(no subject)

[the_rck]

At this point, my big box is about 2/3 full of books I think might be worth selling. I’ve got a big pile on the floor of things I want to send to the Friends of the Library for their book sale. I’m judging what’s worth selling by looking at listings on AbeBooks, generally searching by ISBN. If the price for a used copy in about the condition of the one I’ve got goes over $5 or $6 by midway down the first page of results, I put the book in the box for Books By Chance. I figure that my ability to judge condition is iffy but that it’s probably worth letting someone else check.

I’m a bit surprised. Apparently some of my Margery Allingham paperbacks are worth selling. I’d never have guessed that.

Doonesbury books don’t seem to be worth much, so I’m not sure I’m going to bother doing anything with them given that I haven’t hauled them upstairs yet. Maybe Cordelia will find them a curiosity in another ten years. Then again, they fill two shelves…

There are still shelves in the basement that I haven’t weeded. I don’t know if I’ll do that this weekend or if I’ll wait for Monday. This weekend would be better simply because then we could get by with only one trip to the library. I’m also kind of eying some of the history books from my college years and wondering if they’re worth keeping, given that I haven’t opened them in more than twenty five years. I’m not going to read Behind the Urals or Before the Deluge again, and I’m not sure that Cordelia’s likely to take a class in college that uses either of those as texts. (I read the former in a class on the history of the Soviet Union and the latter in a class on theater in the Weimar Republic.)

I will have to let Scott go through the books to see if there are any he wants to keep. I don’t know if Cordelia will want to look, but I’ll make sure she has a chance.

I just need to find something to put the books to be donated in that I don’t mind not getting back.

Cordelia and I have not touched the stuffed animals. (Scott’s working late tonight, so his input will have to come later.)

Comments

[coneyislandbaby]

Aren't books the hardest thing to weed some days? Like I have a case I have to weed in the next few months. I know some will have to go and some aren't going ever, but there's the ones in the middle of that - the ones I've read and don't know if I will read again but I'd like to, the ones that I was given as gifts and don't want to get rid of due to sentimental value, etc. But it is a feeling of achievement when it is done.

[the_rck]

I think that I'm helped in the current weeding by the fact that I haven't reread much of anything in the last decade unless it was for fic writing purposes.

There are also a lot of occult/fairy tale/mythology/folklore reference-ish books that I bought in the late 1990s when I was GMing a lot of table top RPGs and wanted obscure source material. At this point, I'm likely to be able to find that stuff online, and I'm unlikely to run another game because the people we currently play with would be a very bad match for my style of GMing. I don't think I could run a game that they would enjoy, and, even if I could, it wouldn't be the sort of game I enjoy running.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

We have an annual book fair here for charity, Sis and I try and be ruthless and weed out at least a couple of boxes of books for them each year. Trouble is, we then go to the fair and I promptly buy more than I actually got rid of...

And I have been known to grab a book thinking "oh yes, that's just meeee" and as I'm leaving remember... that I put in IN the sale to start with! being a bibliophile with no memory is hard...

I haven’t opened them in more than twenty five years... be careful, my experience has been that as soon as you get rid of something... you want it :(

OTOH, if you give them to the library, with any luck, you can boorow them :)

[the_rck]

Sadly, our local library has a policy that it never, ever adds donated items to the collection. I think they make an exception for things coming from the author or from the publishing organization, but I can't go out and buy a book they should have and give it to them.

I've been mostly avoiding book sales for the last decade for that very reason.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

That's rather silly... oh, I'm sure they can give a reason, and I understand when it's books in poor condition, but I've given the local library some in as new over the years.