and toss over a thousand books. We cut down by two-thirds moving here nine years ago, but even so, they've expanded a bit, and it's a lot of work to keep them all dusted and organized. As I get older, I'm no longer up to that; so it makes sense to thin the collection. Anything essential will be kept, of course, or replaced with an e-book edition.
Unfortunately, that means blogging will be light today. Please amuse yourselves with the bloggers in the sidebar. I hope to be writing again by tomorrow morning.
Onward!
Peter
Good luck thinning the herd. There will always be regrets.
ReplyDeleteNote: Books are essentially floppy trees so have good insulation properties, ballistic penetration resistance in appropriate thicknesses, and substitute for logs in wood stoves. Do the sorting but rather than donate or offer online here, reclassify as prep supplies and install along perimeter walls. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteRE: the books, how are you planning on disposing of them? I'm fairly certain that your commentariat would be happy to take at least a few of them off your hands for more than you'll get at your nearest used bookstore.
ReplyDeleteIf I had the room for thousands of books they would sit on the shelves dusty until I wanted to read them, when I was done the book would go back to it's place.
ReplyDeleteI can find most of the fiction stories I had to get rid of when I went to the RV if I really want to reread it, it's the non-fiction/reference books I really miss.
Good luck today...
What are these'book' you speak of? I looked it up on my smartphone and do not understand
ReplyDeleteI am willing to send you thousands of books to replace those you throw out - to show you what kind of friend I am.
ReplyDeletelol,,
ReplyDeleteI have books on top of books etc.. My kids when I die can decide whether they want to keep them or not. I might sell some of the 1st editions or older 1800 editions of stuff in a few years for money, but other than that I don't intend pruning.
I haven't read a paper book other than a cook book here and there for decades. Love my digital e-reader. But in a societal collapse you will eventually lose access to any knowledge in digital form. Electronics will die, power to charge might not be there etc...
We live in a small house. 4 of us in 1100 sqft. Before I got married and started increasing the population I had bookshelves on most of the walls in the house. My new wife though she likes books wasn't so keen on living in a decor of used book store. We purchased a 48 foot great dane 18 wheeler retired trailer for 2000 dollars (about 360 sqft). One of the refrigerated/insulated ones. Moved 4000 scifi/fantasy paperbacks to it and another 2000 hardback scifi/fantasy add in the 4 or 5 thousand nonfiction, encyclopedias, howto, cooking, boating, crafts, arts, plus 100's of other topic books.
The weight of the books in our house had been sinking the foundation piers under the house for years so that parts of the house are as much as 1/2 to 1 inch out of level. The problem of living in a coastal plain that is nothing but sand and building on it.
Oh. forgot to mention.. that we have a 8000/6000 btu window unit that cools the library trailer... cost about 15 dollars a month during the summer. Insulation in it is remarkably effective given the thickness and age of it. Most of the heat load in summer comes from the 6ft by 4.5 ft window where the old diesel refrigeration unit was when it was a working trailer. Unfortunately I didn't plan well when it was delivered and face that end of the trailer mostly south so it gets a lot of sun in the one window. I keep intending to build an awning but have never gotten around to it.
ReplyDeleteMy precious books ! How could I throw away any of my 4,000+ books !
ReplyDeleteI did perform a culling many years ago. We got flooded in Dallas with one inch of water in the house and 12 inches in the garage. I had well over 2,000 books in a wardrobe moving box in the garage. The water wicked up from book to book, soaking the bottom three feet of the books. I threw out the soaking wet books when I discovered them the next day. Many Heinleins, Asimovs, Andersons, Harrisons, and other great authors got ruined.
Don't toss the books. Donate them.
ReplyDeleteGetting rid of books or vinyl albums? Never heard of such.
ReplyDeleteSomeone may be willing to pay you for the collection made up of "a huge pile of books that Peter Grant thought well enough of to collect."
ReplyDeleteyah. Books. I keep acquiring them.
ReplyDeleteAnd dishwasher, not sure if you've selected a new one but we splurged on a Bosch 3 years ago when we had to replace ours and despite "high energy efficiency" rating, it cleans quite well. But the cycle does take forever. The machine is silent, which is nice.
Had a bosh gas stove top. Hated it. Couldnt go low enough or high enough in temp to be usable. Burner ignition system didnt last a year.. have a bigger nicer GE one now that i love. However i would never pay the 2200 retail it costs. got it open box with a bunch of missing pieces from lowes for 200. Ge sent all missing pieces for free under warranty after i registered it. I called them and was wanting to purchase missing stuff told them it was openbox etc. They just said register it online and call us back and we will send you all missing parts.
DeleteYay for 'progress' on the repairs!
ReplyDeleteFWIW, NC Renegade was/is looking for books to populate his community center library a while back. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ReplyDeleteAre there "little free libraries" in your area? Perhaps you could put the books there instead of "tossing" them. Some of your blog readers may be interested in them as well! Or consider having a yard sale just for books.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, Ikea bookshelves have glass fronts available... Billy bookshelves I believe is the line.
ReplyDeleteIf there are science fiction books in good condition, the Heinlein Society has a program that donates them to overseas military units...
ReplyDelete