Culling books

[LMcD]

You are, of course, correct.

"The Deceivers" (the almost-first in the series) is an interesting read, and I often listen to the radio version with David Collings and his wife Karen Archer.

As are you, in one respect! I didn't realize (until somebody on the Forum kindly put me right) that, although 'The Dead of Jericho' was the first Inspector Morse novel to be adapted for TV, the first to be published was 'Last Bus To Woodstock'.

[LMcD]

Unfair of me to say this, but I do hate Oxfam bookshops. With their massive publicity machine and free donations of books, they have killed off many a revered secondhand bookshop. I remember going to Kendal, back in the day, and there were many wonderfully eccentric secondhand bookshops, full of character - staircases, corridors, unexpected rooms crammed with books - then along came Oxfam and they all were forced out of business.

Our local Oxfam bookshop closed to the public to become a centre of online activity only, which was closed in turn. We have a second-hand bookshop which has many thousands of books, many of which lie in unsorted piles cluttering up the many aisles, and which I therefore refuse to use for fear of tripping up and ending up in the local hospital! When it comes to new and current publications we also have an independent bookshop which, I'm pleased to say, is a much safer place to visit. Our local W H Smith (I haven't checked to see if the name has changed yet) does its best to undercut its rival with some pretty hefty discounts on best-sellers.

[HighlandDougie]

Unfair of me to say this, but I do hate Oxfam bookshops.

It probably makes me a bad person but so do I - there is something off-puttingly corporate about Oxfam. No doubt they would say that being business-like increases the amount of money they raise but I can't bring myself to donate books to them. In this area (Highland Perthshire) a not insignificant part of what the French would call the 'Bâtiment Voyageurs' of Pitlochry Station is a charity bookshop, entirely staffed with volunteeers and raising money for local good causes. So, that's where the culled books go. I also sometimes donate once-read hardbacks (like Ian Rankin or William Boyd) to the local library. Having an excellent local - new - bookshop in Aberfeldy and a very good "small but perfectly formed" second-hand one, is a great temptation to buy books but, on the basis that I have no more space, "one in = one out".

Hi-fi is another area where it's easy to accumulate too many now-discarded boxes but sometimes serendipity intervenes. I had an old fridge removed and a new one delivered last Friday when one of the two young men undertaking the task spotted the new Andrew Manze Butterworth/Holst CD lying next to the SACD player and started humming some Butterworth. Clearly interested in music, they were about to leave when he asked about hi-fi. I asked him if he might be interested in a CD player and an amplifier (both Primare, so good quality stuff). Anyway, he left, happy with them (I hope), and that was two fewer boxes to worry about,

[vinteuil]

Unfair of me to say this, but I do hate Oxfam bookshops. With their massive publicity machine and free donations of books, they have killed off many a revered secondhand bookshop. I remember going to Kendal, back in the day, and there were many wonderfully eccentric secondhand bookshops, full of character - staircases, corridors, unexpected rooms crammed with books - then along came Oxfam and they all were forced out of business.

... not unfair of you at all : I have acquaintances in the second-hand books world, and oxfam has largely destroyed their business model. And, of course, while they were being attacked on the one side by the charity shops, on the other side the real challenge was the arrival of the interweb with products like abe.books (the cannier bookshops jumped on this, and have prospered accordingly; the smaller/slower perhaps sank without trace)

I'm a hypocrite, of course : I have bought books from oxfam, and donated; I have made much use of abe.books and similar.

But I am so conscious that in this, as in so many other things, I am part of a lucky generation : when I was up and about and travelling here and elsewhere, a regular joy was visiting an unknown town* and finding a good second-hand bookshop, and subsequent browsing - finding books you didn't know existed, didn't know you wanted - needed!

I now have (I think) most of what I can ever reasonably want out of book acquisition - and of course now the internet is the ideal way of filling gaps.

But I am so happy that when I wanted second-hand bookshops, they were there - and I lament for a younger generation that will miss out on the joys of the quest - "ah, there's the one volume of the macmillan Henry James I have been looking for for the last twenty years... "

* Church Stretton! - the four vol edn of the works of Thomas Gray for £2!! the rare Geoffrey Keynes six vol edn of Sir Thomas Browne for £3!!!

[Petrushka]

... not unfair of you at all : I have acquaintances in the second-hand books world, and oxfam has largely destroyed their business model. And, of course, while they were being attacked on the one side by the charity shops, on the other side the real challenge was the arrival of the interweb with products like abe.books (the cannier bookshops jumped on this, and have prospered accordingly; the smaller/slower perhaps sank without trace)

I'm a hypocrite, of course : I have bought books from oxfam, and donated; I have made much use of abe.books and similar.

But I am so conscious that in this, as in so many other things, I am part of a lucky generation : when I was up and about and travelling here and elsewhere, a regular joy was visiting an unknown town* and finding a good second-hand bookshop, and subsequent browsing - finding books you didn't know existed, didn't know you wanted - needed!

I now have (I think) most of what I can ever reasonably want out of book acquisition - and of course now the internet is the ideal way of filling gaps.

But I am so happy that when I wanted second-hand bookshops, they were there - and I lament for a younger generation that will miss out on the joys of the quest - "ah, there's the one volume of the macmillan Henry James I have been looking for for the last twenty years... "

* Church Stretton! - the four vol edn of the works of Thomas Gray for £2!! the rare Geoffrey Keynes six vol edn of Sir Thomas Browne for £3!!!

Talking of the interweb, I gain some sort of vicarious pleasure from looking at the more expensive and rare offerings for sale at Peter Harrington Rare Books. They are way, way above my budget but a man can dream.

[Serial_Apologist]

On my walk home from the shops I have just discovered the free book depositing kiosk at the far end of the Crystal Palace Parade, once a telephone box for bus operatives: wide open door with a large poster advertising where to get a Palestinian flag half concealing adult service ads on postcards - dumped inside maybe a dozen cheap paperback novels. I must remember to pass that way in future rather than taking my usual route.

[kernelbogey]

I'm finding it hard to read 'culling' without thinking of creatures, such as deer, being culled - usually shot - to prevent the population expanding beyond the sustainable. Not sure the books are doing that themselves...!

[Ein Heldenleben]

... not unfair of you at all : I have acquaintances in the second-hand books world, and oxfam has largely destroyed their business model. And, of course, while they were being attacked on the one side by the charity shops, on the other side the real challenge was the arrival of the interweb with products like abe.books (the cannier bookshops jumped on this, and have prospered accordingly; the smaller/slower perhaps sank without trace)

I'm a hypocrite, of course : I have bought books from oxfam, and donated; I have made much use of abe.books and similar.

But I am so conscious that in this, as in so many other things, I am part of a lucky generation : when I was up and about and travelling here and elsewhere, a regular joy was visiting an unknown town* and finding a good second-hand bookshop, and subsequent browsing - finding books you didn't know existed, didn't know you wanted - needed!

I now have (I think) most of what I can ever reasonably want out of book acquisition - and of course now the internet is the ideal way of filling gaps.

But I am so happy that when I wanted second-hand bookshops, they were there - and I lament for a younger generation that will miss out on the joys of the quest - "ah, there's the one volume of the macmillan Henry James I have been looking for for the last twenty years... "

* Church Stretton! - the four vol edn of the works of Thomas Gray for £2!! the rare Geoffrey Keynes six vol edn of Sir Thomas Browne for £3!!!

I think those shops like Books Of Blackheath that had a new section on the ground floor and secondhand on the first had a good business model. But that shop , despite having one of the most literate populations in the UK , closed decades ago - way before Amazon came along to adminster the coup de grace. Probably rent and rates did for them.
Our local second hand is currently doing 3 for £5 on fiction paperbacks . It has one of the best orange penguin sections I’ve ever seen so I have to prevent myself from entering. I must have 1500 physical books or so and despite a recent cull there don’t seem to be any spaces on the shelves - some of which are double banked and with piles on top. Lord alone knows what my Kindle is up to - over a thousand ? Maybe more

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm finding it hard to read 'culling' without thinking of creatures, such as deer, being culled - usually shot - to prevent the population expanding beyond the sustainable. Not sure the books are doing that themselves...!

Anyone observing such should be brought to book!

[gradus]

.. self-destructing books? Any examples that should be thus? How about the seemingly endless stream of footballers' life stories that seem to enthral(l) the youngsters in year 4 practising their reading.

[Serial_Apologist]

.. self-destructing books?

Please no - it would be utterly abominabook.

[Roslynmuse]

My problem with Oxfam bookshops is one that I don't experience with other second-hand bookshops - the smell. Musty books. A real turn-off.

That reminds me... I once had a piano student (in the days before iPads were ubiquitous) who licked a finger before turning every page of music. Once I noticed it I couldn't help but wait for the moment at every page-turn, and watched, fascinated as, over the weeks, the corners of her score became grubbier and grubbier. I now try not to let it affect me when I buy second hand music, but I can't help wondering whether some of those slightly soiled corners contain traces of matter that I would rather not have contact with. No wonder when I was a child I was discouraged from bringing my library books to the dining table!

[Petrushka]

My problem with Oxfam bookshops is one that I don't experience with other second-hand bookshops - the smell. Musty books. A real turn-off.

That reminds me... I once had a piano student (in the days before iPads were ubiquitous) who licked a finger before turning every page of music. Once I noticed it I couldn't help but wait for the moment at every page-turn, and watched, fascinated as, over the weeks, the corners of her score became grubbier and grubbier. I now try not to let it affect me when I buy second hand music, but I can't help wondering whether some of those slightly soiled corners contain traces of matter that I would rather not have contact with. No wonder when I was a child I was discouraged from bringing my library books to the dining table!

In the days when I used to borrow books from our local library (1970s) i can recall more than one occasion when a turn of the page would result in a shower of biscuit crumbs. Also remember seeing fag ash and coffee stains in many a book while some of them smelt very strongly of stale tobacco (yuck!)

I very doubt if any library or second hand book would constitute a health health, as germs wouldn't survive long enough to be harmful.

[johncorrigan]

I'm finding it hard to read 'culling' without thinking of creatures, such as deer, being culled - usually shot - to prevent the population expanding beyond the sustainable. Not sure the books are doing that themselves...!

Mrs C is an artist and over the years has amassed a significant number of Art Books, many of which she uses for organising her teaching classes; others for her own work; and others that just sit there gathering dust - she said that she noticed that 'World of Books' offers money for books and as far as she could work out it would be possible to drop the package at a local depot free of postage costs - she hasn't worked out where that place is just yet. So today she started going through the books that she reckoned she 'no longer wanted'. She patiently entered the ISBN number of each book and the book was identified and a value attached. After about ten books she had reached £17 - some of the books they would offer 50p for, but said they would be pulped; others had a value that there was no way she was letting them go for the quoted amount. A work in progress I feel. We could do with more space, but for what? more books? - I'm just hoping she doesn't think I'm going to follow suit with my records and CDs. It seems 'WoB' does that too.

[vinteuil]

.
... I am told by mme v that our loft is now impossible to negotiate, and a grand cull is to be implemented this winter. I am dreading it. I have not yet got any clever ideas as to the way forward...