I can't imagine not taking my books with me - they're my friends! We reread or refer to pretty much everything we own, often so much so that some of our books are literally worn to tatters and are held together with packing tape. If we both hated a book so much that we're never, ever going to reread it, it doesn't stay in our collection though, we just can't spare the room for it. Bookcrossing.com has a wonderful setup of "releasing books into the wild" and tracking where they go, which is much fun. I've had to get rid of so many books over the years it's heartbreaking to me (especially when I was young, I moved at least once a year and was allowed to take along one small box of books!), and the REAL sh***er is when you really want to reread a book that you got rid of years ago but you cannot remember either the title or author, and it's so long out of print that no one in the bookstore or library knows what the heck you are talking about. When I was in college I had to sell my books back to the bookstore at the end of every semester so that I could afford the next semester's books, and I do miss some of those for reference. I tracked down a few and bought them again a few years ago. My library unfortunately kind of blows if you don't read mysteries or what I call "beach books" - unfortunately that's been the case in the last four towns I've lived in. If you read SF like I do you're REALLY out of luck! I wish I had the budget and the space to get every book I wanted. I don't think all the different colored paperbacks look cheesy or tacky at all, I think it's a warm and fun look, and I can learn a lot about someone by looking at the books on their bookshelves. We did weed some books out in our recent move - we didn't have anywhere near as many as some other posters, but there were still enough that the movers whined and moaned about lugging them! Enough boxes to fill about half of a 12x15 room floor to ceiling. The library's half unpacked now, quite the job. I don't think they're all going to make it onto shelves, we need to get some more shelves.

Susie, sorry, but you were the one who was seeming to poo-poo others for talking about the grammar being wrong and indicating that it is too frivolous to talk about in this world of huge problems. In other words, belittling those who cared enough to discuss the question. I wasn't saying you should keep quiet; my post was because it seemed to me that you were\ saying that people who were finding fault with the grammar were petty and shouldn't be caring about it. It's all in interpretation. My interpretation was that you were dishing it out.

I would like to make it clear that the reason I don't have a coffee table is because of lack of space! I have gone for a nest of tables in my small sitting area. I used to have a lovely glass topped one which was given to me when I lived in the UK but I had to leave it behind when I moved back to Australia. I used it for pot plants and put it where it would catch the sun,,,so still no books on it! Woodnymph, you could be right about the glue. The worst dog damage I had was when one of my deerhounds decided to tear open a couch to make a nest of the filling to give birth!

carolb mentioned paper dolls. Amazon used to have some very nice paper doll books as did the book store. I think that is not a strange gift for a grown woman, especially if she is old enough to have played with paper dolls as a child. I have several on my shelf. Some of them are really spectacular! I think both the coloring book and the paper dolls are both great ideas for that! Amazon or the book store, if you still have one.