Unless they were boring, I buy another shelf and add them to the collection. I reread good ones regularly. Just looking at them on the shelf can set off a memory cascade near to actually doing so. It takes many boxen to move house!
Comment on Discussion Thread đ Sunday 21 December 2025
Seagoon_@aussie.zone â¨19⊠â¨hours⊠ago
What do youse guys do with books once you have read them?
Do you keep everything, keep some, toss all?
I tend to keep reference books, work/technical books that I use and books I havenât read yet. The rest are given away or donated or even put in the trash. I have little sentimentality regarding books, it has to be very special to keep.
Catfish@aussie.zone â¨19⊠â¨hours⊠ago
Seagoon_@aussie.zone â¨18⊠â¨hours⊠ago
I reread books a lot too, only get rid of them after a few reads.
I have a lot of boxes worth of art books, mostly technical or australian , well, not that many really, maybe 5
CEOofmyhouse56@aussie.zone â¨19⊠â¨hours⊠ago
Exactly the same as you.
I donât buy books any more because I donât wanna make the decision of keep, throw, donate.
Seagoon_@aussie.zone â¨19⊠â¨hours⊠ago
I only buy technical books now or out of print or books that arenât digitised, the rest is audiobooks
CEOofmyhouse56@aussie.zone â¨19⊠â¨hours⊠ago
I have a lot of books to go through for my future bookcases already. I donât wanna add to the decision making later on. I have so many I still need to read.
Seagoon_@aussie.zone â¨18⊠â¨hours⊠ago
Iâm going thru my books and records this week, I always find items to toss
RustyRaven@aussie.zone â¨19⊠â¨hours⊠ago
I rarely read physical books any more. I used to have lots of them, I had filled a big bookshelf and was trying to figure out where I could fit another one. Then it occured to me that the money I was looking to spend on a new shelving unit could buy a lot of books at the secondhand book store. If I did decide to read them again it would be cheaper to just buy them again than to pay to keep them. I gave away almost all the books (and managed to sell a few of the better ones) and now only keep reference type boooks I may want to go back to.
I find it a bit odd how sentimental people get about books, as if giving away books is somehow destroying knowledge instead of spreading it.
PeelerSheila@aussie.zone â¨9⊠â¨hours⊠ago
I used to keep everything, but moving around a lot and renting made it really hard. I lost most of my books after a bad break-up. Now, with the Minipeelers in the picture and living in a small space, theyâve got heaps of books and occasionally we do a cull to pass some over to younger relatives. Theyâre allowed to keep as much as they like.
I will never forget living alone in a freezing house a couple of decades ago, with no money and a fireplace. I had every jacket and doona and was still freezing, so I made the decision to burn some books to keep warm. As a former student of literature, this was heartbreaking. The process of deciding which books would be burnt and which could not was not something I ever wish to repeat.
useless_modern_god@aussie.zone â¨19⊠â¨hours⊠ago
I keep everything.