Throwing away Old Books and Magazines..Oh No!!

[Donovan]

I have a fixation for very very old books, I like the feel and look and even the smell of them. But new stuff I can generally get rid of pretty easily...

 

[jack]

I still have my first ed of the Seduction Of The Innocent, dust jacket and all.

 

[Gagh]

This is something that has irked me for years. Every since I was a child I was ALWAYS encouraged to keep any books that I had. Books to me were like Linus to his Blanket. Throwing away good books "regardless of the age and contents" was a cardinal sin during my youth.

Now that I am grown, I have a complete library of books in my living room ranging anywhere from Romance Novels to Auto-repair, to Repairing Analog Television and early model computers. Many of these books are so old and obsolete that they really serve no other puropse than to take up space and collect dust, but for some reason I simply cant find it within myself to part with them.

Even in my college days I was always afraid that if I ever got rid of any one of my books, one day I would need it as a reference and the information in it would be out of my reach forever. I don't know if this can be catagorized as some type of phobia or illness, but I have a whole room full of old outdated books that I can't seem to gather the strength to part with.

I even have a box filled with old "Omni" Magazines from the 1980's, as well as a set of old encyclopedias I got from my Dad many year ago that reads "who knows, with todays technology advancing at the rate that it is, one day we may even find a way to send a man to the moon"

I want to get rid of them, but at the same time, the very though of it is enough to make my skin crawl!

I buy so many books and magazines this is something I do every month or so. There's only one magazine I now keep (Fortean Times), and that's amongst 4 I am subscribed to (Official X-Box 360 Magazine, Empire & Private Eye being the others). I sold all my comics a long time ago, but I still have about 50-60 of them, and some TPBs.

Books also come and go. I probably own well over 2000 books, but a lot of paper books are easy come and easy go, so they all end down a local bookshop where I hand them in for no credit. Sometimes, if I finish one on a bus or a train, I'll leave it behind.

I may eventually get an eBook reader, but I like the feel of a proper book. Your eyes can only take so much looking at lit boxes throughout one day.

 

[Consumer]

Books are SO far superior to any sort of E-reader. It's a sensual experience, and relaxing.

Plus, I'd hate to bring a E-reader into the tub with me (and I love to read during a long soak...it's better than sex...er...sometimes).

 

[The Call Of Nature]

but it's rather annoying if the books get wet. Especially paperbacks look like they got a permanent wave afterwards. For the tub I much prefer audiobooks.

As my job requires me to travel a lot I have been seriousely considering for some time now to buy an ebook reader when they get cheaper. For the moment, on intercontinental flights I have to be content with 8 MB of audiobooks and a crossword or sudoku booklet.
Also, I prefer to read books in the original language (less typos, grammatical mishaps and utter mistranslations), and there aren't that many English, Italian, French or Dutch books available in the German market (yet) as most providers of ebooks don't permit customers from abroad to purchase their files.

Admittedly, real books are a more sensual pleasure, but we all don't get any younger and in a decade or two we might need stronger glasses or even a magnifying glass to read. How handy if you have an ebook reader that can display books in a large print. And for the genuine feeling, you can always wrap it up in a newspaper :biggrin: