I'm not allowed to buy any more books [Archive]

Athena Bast

04-30-2007, 05:45 PM

My boyfriend and I have been moving for a week into our new apartment. Same building, different floor, bigger apartment.

I have a lot of books. A LOT of books. I've been basically buying books at least once a week since the beginning of the year.

I came home on Sunday with some "invisible" bookshelves. My boyfriend saw the bag and said, "That damn well better not be any more books because you're going back to work and returning them!" I showed him the shelves and he said it was okay;)

He told me today that I can't buy anymore books until I clean up the bedroom and sort through all my clothes and then clean up the spare room. THEN I can buy books.

So I guess have to do that by Friday because I have the first series of Cardcaptor Sakura and the Crucible trilogy from Star Trek: TOS.:D

mcgaffer

04-30-2007, 06:06 PM

Iv just been on holiday to Hay-on- Wye in Wales over 40 book shops including one converted cinema with more than a million second hand books. I go once every two years and i still have'nt found room for the hundreds of books bought two trips ago. Im getting close to being kicked out, but its not my fault theres soo many good books out there.

Deathstroke

05-01-2007, 05:29 AM

Karl O'Neill

05-01-2007, 05:52 AM

i need to get rid of some of my books too, keep the classics, throw out the crap!

Karl H

05-01-2007, 05:59 AM

I had this problem a while back and seperated the wheat from the chaff by selling the stuff that I didn't think I'd read again via Amazon Marketplace. It also went a little way towards the mortgage deposit on a bigger place!

Gordon Smith

05-01-2007, 08:05 AM

This does not compute.

Shellhead

05-01-2007, 09:04 AM

Even paperback books are pretty expensive these days, so I only buy used books. And since storage space is an issue at my new place (both my g/f and I are packrats), I have stopped buying books for now, sold some off at Half Price Books, and spend more time at the library than the bookstores.

i_mmmchocolate

05-01-2007, 09:10 AM

Try reading the books you already have. That'll help ease the pain.

Trust me; I'm on a major budget, so I end up re-reading my books three or four times.

K'Nort

05-01-2007, 05:11 PM

Try reading the books you already have. That'll help ease the pain.

Trust me; I'm on a major budget, so I end up re-reading my books three or four times.

Why is that more enjoyable than getting new-to-you books from the library?

i_mmmchocolate

05-01-2007, 06:44 PM

Why is that more enjoyable than getting new-to-you books from the library?
Actually, I do that too! Not lately though. I should have a look at what's in the new section now-- it has been a few weeks since I've checked out any books.

Athena Bast

05-01-2007, 07:12 PM

Let me get this straight, you let your boyfriend tell you what to do? Wow, I didn't think any guy was allowed to do that anymore.. :D

He can tell all he wants... doesn't mean I hasta to listen.

Athena Bast

05-01-2007, 07:14 PM

Try reading the books you already have. That'll help ease the pain.

Trust me; I'm on a major budget, so I end up re-reading my books three or four times.

I'm waaay behind on my reading and the new apartment is actually encouraging me to do more than sit in front of my computer all the time.

Rabid Trekkie

05-02-2007, 05:35 AM

Sort of know how you feel, of course with me its my Mom. There are only four shelves in my room (no room for any more) and they're completely packed with books, as is the giant drawer under the bed. After the last Library book sale, I had to promise not to buy any more books until I have at least read the ones I have.

It's going to be hard, that's why I'm demanding my family and friends get me books for my birthday and Christmas.

And unfortunately the local libraries really suck.

Aaron Kashtan

05-02-2007, 07:55 AM

I have a scary number of unread books, especially after spending $90 at the library book sale, and I keep spending more money on additional books that I've been too busy to read. Good thing the summer is coming up.

Athena Bast

05-02-2007, 05:33 PM

My problem right now is that I have 9 of the 21 "Sharpe" books. My store is also just getting Cardcaptor Sakura manga.

Also to blind him to the books I'm buying I'm throwing in the odd Naruto manga.

I've also ordered some from before the commandment so they won't count when they arrive.

GloryQuest

05-03-2007, 05:31 AM

I'm waaay behind on my reading
That doesn't factor in when buying books though. If I waited until I caught up on all my reading, I probably wouldn't be able to buy any books for a long, long, long time.

Athena Bast

05-03-2007, 04:13 PM

That doesn't factor in when buying books though. If I waited until I caught up on all my reading, I probably wouldn't be able to buy any books for a long, long, long time.

Well, my boss has me hooked on Diana Gabaldon now.

I still have a couple trilogies, I need to finish and *sigh*.

Citizen V

05-03-2007, 06:25 PM

Never get rid of books,donate them.Someone always wants to read.

DonC

05-03-2007, 07:21 PM

He can tell all he wants... doesn't mean I hasta to listen.

Saw that one coming. ;)

I with GQ, if I had to read all the books I already have before I bought any more I wouldn't be buying stuff for years. If you're making an effort and you aren't going broke in the process, I say keep buying stuff.

Athena Bast

05-04-2007, 05:46 AM

Saw that one coming. ;)

I with GQ, if I had to read all the books I already have before I bought any more I wouldn't be buying stuff for years. If you're making an effort and you aren't going broke in the process, I say keep buying stuff.

I'm making an effort now since we actually have space enough to relax. Started reading Sharpe's Tiger the other night.

He's also whining that we have too much cool stuff. He said he wanted a house full of like superhero action figures, art, statues. I told him, well that stuff just doesn't magically appear in display cases ya know.

It's true... he is the girl in our relationship.

BcAugust

05-04-2007, 11:46 PM

...people have books they haven't read? I mean, I've picked up a couple reference works I haven't read all the way through yet, and my mom has some new books, but... *baffled*

Jonathan Bogart

05-05-2007, 12:36 AM

...people have books they haven't read? I mean, I've picked up a couple reference works I haven't read all the way through yet, and my mom has some new books, but... *baffled*
I have a huge number of books I haven't read for pretty much the same reasons I have food I haven't eaten and air I haven't breathed. Except books don't go bad with keeping.

Perry Holley

05-05-2007, 06:52 AM

...people have books they haven't read? I mean, I've picked up a couple reference works I haven't read all the way through yet, and my mom has some new books, but... *baffled*You would be horrified at my ratio of unread-to-read books. It's not that I don't intend to read them someday, it's just that there isn't simply enough time to read everything I already have, but that's okay, because simply having the books nearby and available for when the time is right is it's own comfort.

"She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines - not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master's call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality."

- Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost

i_mmmchocolate

05-05-2007, 07:32 AM

I prefer to read the books I already have before I splurge on more. It gives me more of an incentive to finish them up and something to look forward to. I can honestly say there's not a single book on my cases that I haven't read.

Beat that!

Perry Holley

05-05-2007, 10:13 AM

I can honestly say there's not a single book on my cases that I haven't read.Clearly, you don't have enough books.

i_mmmchocolate

05-05-2007, 11:59 AM

Clearly, you don't have enough books.
*cries* It's true; I have a little over 200.

If I could afford to buy books more regularly and in bunches, I would.

Indigo Al

05-05-2007, 02:57 PM

A sickness I too suffer from, the unread books thing. Except my apt. is teeny tiny and I'm now backed against a wall....

GloryQuest

05-05-2007, 05:00 PM

You would be horrified at my ratio of unread-to-read books. It's not that I don't intend to read them someday, it's just that there isn't simply enough time to read everything I already have, but that's okay, because simply having the books nearby and available for when the time is right is it's own comfort.

"She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines - not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master's call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality."

- Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost
My thoughts exactly...and good quote!

BcAugust

05-05-2007, 11:23 PM

Great quote, Perry. And nah, it's just I tend to be a bookoholic that reads fast. I have bought books before food, some days...

Rabid Trekkie

05-06-2007, 08:03 AM

*cries* It's true; I have a little over 200.

If I could afford to buy books more regularly and in bunches, I would.

Library book sales. They are the greatest thing ever. Books in Good to Fair quality (though some have definately seen better days) for cheaper than book resale shops.

The great thing about the one here in Houston is that on Sunday, you get grocery bags and can stuff them as full as possible and only pay 10 bucks for it. So if you know how to properly arrange books in a paper sack, you can get close to fifty paperbacks for twenty dollars.

i_mmmchocolate

05-13-2007, 10:35 AM

Library book sales. They are the greatest thing ever. Books in Good to Fair quality (though some have definately seen better days) for cheaper than book resale shops.

The great thing about the one here in Houston is that on Sunday, you get grocery bags and can stuff them as full as possible and only pay 10 bucks for it. So if you know how to properly arrange books in a paper sack, you can get close to fifty paperbacks for twenty dollars.

Heh heh, I actually work at a library! Thing is, I tend to have an aversion to used books, unless they are in impeccable condition and in a subject I'm interested in.

Slappy san

05-13-2007, 05:58 PM

I moved into a smaller apartment in December. In my old apartment I had six book cases and and books sitting on the edges and top of the cases because I didn't have space. I also had scripts in report covers that would have been at minimum three feet tall. Needless to say I had to stop buying books for a few months.

I ended trying to sell alot of my books and tpbs on Craigslist. I succeeded in only selling a bunch of trades that I miss (Preacher!!!! among them). I trashed all my scripts. Every thing else had to come with me including the shelves I had no space for. After a few months I had to do something. So...I just jammed the bookcases wherever I could. Now I have a bunch left in a copy box in a closet.

Ugh..now my apartment looks even smaller.

Moral of this story....keep buying books.:D

i_mmmchocolate

05-14-2007, 08:31 AM

Ugh..now my apartment looks even smaller.

Moral of this story....keep buying books.:D

Is that an entire wall of books? I really like that look.

Shellhead

05-14-2007, 12:45 PM

Thinking it over, I guess I can't really allow myself to buy any more books right now. I have two full bookcases in the living room, but the rest of my books are packed away in several cardboard boxes right now. My girlfriend is moving in with me in August, and I need to make room for her stuff. She is okay with my 18 short boxes of comics for now, since I told her that I will (eventually) buy a scanner and scan them onto my computer, back those scans up on disks, and then sell the comics.

But there is very little closet space at this apartment, compared to the two walk-in closets at my old place. There is a storage room in the unheated garage area where I can put my 12 large plastic storage totes and my girlfriend can put her 12 large plastic storage totes, but everything else needs to be reduced to a minimum. My boardgames are in storage totes that fit under the bed, or else in a short stack of milk crates, and some of my card collection fits nicely in a shoe organizer that I got for free. Otherwise, most of my stuff (junk) needs to be sold, thrown away, or given away. I will cram one tote full of books and get rid of everything else that doesn't fit on my existing shelves.

Slappy san

05-14-2007, 08:17 PM

Is that an entire wall of books? I really like that look.

I do too...just not in my current apartment.

Athena Bast

05-25-2007, 08:53 PM

Alright... now he's complaining about the SIZE of my books.

I will buy the Hardcovers if I can and only if they are on a remainder price and less than the paperback versions or if the cover is really freaking cool.

I think he just likes to bitch now and he's taking it out on my books because he can't take it out on anything else.

i_mmmchocolate

05-26-2007, 03:59 PM

now he's complaining about the SIZE of my books.
OK, that's ridiculous.

xerces213

05-26-2007, 08:51 PM

Ever since I moved my reading has gone down quite a bit. I have read about 4-5 books since I moved a few months ago. My neighbor keeps giving me books that look fairly interesting. She even gave me a trilogy with the first book missing :( That is the one I wanted to read too.

david r

06-03-2007, 07:29 AM

Alright... now he's complaining about the SIZE of my books.

Maybe you should complain about the SIZE of one of his *prized possessions.* If you catch my meaning. Might put things in perspective for him. ;)

DennyK

06-22-2007, 01:02 PM

Get a library card, read whatever you want, only buy what's really worth spending your money on.

Athena Bast

06-22-2007, 02:28 PM

Get a library card, read whatever you want, only buy what's really worth spending your money on.

About 90% of what I'm getting now is stuff I should have gotten a while ago but through various moments of being dirt po' I wasn't able.

Saruman

06-28-2007, 02:00 PM

I'm kind of in the same boat. I don't have any more extra space in the room I rent so until I can find a better way to manage space, there will be no more new books but unless I absolutely have to because the library isn't carrying it.

Toadsanime

06-30-2007, 03:22 AM

Sorry to sound harsh, as I know if my girlfriend told me the same thing I'd listen, but... why do you have to obey his order of not to buy anymore books? :P
Sell the books you don't need, but make sure he knows you're getting rid of some. If that fails, I guess you'll just have to borrow out books instead of buying them.
I'm a useless advice giver, huh? Sorry...

Slappy san

11-17-2007, 12:21 PM

I havent been forced by anyone but I have decided to get rid of my library. Having enough books for 7 bookshelves just got out of hand. I suppose one of the ice breakers was borrowing a book from the public for the first time in atleast 6 years.

:( :(

DocAbsurd

11-17-2007, 12:37 PM

Y'know those cardboard displays you see the mass market books in? They're called 'dumps' (cuz we just dump 'em in the aisle with little if any thought to organizing) and I try to snag a few every couple of months. I've got 2 screwed to the wall above my bed and it is crammed with my 'to be read'. That's on top of the box under the bed and the shelf on the adjacent wall with hardbacks.

Which doesn't include my 'trophies' in the living room bookcase.

We just closed our old location, which entailed emptying the shelves, shipping back returnables and -- wait for it -- stripping the covers off 90% of the paperbacks. The Things got close to a dozen books each.

I've came home with easily 24 myself. It woulda been more but there was controversy as to whether we should be allowed to take any at all (normal repolicy is 5 per day).

Mind you, this is the second store I've closed this year. I had a garbage bag loaded to tearing with stripbacks from the first time back in February. And I plowed through 30 books over the summer.

howyadoin

11-17-2007, 01:36 PM

Slappy san

11-17-2007, 02:15 PM

Yikes. From what I remember, you've got shitloads of books. How are you planning to get rid of 'em?

Myspace, Craigslist and posting flyers. It's going to be pretty much impossible. Most people don't seem to read around here. :(

BTW the books arent all thats going. Im getting rid of dvds, games and a bunch of different stuff. It's a change in personal philosophy for me over here.

howyadoin

11-17-2007, 05:47 PM

Myspace, Craigslist and posting flyers. It's going to be pretty much impossible. Most people don't seem to read around here. :(

BTW the books arent all thats going. Im getting rid of dvds, games and a bunch of different stuff. It's a change in personal philosophy for me over here.Can you donate any of it to a library, maybe?

Slappy san

11-17-2007, 05:52 PM

Can you donate any of it to a library, maybe?

I dunno. I hope I can sell most of it.

Paul McEnery

11-18-2007, 02:37 PM

*cries* It's true; I have a little over 200.

If I could afford to buy books more regularly and in bunches, I would.

Oh dear.

I figure I've got at least three times that many I haven't read yet. 10 this week.

But some of them were graphic novels, at least.

Chase

11-18-2007, 03:40 PM

I aim to acquire as many books as Slappy-san and Paul McEnery. I bow before your individual, yet glorious, shrines. May I be so fortunate as to someday have my own shrine.

*bows*

cactusmaac

11-19-2007, 05:38 AM

I just stopped buying books six months ago. Had about twenty-five that were lying there unread. Down to ten to go now and might buy some new stuff when I'm down to five.

Perry Holley

11-19-2007, 01:02 PM

Had about twenty-five that were lying there unread. Only twenty-five? That's all? Sheesh. Now I feel really bad...

Slappy san

11-19-2007, 01:47 PM

Only twenty-five? That's all? Sheesh. Now I feel really bad...

Tell me about. You shouldn't be allowed to speak until you have a minimum of 100.

cactusmaac

11-19-2007, 01:49 PM

Christ. You guys must be rich.

Slappy san

11-19-2007, 02:18 PM

Christ. You guys must be rich.

Quite the opposite. Half.com was great for me.

Perry Holley

11-19-2007, 02:25 PM

Christ. You guys must be rich.Hardly. But when you've been buying and being given book for over three decades, well, they start to pile up.

Donald M.

11-19-2007, 09:48 PM

I dunno. I hope I can sell most of it.

My suggestion would be to sell the ones you think have any value and donate the rest to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. It's a good deed plus you can get a tax break, if that matters to you.

It's just too bad you live so far away. Depending on how much you're looking to get for them, I'd have been happy to take some of those books off your hands.

I've only got just the one book shelf myself, but it helps that I usually pass books on when I'm done with them, usually to the Goodwill or similar organizations.

As suggested, look into donating to your local library as well. I don't know about in other places, but around here books donated generally go towards their annual book sales, proceeds from which fund a lot of library programs they otherwise couldn't get money for.

Donald M.

11-19-2007, 09:53 PM

Get a library card, read whatever you want, only buy what's really worth spending your money on.

Unfortunately, the library doesn't always have what you want to read, and when it does you'll probably be waiting a while for it based on my experiences.

I love buying used books. Though I usually tend toward Goodwill type places and library sales because actual used books stores sometimes charge a bit more than I can afford to spend, at least when I know I can get more books for the same money elsewhere.

Of course, with some books you just have to spend the money, but I'll read just about anything so that's not a frequent concern for me.