Marda, I used to be one of those people who never got rid of a book. Somehow to me it seemed almost sacrilegious to do so. Of course, that's when I had a much bigger house & a lot more space for shelves.

These days I've got to be much more ruthless with my collection, plus the fact that those shelves do have to be dusted every once in a while.

It is interesting to take them down off the shelves and flip through the pages. I never know what I'm going to find - an old to do list or an airline boarding pass used as a bookmark, a newspaper article having to do with the subject of the book, passages highlighted & all the marginalia.

And yes, I frequently find a book that I had forgotten about, but brings back wonderful memories. Mostly when I tackle this job it takes a whole lot longer than I had anticipated because I'm always stopping to look at one book or another.

We just took a large box of books to the library as a donation and causally flipped through them while putting them in the box and felt like we hit the jackpot. There was a dollar bill near the back of Sagan's Broca's Brain, must have used it as a book mark.

Gosh I love the titles of those chapters.

I like reading old medical advisors. Chapters about "Female Troubles" etc...

I've got a great teen guide from the 50's. Chapters on dating are funny as the wording and pictures are quaint while trying to warn girls of the perils of dating. A favorite picture is titled something like "Carol is a little too loud, too eager to please the boys and wears her sweaters a little too tight - you don't want to be 'that kind of girl'."

I halved my books when we moved a few years ago, and lately I've really tried cutting back on new purchases until I catch up with unread stacks. I've been tossing the Hamilton and Daedalus catalogs immediately, but succumbed tonight to glancing through the Timber Press catalog and found two "must-haves" then checked my shelves...yes, I already own them. LOL Felt almost guilty about neglecting my gardening books...I can remember the days before the net when I almost memorized each one.

Marda, DH is a train buff too and even has an HO gauge train layout for which he handcrafts little tiny buildings. By the way, Hamilton Books usually have heavily discounted books on all aspects of railroading. We watched a tv show just this week on a train buried by a snow avalanche in which almost 100 people died. Just horrible.

Beanmomma, LOL I well remember the phrase "that type of girl". Another was "no better than she should be". With all the euphemisms it's a wonder we got the message. josh

The young girls of today could benefit from your book
Beanmomma. I wonder now what would the book of today
have to say ?

Soon, I will be forced to be brutal when it comes to
cleaning out my book shelves. I was just looking at them
this morning and trying to decide what I would be willing
to part with. Perhaps i'll just wear a blindfold and start
tossing. I have over 300 cookbooks to start with and lord
only knows how many gardening books. birding books, history.
I can't stand it. Maybe I should have shelves built in
every room in the condo then I could keep them all.:0)

I'm going to bed now and I hope there are no horrific
nightmares about little green men swooping down and
stripping my bookshelves bare.

I can't imagine living in a place without books. Actually, I can't imagine living without books, period. There is no question that I should be thinning their ranks... I did that several years ago, and there are still occasions when I regret it, both for references no longer at hand and for light reading. There are times when it is beyond comfort to re-read an old book; not because you don't remember it, but because the familiar rhythm can soothe the unsettled spirit like nothing else.

No doubt there are structural limitations regarding how many pounds of books can be stored in the attic... and I suspect I'm approaching the limit. I think I need a new residence, one that has at least several rooms for bookshelves. Surely it would be easier to move, than to select which of my old friends could be discarded.

Seriously- aren't there schools and libraries in disadvantaged areas which would be grateful to have some of those books? I always seem to hear of those places AFTER the fact... the tiny library which had burned, but was re-built and contents replaced; the little school using 50-year old textbooks... I think we need to find a library which realizes that a good book written 10, 20, or 30 years ago is just as good (and often better) than those more recently written. Either that, or have a big yard sale...

I'm another one who can't imagine living without books, but I am also a ruthless weeder of stuff that's been around for a long time or even not very long. I give lots of books away through the university because there are so many places in the world where there are not enough. But I have old books of literary theory that are so outdated that they are worthless (more of these in my office than at home) and are good for little more than recycling, and of the newer stuff some is available online. Same with reference--I get so much online that it's not necessary to keep stuff on the shelves. Unless a book is rare or out of print and not readily available, I can live without it in my finite space. On the other hand, I buy books constantly. The point is I just don't keep them forever.

I have a sister-in-law who even has her old textbooks from college, and also her husband's. Spending time huddling in the midst of their crowded bookshelves--there is not a bare wall in the place--is practically claustrophobic. It's all I can do not to just start heaving things.

Pidge, DH is the same way about his college textbooks even though I've tried to point out to him that a 40-year-old book on organic chemistry is hardly worth cluttering up the shelves. I usually spirit one or two of them periodically to the recycling bin when I'm in a clearing out mood.

My little library is always looking for books to add to it's collection, & the librarian regularly goes through the used book donations looking for things to add to the shelves. However, any text that's over about 10 years old probably just needs to get pitched. Information is changing/being added too too quickly these days, for those books to have much value.

Some of my favorite old book finds were "de-accessioned" from libraries, which worries me. A book of aerial photos of my hometown taken back before WWI. That one I returned to the library...urging that it go in the reference section so maybe it wouldn't get tossed just because it hadn't been checked out in a while. I was so-o-o tempted to keep it! A marvelous book from 1901 with chapters on indoor gardening, aquariums, etc. from a library in Minnesota...fun to imagine what it must have meant to someone in that climate to have plants and fish inside to get them through winter way back then.

Someone who didn't garden might have tossed the Beverly Nichols and Stillmeadow books, Margery Fish and Richardson Wright from my library which I so enjoyed when first starting to garden. I've since bought my own copies just to have at hand. A lot of my English garden books date back to the 1920-1930's or are reprints of even earlier books.

Have y'all read Nicholas Brisbane on libraries tossing out books/newspapers? It's scary. I think about the old maps, etc. full of history but certainly out of date. I see them turn up on the Antiques Roadshow occasionally. If some individual hadn't tucked them away in an attic they'd be lost forever. I'd love to have an old US road map from 1934 as my parents drove from GA to IL to attend the Chicago World's Fair. My Mom was pregnant with me at the time...I'd love to find out more about the road conditions ...I know they stayed in "boarding houses".

And now I hesitate to toss garden catalogs since I get so much pleasure from them...I'm afraid they may all be discontinued soon. I sort of regret tossing my old Wayside and White Flower Farm catalogs when I moved...haven't ordered from either in years but in those 1970 catalogs were the first plants I mail-ordered. Sniff!

I'm rambling, but as I tell my family, my interests are books and plants...so the fact that you can't see out my windows because of plants and that all wall space has bookshelves is just something they've had to live with...LOL josh

Over the years my passion for Nature, Wildlife, Birding,
History, Cooking, Travel and Entertaining has led me down
the path to so much happiness, joy and new friends.

It goes beyond anything that I could ever explain in a few
short words or paragraphs. How can you describe the joy
of discovering a new bird in your garden, or that warm
summer day when a Hummingbird softly settles down on your
finger to sip nectar from the tiny cup in your hand.

Books can bring us the information we need to experience
the world around us. They can take us to far away places,
make us laugh out loud or bring tears to our eyes. Thay can
open up our hearts and minds to a deeper understanding of
our fellowman.

I can give away novels, story books and such but I could
never part with those books that are as much a part of me
as my heart.

Marda, my poor books are dusty and crammed on the shelves in a hap-hazard mess---a reflection I don't need a mirror for.

Speaking of trains, I hope Mr. Marda was able to catch that show on the History Channel about trains the other night.
There used to be over 1,000,000 people employed by the RR early in the century; (I think many were killed doing their daily jobs). now I believe there are only about 170,000---seems like a lot, still. I know one of my train buddies told me they are ALWAYS on call; no real days off.

If I remember right, there are about 22,000 engines in service these days and over 1,000,000 assorted boxcars, gondolas---pronounced
gon-DOUGH-lahs---,tankers and flatcars.

They also included showing these HUGE, beautiful engines being built----they actually start with the bottom and have this huge metal plate up-side down for all the under-carriage work, and it is then is then flipped over right-side up for the internals and bodywork to be built upon. It's then moved along on a cushion of air from bay to bay, as it becomes more and more a behemoth. Amazing. Amazing!

3% more fuel efficient----consider the miles one of those babies covers---it adds up!

We in the Shenandoah Valley are hoping and praying there will be rails installed along I81 to help ease the HUGE amount of truck traffic rolling through day and night---it makes more sense than just gobbling up much more land for more lanes.

OK; just had to jump in because I heard the word 'trains'----PS---the same track that runs behind the little car lot also runs behind the salvage auction where I am 5 days a week--(Saturdays I'm at the car lot, still.)---most of my freight-train buddies know I'm there and give me notice before they rumble by----I feel like a Queen when they do that and wave their white hankies out the window as I wave back with all the gusto I have....Don't want it to end....Don't want it to end.....I love the trains with all of the child's heart inside of me.

Kathy Jane, we'll mention trains more often if you'll come out and wave to us! Trains back during WWII carried over 90% of the personnel and equipment moved across the US during the war. I remember whie living in the Arizona desert that because it was so flat we saw trains pulling perhaps 100 cars...just seemed it took forever for them to pass. And, MJ, in those days all had a caboose and the engineer and the guy on the caboose would wave at you if you waved...I love trains too. josh

It's a near impossibility for me to get rid of books. Mostly we keep adding bookcases and I believe there about 2,000 titles scattered throughout the house. It was easy to toss Mr. Suzanne's 1991 Federal Tax Codes though.

I've always been impressed with Andie's prodigious reading habits and her obvious love of books. A couple of years ago the movie "Fahrenheit 451" was on late night. It came to the part where the authorities found a woman's very large personal hidden library. They tossed all the books off a balcony into a huge pile and set them ablaze. The woman chose to stay and perish with her beloved books....all I could think of was Andie - going down with her books!!

The quirkiest and most lovely book in my library is a handmade book entitled, "Dave's Trek to Nepal", copy number 29/100, purchased at a local estate sale. The subtitle is, "a personal account of a trip from September 14th to October 16, 1990 by David Laughlin".

It is beautifully covered in colored Lokta paper from Nepala and the interior sheets are of Rives, a French archival quality paper. The pages contain the account of his trip, sketches, block prints from prayers wheels, hand applied photos and more. It's just beautiful.

The author had originally agreed to a trip sponsored by something called the Warren Foundation, which promised high adventure in Nepal and filming for PBS. Unfortunately time revealed the foundation to be a scam and some of the money the author had invested disappeared along with the head of the "foundation". Being an enterprising fellow, Laughlin contracted to produce paintings of Nepal and sold subsciptions to the pre-publication of this book.

Suzanne, I think you're right. Going down with my books would be my own version of suttee (or however you spell it). I can't imagine anyone doing that to someone's books.

Today when I was reading the Sunday NY Times there was an article in the business section about a web site where you can list all your books & also look at other people's collections. It's called LibraryThing.com. I haven't had time today to go & check it out, but it sounds really interesting.

We sci fi/fantasy readers NEVER give back books, but collect them and love them, returning to them when nothing new has come our way. I rarely get anything new here in Israel, so I rely on the one, maybe two used shops in Haifa, where the pickin's are slim and new stuff is a luxury and very expensive. My partner wails and moans over the state of my two bookshelves (messy, crammed, etc.) but I know exactly what is where. Years ago, my beloved books, which I laboriously brought with me overseas, was stored at an acquaitance's home while I relocated. There was a family fight, and her brother in a pique threw every book into the garbage, and I only found two survivors to tell the tale. Woodchip first edition of Our Bodies Ourselves, other jewels of sci fi fantasy from the seventies, you name it, GONE. Since then I've never let anybody have power over my library. I would curl up and fade away without my books, like without my garden. WHat I can't explain is my refusal to throw out a huge amount of old magazines, like The Whole Earth Review (I have them from when it was the Coevolution Quarterly); Mothering; the Sun, etc. Why do they mean so much? NO answer. Oh well, if this were only my wierdest quirk........

Batya, I too loved the Whole Earth Catalog, had the original and some issues of the later incarnations. And the first edition of Our Body Ourselves too. Held on to them until we downsized about 5 years ago.

What I most regretted having to toss was several years' issues of some the old underground newspapers (I used to help index for the Alternative Press Index). I wonder if there is a complete collection of those old weeklies (or sometimes erratic monthlies) in any library. There were hundreds but most didn't last more than a year or so and yet, I believe, had such impact.

Hope you'll post more often...it's interesting to hear from another country about books or whatever...josh

Gladys Taber is a favorite author of mine. After cleaning out your book shelves, does anyone have books which she wrote which you no longer need? If you would like to dispose of her books please let me know and I would gladly take them off your shelves. The library in our small town just does not carry her books and I am at a great loss. Thank you for your kindness.

Andie, tell your DH that I have my 60+ year old organic chemistry book is still on my shelf. It's going to stay there too! Ditto for my college math books. Which reminds me....one thing that has been bothering me since the grandkids started school.

Math concepts that I was taught in college are now being given to students in Middle School.

Is this an improvement? Or a disaster?

I have about two shelves devoted to my boys teenage love affair with Sci-fi and Westerns. They won't take them home with them, don't want me to throw them out even if I could bring myself to do it.

Agnes, it's neither disaster or advantageous, just inevitable that they're teaching it earlier and earlier. How does what you were taught in grade school compare to when your parents in grade school? Your grandparents? Your great-grandparents? But kids today learn those things before they even hit the school's front doors. And we're not even that old, nor was it all that long ago they weren't teaching higher concepts earlier on. It's just more available information now. 'sides, Math makes life easier; we use it daily and in so many tasks. ;D

Robin, the problem may be that it is inevitable, but the results, based on how American kids are doing on standardized tests, or compared to what is done in other countries, is not always good. Somehow or other the idea that doing simple things over and over again until it becomes automatic is old fashioned and no longer needed. We have calculators for that. So, kids don't do simple mathematics well. They are exposed to basic calculus when they can't even manage to balance a check book or to figure how much the interest on a credit card is costing them.

There is certainly more information available today. No doubt about that. But the simple principles of simple math have not changed. We will always add, subtract, multipy and divide the same way as has been done for centuries. Students need to know how to EASILY calculate things for themselves. The higher math can wait until they master basic elements of simple math.

And, oh yeah, things when I went to school were much, much different from those in my grandparents day. They didn't get to go to school. My grandmother could read and write. My grandfather could not. I doubt if their parents could either.

Tending to agree with agnespuffin. The more advanced concepts of math are presented at an earlier age, but great, huge hunks of proficiency in basic skills aren't following suit. A typical fifteen year old knows all about ranges and domains, but if they're at a cash register and the tally is $1.15 and you hand them a fiver, then change your mind and add fifteen cents so you can get four dollars back, they have to void the transaction and re-ring it, or worse yet call a manager in to do it for them. It happens so frequently I actually had to ask my husband to stop messing their minds over, puleese and let them hand out what the register says, because we were holding up the food lines. Same goes for spelling. How many times have you seen somebody add an apostrophe before the 's' when they make something plural?

Momwells2U, I have an old Gladys Taber cooking book. I remember when she had a syndicated column in one of the periodicals. Her books read like her old columns do, chatty and warm. A 1940s edition of Joy of Cooking is my kitchen bible, but Gladys Taber's book comes in second.

Oh I'm not arguing they're screwing it up, just that they're making assumptions they shouldn't make. Inevitable. Why fight it? I just teach my youngin' to do it myself, filling in the gap. Not only can he make change, he can calculate tax, and a 10%, 15%, or 20% tip. Kinda funny? He'll correct me on it. I'll say, "You want that water gun? It's $20 and you only have $10. If you save $3 per week of spending money each week, how many weeks will it take...." and he'll say, "Mom, you mean $22, you forgot tax.". It's actually 9.25%. By rounding up, he'll end up with extra pennies, not lack enough. He knows that. Yes, our sales tax is astronomical, but we don't have a state income tax. Besides, it taxes everyone who spends $$$, not just those that earn money. Kinda like a flat tax.

batya, you got that right, SF/F readers don't throw out books, that's why I just had to get a couple more shelves, found some more books I had still stored in a couple of boxes.But I also can't throw out other books and if you add to that my husbands hobby, collecting books, and the fact that due to space restricions one of my sons still has most of his books at the house, I am running out of wallspace.
Finally forced myself to get rid of some titles, brought them to a charity and found there so many books I did not have, had not read, that I came home with more books then I got rid off.
I just try to picture the house if we did not have a good library around. Would we camp out in the backyard?

Momwells2u, Amazon has used books by Gladys Taber for $2 up...might be worth a look. I've also ordered used books from Powell Books which I was very pleased with. I only have a couple of Gladys Taber books but like Calliope, I treasure them for rereading. Luckily our library had a good selection so I've read several others.

Have you asked if your local library can order the books for you thru an Interlibrary Loan Program...here the service is free and when the books arrive you're notified, then have I believe 30 days to read them and can renew for an additional 30 days if no other requests have come in. I don't remember how many books you could request each time but I have memories of wondering if my canvas bag straps would give way...lol josh