Oh, yes! I have had to give away many books when I have moved back and forth between the UK and Australia because of the transport costs.

The ones I regret are the OOP novels I would like to read again.

I deplore the PC alterations although I cringe at some of the writing but they were true of the time. One attitude makes me smile though, as several authors then in their mid thirties refer to characters around fifty as old!

Thanks, Annpan. I also cringe at some of the inappropriate language but I do want to read books as written, warts and all. Don't mean to go off-topic.

Give away books?! Gasp!

I did exchange a copy with a friend of Red Moon and Black Mountain for an earlier printing that had the Bob Pepper cover, but later was sorry that I hadn't kept both of them. I also gave my paperback copy of The Thief to my grandchildren, since I had the hardcover edition, but later was sorry for the same reason - I liked the paperback cover illustration and now miss it.

I'm an inveterate re-reader, so I tend to keep every book I've ever bought. I've even purchased books after having read a library copy, because I expect to re-read it. Needless to say, I keep running out of shelf space.....

I never give books away. It would be like handing off one of my children. I have loaned a few out that came back in a very used-looking state, so I'm particular to whom I Ioan them now. I have books that I will never read again, but still . . .I

Ginny, not only language but attitudes can rile me! At one time a girl working in a tobacconist shop was viewed poorly in a number of books but I do not know why.

I agreed with a critic writing about Golden Age mysteries who remarked that the fictional maidservants who screeched at a dead body was in later real life the tough women who dug people out of Blitzed homes and didn't make fusses! Just got on with things...

I found a book at the library book sale that I read and loved and passed on to a friend who then moved. I kept thinking about that book and thought I'd buy a copy for my collection but then couldn't remember the title or the author. Every once in a while I would try to figure it out with Google but was never successful. Many years later, I was reading the Slightly Foxed catalogue and there it was! They were reprinting it under their own label in paperback. Not as nice an edition, but I immediately ordered it. The book is A House in Flanders by Michael Jenkins.

The other book I regret giving to the library book sale is the Robert Sabuda pop-up book Butterflies. All the Robert Sabuda pop-up books are beautiful, but this was one of his first and it was a family favorite. I can only find it used now and it's expensive for a children's book.

I have a rule - I have a place where I put books "TO BE DONATED" and then they sit there for a while. And if I change my mind, I just put it back on the shelves. I get rid of very very few books and those are mostly lousy book club choices that the library did not have available within the timeframe.

However, my house is showing the signs of my reluctance to get rid of books... haha. And I love it.

PAM

Carolyn - I love this story. Thank you for sharing. My house is the same way - books are wallpaper.

PAM

Walls of books are good insulation too. Speaking from experience.

Here's a story from the other side of the coin. We once lived in a distant state. A neighbor urged a book of hers on me. I didn't want it, told her we were moving and she might want it back. No, no she said. She was absolutely done with it. We moved and a year or so later I gave away the book. You guessed it. I received a note from her and after all, she did want the book back. I had to break the bad news to her.

Not so much 'giving a books away' but more lending a book to a so-called friend. Many years ago this 'friend' while visiting noticed that my young daughter had several copies of the 'Simon and the Witch' series, popular then as they had been made into several kids TV plays. She begged me to lend her these saying her daughter would really love to read them. I was doubtful as they were not my books and I seldom saw the 'friend'. Of course she swore blind that she would return them . . . and never did despite my repeated requests. In the end she more or less said "Well so what? They were only paperbacks." I'm still bearing the grudge more than my daughter . . .

Vee, I love a good grudge! Gives me something to brood over when I have wakeful nights!

Years ago, back in my uni days, I was visiting a friend. I noticed in her bookshelf she had a copy of "Watership Down"". As I pulled it out of the shelf I remarked, "Oh! I used to have a copy of this. I'd love to re-read it." Then I started to leaf through it- and saw my name written inside on the flyleaf LOL. I think my friend just forgot to return it (she had been through a couple of moves, as students do) , as I had forgotten that I had lent it to her.

When I was quite young, younger than 8 as that was when we moved away, I read a book at my older cousin's house about a girl who went to stay at (her grandmother's?) a relative's house and there met a girl called Sally, who became a friend and playmate. Later it turns out that Sally was the ghost of a little girl who had died many decades previously (possibly a sister or other relative of the grandmother's?) and her real name was Alice (if you say AliceAliceAliceAlice you can hear SallySallySally). I've always wanted to reread that book but never knew its title, so it will never happen :-/ I wish I'd kept the book :-)

@Annpan, I think back in those days, over 50 WAS old! I once saw a photo of some prominent politician and his wife from back in the 1920s, who were only in their 50s at the time. They looked at least 20 years older than I do now and I'm 64!

I wonder if the book merryworld now remembers reading A House in Flanders by Michael Jenkins was one I recommended years ago. I'm glad a new edition has come out as, if you enjoy a 'quiet read' you might like it. About a young man (or teen as we must say now) who spends a summer with some elderly Aunts in a rural area and their day-to-day comings and goings. Jenkins went on to become a diplomat.

Colleen, I think it was the way people dressed and did their hair appropriate to an age determination. Also adults who were "simple" were dressed to look like children with short dresses, ankle socks and strapped shoes.

I mentioned to my hairdresser that I had become a grandmother and she asked seriously if I wanted a blue rinse! I was in my early forties!

Now one can wear jeans and tee-shirts at any age although I prefer floaty figure concealing maxis in darker patterns.

Ann......though one can wear jeans and tees at any age it is my humble opinion that one should not !

I much prefer to see women in floaty , stylish dress who appear tastefully put together rather than older ladies sporting the "forever 21" look ( which includes the long spirals of curls cascading past their turkey necks ! )

Vee, yes that's the book. My friend was going through a difficult time so I have never regretted giving it to her, more annoyed at myself for not being able to remember the book.

Yoyobon, do women wear hats where you live? In spite of the sun here, they rarely seem to.

I don't leave the house without one of my big and varied collection, suited to the occasion, even taking the rubbish to the communal bin!

Perhaps this is why I still have thick glossy hair at nearly ninety? Sadly the remaining good feature!

Not as a fashion statement, but to protect from the sun or hide a bad hair day !

I never go out walking or in the sun at all without my large brim sun hat. I have an old Helen Kaminski rafia hat that I've had for years and it is my favorite.

Yoyobon, I have the same one! They cost $AU375 here in the upmarket department shops but I found one in a charity shop for only $AU3.00!

It had been badly crushed flat but I steamed it back into shape. So comfortable.

I rank it as one of my best bargains.

Ann, when is your birthday? I'll be 90 in July. (Yesterday I was graduating from high school.)

I always wear a hat in the sun too, to shade my eyes as much as my face. My most flattering straw hat is one I bought at Bradlees for five dollars many years ago. I have bought a pile of others, including an expensive--by my standards--genuine Panama but always go back to my Bradlees special. They went out of business years ago, alas.

The only problem is that it doesn't have ties and blows off. Its most glamorous escapade was at the Villa Gamberaia near Florence. It blew off my head and into the water feature. I had to roll up my pants and wade in to retrieve it. Then try to get the algae off which didn't happen til I got home. But a flattering hat is not to be discarded easily.

Ann......wow ! that was a real steal for $AU3.00 ! I paid $65 for mine in TJMaxx almost 20 years ago and it's still going strong. I accidentally left it on top of my car one time and drove away from my son's drive. It blew off into a sluiceway along the road and my son found it almost 1 month later. It was soiled and limp......I dunked it into my hot tub and let it dry. The raffia tighten up again. Every time it seems to go limp I dip it in water and let it dry. Best investment I ever made ! I also found a shoulder sling tote bag to match it also by Helen Kaminski...at a garage sale for $1.00.

@ginny12, that's what hat pins are for :-D

Carolyn, I will be 89 on May 12th. I was born on the Coronation Day of George the Sixth.

I will be 82 on June 26th and was born three weeks after the D-Day invasion. I often wonder what it was like for my mother, alone while Dad was in service. A very unstable world to be born into.

Bon, my brother will be 82 in May. My mom was alone with a baby, too - my dad was in the Phillippines. Dad wanted mom to stay with his family so she took a series of trains from central Florida to Colorado, pregnant at 16, to live with in-laws she had never met. My brother was 18 months old before dad ever saw him.

I didn’t come along until 17 years later, and my sister 2 years after me!

Donna

All the life stories in this group are so fascinating to me.

I think I would have made a good investigative reporter :0)

One day while walking on a neighborhood street an elderly neighbor beckoned me to come and sit on the porch with him and "take a load off".

Not knowing a lot about him I asked " what is your story ?"

He looked at me perplexed and I added " everyone has a backstory to tell...."

So he began his tale.

He was in the Air Force during WWII as a parachutist and on his very first mission he was shot down over Germany and taken prisoner for 18 months.

I asked about his treatment there and he said he was in one of the "better" prisons .

I then asked how he knew he was freed and he said that they all went out into the yard one morning to get air and noticed that the German guards were no longer in the towers....and the yard had Russian soldiers telling everyone they were free to leave.

Interestingly, when he related this experience to a German war bride on my street because the prison was in the town where she had lived, she denied having any prisons in her town and stated that he was wrong !

Of course, he was right.....and I'm not sure whether or not she was aware of the prison.

Yoyobon, some people have surprising stories and just need a good listener. I used to write a column for a local newspaper, filling in for a reporter on sick leave. I would go to the police station or the charity shop. There was always someone there with a tale for me to write up!

I looked up the Kaminsky tote bags and their eye-watering prices so you did extremely well!

One other hat bargain was a mink beret for a mere 50c. in a charity shop bin. I asked the assistant in disbelief if that was the right price and she said huffily she would not reduce it!

It was brand new and I wondered why it was given away as this was before fur went out of fashion.

I once bought a handbag which had a good luck $20 note tucked in a pocket. An unwanted gift kindly donated I would guess. I gave the note to the charity as it was not right to keep the luck.

You are so right, Annpan. Everyone does have a story. I have urged my friends to just "talk" theirs into a recording for their children and grandchildren but no takers yet. I tell my stories to my own family but I'm not sure they are listening to all of them!

In doing genealogy, I have wondered about some of the most basic questions, like where did various ancestral couples meet? That alone can bring forth some fascinating stories. How I wish I had asked my grandparents more questions--tho I did ask them that one.

My maternal grandfather told me they met "doing the Nantucket". It took me many years to learn what the Nantucket was. I even contacted the Nantucket Historical Society which didn't answer me. But I found it at last in a circa 1900 newspaper. It was a circle dance with one extra man. Kind of like muscial chairs. Every time the music stopped, the extra man could choose a girl and that couple would drop out of the dance. At the end, there was just one man left with no partner. Lots of fun and laughing and a good way for young people to meet each other.

Ginny, I too wish I had asked more questions about my family. My grandmother had been "in service" and did tell me some of her stories. With all the interest in the TV shows about the Upstairs and Downstairs lives, I now would have liked to hear more of her experiences.

I heard far too much about my parents getting together as they married secretly, in the face of disapproval from both families, who never really got over it.

Us old folks have a lot of memories, both good and not so good, don't we? My dad was drafted into th e Navy in 1944. He had an enlarged heart and four children, the youngest just a few weeks old. They must have been scraping the bottom of the barrel. He was discharged with a medical discharge six months later.

Bottom of the barrel indeed! In England my father got called up into the Army even though he was almost blind in one eye and suffered bodily as a result of childhood malnourishment!

He was sent to Persia to liaise with local sheiks who provided workmen for building facilities.

Apparently he was fine, away from the fighting and was able to access the nearby US camp for recreation etc. He did get injured by stepping on a nail by the swimming pool!

We were in London enduring the Blitz,,,,

"enduring the Blitz".......I always wonder how humans can do intentional harm to other innocent humans. It sickens me to imagine such soul-less behavior.

Ten years ago I decided to create albums for each side of our family and tell their stories with written memories and photos, newspaper articles . I made one for my mother's Sicilian family and another for my father's Ukrainian family. Then I created an album for my husband's Irish ancestors on both sides ......yes, he is 100% Irish ( blarney included gratis !)

I discovered some amazing things while doing searches on Ancestry.

For instance....my mother's mother had an older sister no one knew about or spoke of !

I came across her photo in Ancestry and thought she looked like my grandmother and through some coincidences connected with a distance cousin who helped shed light on her relationship to my grandmother !

My Sicilain grandfather immigrated to New Orleans and worked on a plantation when he was 15. His name was Andrew ( or Andrea in Italian) . I discovered that the plantation owner's name was Andrew Hynes Gay ........and Hynes is my husband's ( and my) last name !!!

No relation.....or was he ?!

After all those albums were completed, I created one of my own life and memories from my birth through this decade of my life. I felt like that project was more for me than others.........though I would love to sit with a grandchild and tell my stories.

Sadly, no one seems interested in those albums or stories.

But I felt compelled to create them to give testament to the fact that we were more than what you knew and instill in whoever might sit down and read those albums a sense of all those who came before us .

Good for you, Yoyobon, for creating those family records. My mother's oldest sister was very interested in genealogy, and I typed some of her records for her. She repaid me by giving me a handwritten chart of her findings. How she would have loved present-day technology. She used to chase around to old cemeteries and such looking for folks.

Carolyn, I agree that technology has opened up so many ways of findings people who have 'gone before'. Here in the UK it is now so easy to follow ancestors that moved from rural settings into big town and cities looking for work, not to mention the lists of long-gone forebears their siblings, children and occupations.

My US relations seemed to have kept better notes on their lineage although some of them have got confused by fathers and sons having been given the same first name, so claim that someone has brothers over 40 years older than other siblings or that a woman gave birth to a child when in her 60's or after she was dead . . .

Unfortunately none of them can accurately trace back to where they came from so claim they were all Lords or other 'high-ups' . . . most unlikely!

Vee, my aunt's record of the arrival of the first John Duncan to Virginia in the 1700s was disputed at a get together after she died. Some northener thought she had the wrong man. I was glad she wasn't there to hear it. He may have been right, but she had worked so hard. And does it really matter?

Carolyn, of course in the great Scheme of Things it doesn't matter, but to my English grandmother her expectations of taking tea with the Queen would have been dashed. Her Grandfather was the result of a liaison between a probable kitchen maid and Henry Lascelles, Earl of Harewood back in about 1800. She was told by her own Mother that "they were not a nice family" (money made in W Indies sugar) but a generation or two down the line the then Princess Royal (sister of Edward VIII and George VI) was married off to a Lascelles and as the saying went "Never smiled again." And sorry Granny, but only legitimate issue can lay claim to a vast fortune and a Royal tea-party."

No Royal tea parties for us, although Auntie did have a Princess Anne married to a landowner in early New England listed in the family tree. One great-aunt is remembered to have said, "I don't know why we think we're better than other people, but we do." My daughter is convinced ii's that princess coming through.

I am a librarian by training, so the concept of curating a collection is second nature to me. I do it regularly. If I kept every book that came into my possession I would soon become a hoarder.

When we moved to a much smaller house in Colorado we got rid of about a third of our books. Nonetheless we still have a lot of books. I expect to keep most of the ones we currently have, and of course we will add more as time goes on.

I have re-purchased a few of those discarded books when I realized I had made a mistake, but only about a dozen or so. Most of my and my husband's decisions were the right ones.