Amazon Kindle discussion
What did you do with your paper books?
I've kept all the paperbacks I haven't read yet - there are a lot of them! Sometimes I read on my Kindle and sometimes regular books. When I finish reading a paper book, I make a decision: If I think I would read it a second time, I put it back on the bookshelves. If not, I donate it to a library, give it to a friend or leave it in a "book shelter". These are little wooden huts located on several streets in Vienna, Austria where I live. People can leave the books they don't want anymore there and pick and choose among the books that others have left.
@Pearl: I love the idea of a book shelter! I wish we had something like that here! I've also heard of people donating their books to a "devastation" areas like hurricane-hit areas. People have lost everything & are staying in shelters...a book gives them a chance to get their minds off things for a little while.
I've kept the books that have meant a lot to me and the 100+ I haven't read yet. I moved my 2 sets of bookcases that live in my bedroom over the weekend as it's being painted, now it sounds echoy and I swear it's colder!
I've probably parted with several thousand books over the years. No books will be leaving my possession ever again. I guess my fear is that real/actual books may begin to disappear in the future so I'm holding on to what I've already got.
Karen- I doubt you'll have to worry about real books not being printed. They said paper wouldn't be so necessary because of computing..I still...have ..lots of random paper in my household LOL.
I have 2 book shelves that were crammed with so many books I couldn't even see them all. The paperbacks that I don't feel the need to keep(ones I am not going to read again) I give to our local paperback store.The books that I love... Well I always have a book in my living room, a book in my bedroom, a book in my kitchen, and many times a book in my bathroom. (most are from the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon of which I have on my Kindle,the Hardcover and in audio)I do have paperbacks that I just must keep on my book shelves. My Tolkien~Hobbit, TFOTR, TTT and TROTK of which I have had since the early 70's and have been read so many times by multiple people that they are now delicate. Awaken The Highland Warrior by Anita Clenney is a paperback I keep (a goodreads author)Some one above mentioned Hardcover's that look beautiful is a plus. I agree. One of those for me is Comrades by Lynne Sears Williams it looks really cool on my shelf.(and is a good book too) I do use my Kindle a lot, & I love it! It is great for traveling, but I don't think I will ever stop buy real books!
I still have loads of regular novrls to read. Over 200. The ones that I have read I donate to shelters.
What a great thing to do Shawnte. I will keep that in mind the next time.
I donate my paper books to BetterWorldBooks. I also get a lot of used paper books from them. The ones I can't get on my Kindle. They seem to be a pretty good organization. They sell used books, have free shipping, and donate $$ to worthy causes.
Keith
SubterraneanCatalyst wrote: "Karen- I doubt you'll have to worry about real books not being printed. They said paper wouldn't be so necessary because of computing..I still...have ..lots of random paper in my household LOL."LOL very true!
I donate books to my local library for resale. This is the same place that I often purchase books for about $1. It is a win-win. I also save books that I personally enjoyed to pass along to a friend with similar taste. My new goal, which I am not close to achieving, is to not own paper books. No matter how many bookcases I have, I still have overflowing books. On occasion, if I purchase a book new at Costco, I will read it, then sell it on E Bay to recover some of the cost.
I didn't rebuy all of the books I already had in e-book form I bought only titles I didn't have.
I would like to donate my old books to my local library, but they won't take romances. I can understand that; they probably have trouble selling them. But probably more than half of the paperbacks I want to get rid of are romances and I really don't want to have sort and separate then deliver to multiple destinations, so I generally take everything to the Goodwill. Lazy, I know.
I work in a hospital where the patients are in patient for weeks at a time. We are looking for donations of books of all kinds. It will be a library of sorts where they will be able to pick one for themself. If you would like to donate, I will pay shipping, please let me know! Thanks for your consideration! Deb
I'm keeping my physical books. I have every novel that I have ever owned on my bookshelf, and I don't intend on getting rid of them.
I could never not have paper books. It makes a home feel so much warmer and inviting if it has shelves of books. I would love to have whole walls or a whole room of books. I still collect old children's books, cookbooks and favorite authors in paper in case they ever come near me I can have some signed. :) I also love audiobooks for when I want to be hands free. Books are important. The format is not. I love that ebooks are making reading accessible to more people. May boyfriend's mom has problems with her hands shaking and holding her Kindle is so much easier for her than holding a book. Also as has been said the ability to change the text size is amazing. :)"A home without books is a body without soul." - Marcus Tullius Cicero
Awesomevegan (AKA JenReads) wrote: "I could never not have paper books. It makes a home feel so much warmer and inviting if it has shelves of books. I would love to have whole walls or a whole room of books. I still collect old child..."I feel the same way! Books are such an important part of my life. I love, love, love my Kindle but love my paper books too! My bookshelves wouldn't look the same if I got rid of all my paper books! I just can't imagine what it would be like to not know how to read or even be interested in reading! By the way, LOVE that tag/quote! I use it as my signature for all my emails!!
Had to give a ton away to make space for the little one.
I lost power yesterday and it didn't come back on until around 1:15 today (off for about 20 hours) and I'm one of the lucky ones because there are many who won't be back up for a few more days. Anyway, thank goodness I still have books in addition to Kindle! Lesson: Don't unload all your books unless you own a generator! LOL
Karen M wrote: "I lost power yesterday and it didn't come back on until around 1:15 today (off for about 20 hours) and I'm one of the lucky ones because there are many who won't be back up for a few more days. An..."Karen, what do you mean you "unloaded" your books?? I have around 100 or more on a memory card. I have the K1 & I don't keep my memory card inside it. I keep about 30 books or so on my Kindle & have the rest on the memory card(which I keep in a safe place). It sort of keeps me from feeling overwhelmed when I'm looking for my next read.
Ginger wrote: "Karen M wrote: "I lost power yesterday and it didn't come back on until around 1:15 today (off for about 20 hours) and I'm one of the lucky ones because there are many who won't be back up for a fe..."I should have been clearer. I'm using the Kindle App until my Kindle Touch arrives end of next month. I could have read on my notebook but it's only good for 3 hours. The books I'm glad I didn't "unload" were my hardcovers and paperbacks. Once I finished shoveling snow I couldn't do much of anything else except read by oil lamp at night & sunlight during the day.
I noticed America getting snow on the news. We are surprisingly warm here in the UK. Weather all over the place - global warming!
i kept a lot of them because they aren't available on kindle but I would sell or donate them.
Helen wrote: "I noticed America getting snow on the news. We are surprisingly warm here in the UK. Weather all over the place - global warming!"Northeast US had a huge surprise with a very early snow storm. We only got about 3 very wet heavy inches where I live but with the leaves still being on the trees it did a lot of damage. Downed tree limbs took out the powerlines and some people in New Jersey still don't have power. I was lucky the power was only off for 20 hours.
I kept paper copies of my very favorite books, or super special books to me (like the British copy I got of HP #7 because I was in France when it came out and didn't want to wait 3 weeks till I was back in the U.S. to get it!) and then the rest I either sold, donated, or traded via BookMooch.com!
My paperbacks make me feel safe. I guess I'm a collector of my favorite thing. I get new books on the kindle or my other ereader. I keep my paperbacks till I read them.
Since I am a self-published author, I wanted to support other self-pubs so I read and traded back all my paperback books for cookbooks! Now my kindle is full and so is my stomich!Elle Lapraim
LOL Elle your comment made me smile! Bon Appétit!
I recently donated 100's of paperbacks to the Salvation Army. My husband felt great about it, I just felt rather sad. I think I am firmly in the "my books make me feel safe" camp. Good thing I have thousands left :-)
I keep my books or send them to the Goodwill if I did not like them. But I did not buy them over on my Kindle and I still get books from the bookstore and a cool used bookstore we have. Most of my Kindle books are the free ones or I get on lone.
I want to thank those who donated books to our In Patient Psych Hospital!! They so appreciate them!
What should I have done with them? I kept them - at least the books I like. I don't see why there should be an 'EITHER books OR e-books'. As always in life, there's more than black and white.
I have one fear regarding giving up my DTB books. Things on the computer (which Kindle essentially is) change. Software I purchased a few years ago doesn't work on the new operating systems. When I get a book I like, I keep it forever. I'd hate to have a Kindle or other eReader loaded with my favorite books, and then suddenly lose them all. Anything digital can also become corrupted or erased. I've had it happen.
On the flip side, the thought of having every book I currently own fit on a 6x9 device that lets me blow up the text for easier reading, THAT'S cool.
So for now, I'm going both ways.
I've kept all my favs and unread for when the apocalypse comes - hope I'll still have time to read!
Sharon wrote: "I have one fear regarding giving up my DTB books. Things on the computer (which Kindle essentially is) change. Software I purchased a few years ago doesn't work on the new operating systems. When I..."Sharon, I wouldn't worry too much about your ebooks disappearing. Those that you buy from Amazon are backed up for you at Amazon. Those that you get from Smashbooks are also in your library at Smashbooks. If you have books from other sources that don't keep a personal library for you it is easy for you to back up your kindle on another computer.
I am not a collector of anything so I like to pass along my paper books to others. I also tend not to re-read books. (I don't re-watch movies either.) although the Kindle's capacity to store 3,500 books is interesting I can't imagine keeping books that I have finished reading on the Kindle. I always remove it from the Kindle. I know it is in my Amazon account and I can get it back if I want it. I have re-downloaded some books when I was writing reviews gut always remove them again once I have the information I needed. I like the Kindle to have my to-be-read cue rather than a collection of books I have read.
Hi Charlene,I agree with you. I don't know how to remove a book from the Kindle though. How do you do it?
Thanks!
highlight the book, wait for the arrow, (can't remember off top of my head but think) you press the left arrow. You'll be given an option to delete. Have a play, it's along those lines but I keep all mine so haven't tried.
Pearl wrote: "Hi Charlene,I agree with you. I don't know how to remove a book from the Kindle though. How do you do it?
Simple, Pearl. On the home screen where you see the book listed just highlight the book you wish to remove and using the four way toggle click the right side of the toggle. That will bring up a page where you can add the book to a collection (I have mine in collections to keep them from cluttering up the home screen) or jump around in the book or find a description of a book. The last option is to remove from the device. If you highlight and select to remove from the device it removes it. Items you have removed are then in your archived items. Archived items can then be viewed from your home page by clicking the archived items and you can put them back on your kindle if you want to read them again.
Hate to sound dumb about my Kindle I have had for a year..but how do you highlight to take a book off? I can never seem to do anything but read!
Deb wrote: "Hate to sound dumb about my Kindle I have had for a year..but how do you highlight to take a book off? I can never seem to do anything but read!"Not sure which one you have, but on my 1st generation Kindle, I go to Content Manager, find the book I want to take off, then in the empty square, I roll the "wheel" to the book, then press on it to make a "X" in the square, then click on Menu and you will see options for removing a book. Hope this helps!!
Deb wrote: "Hate to sound dumb about my Kindle I have had for a year..but how do you highlight to take a book off? I can never seem to do anything but read!"Deb, I don't know which version of Kindle you have but mine came with a Kindle User Guide preloaded along with the dictionary. I learned a lot about operating my Kindle from the user guide. Referring to that is probably better than other users telling you how to do it because we all have different Kindles. I have the Kindle Keyboard as it is now called now that later versions have been released. If you have the same one, send me a Goodreads private message and I will send you the directions.
Charlene wrote: "I am not a collector of anything so I like to pass along my paper books to others. I also tend not to re-read books. (I don't re-watch movies either.) ..."I'm the opposite. There are many books I've read multiple times. Author James Herriot is a biggie for me and there are others. Ditto for movies. Close Encounters... lost track of how many times I've seen it. Jaws, The Voyage Home, love them! Some of my books I've had for decades. They are like old familiar friends :-)
I have yet to rebuy the ones I hadn't read. I have just been shopping and picking up freebies. I gave away all my paperbacks!
I kept most of mine but did sell a bunch I never planned on reading again. I still admit there is something about seeing a shelf (or shelves) full of books that appeals to me, especially as a writer. And maybe this is lame, but they add a lot of color to my living room! Doh!I love books for all their weight and history, but I also LOVE my Kindle and how easy it is to read on it. I don't buy many paper books any more, so keeping the books I do have feels important.
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I've been reading ebooks for a few years now and the idea of reading a 'real' book is kind of strange at this point :\.