Are there books in your home?

A couple hundred books around here that haven't been looked at for years. She is the reader, but uses the kindle all the time. I have a few reference books that I keep around. I have a field guide to id. plants in the woods (because the pc is too difficult to drag into the woods).
 

palides2021 said:
I'm not sure if you have accessed the archive.org which lists books that you could read for free (it's an online library). I found Alistair MacLean, for example:

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

Just thought I'd pass this on!
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Thanks, @palides2021 I checked into the Canadian Version and established an account. Found very little of what I was looking for, but instead a treasure of other books I would love to read, so I am deeply grateful for the link!
 
Old Salt said:
Thanks, @palides2021 I checked into the Canadian Version and established an account. Found very little of what I was looking for, but instead a treasure of other books I would love to read, so I am deeply grateful for the link!
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Added: I should have gone to archive.org first, I found most of my books there! BUT ... many of them have been removed, even though they are listed! And I couldn't find a way to download them to read them at leisure. One book I started to read on my PC, just for the fun of it, actually had to be renewed every hour! They sure don't make it easy. The Canadians make it even harder. I typed in the author, got hundreds of titles and none of them even vaguely related to the author or subject! And the learning process goes on! Thanks again, the search and experimenting made the links worthwhile. I am learning new things! :)
 
palides2021 said:
I'm not sure if you have accessed the archive.org which lists books that you could read for free (it's an online library). I found Alistair MacLean, for example:

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

Just thought I'd pass this on!
Click to expand...
To add even further: I just got my instructions from archive.org as a new member and every book printed after 1925 that I want to read has to be checked out again every hour! That's insane! But in any case, my warmest thanks! Again!!!
 
Rose65 said:
My house is full of books. Full shelves in the lounge and dining room, a shelf in the kitchen where I relax and read a lot - not just cookery books. The bedroom certainly has a shelf full. Even in my bathroom, I read there.

Of course I read my kindle, containing hundreds of books. But the presence of real books, collected over the years, many from previous generations of the family, gifts, charity shop choices etc, is very important to me. I pick up books everywhere and love bargains. Sometimes I have a cull, just to make space.

So is yours a bookish home? To me it is sad if not so, a life without books is to me no life at all.
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I have several stacks in the house along with 4 or 5 boxes down in the basement.
 
I have an out-of-state buddy. Since we don't have families, we keep tabs on each other multiple times a day. One day he said he was having more bookcases delivered. How many, I asked? Ten, he replied. He has thousands of books he intends to leave to a prison some day.
 
Lewkat said:
My house looks like a library.
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Libraries were my favourite places until the digital revolution. Still miss the hush, shelf after shelf of books, friendly librarians helping you find the right area of interest! The excitement of finding a new book by a favourite author! A Kindle has become necessary but can never replace the old-fashioned library!
 
Old Salt said:
To add even further: I just got my instructions from archive.org as a new member and every book printed after 1925 that I want to read has to be checked out again every hour! That's insane! But in any case, my warmest thanks! Again!!!
Click to expand...
Actually, you can do a 14 day loan on several books, but the ones you chose are on demand and limited. Looks like you have good taste!
 
Alizerine said:
I have an out-of-state buddy. Since we don't have families, we keep tabs on each other multiple times a day. One day he said he was having more bookcases delivered. How many, I asked? Ten, he replied. He has thousands of books he intends to leave to a prison some day.
Click to expand...
Now that is inspiring! Here I am thinking of how to downsize, and someone is thinking of increasing their books to help others. What a wonderful cause!
 
Old Salt said:
Added: I should have gone to archive.org first, I found most of my books there! BUT ... many of them have been removed, even though they are listed! And I couldn't find a way to download them to read them at leisure. One book I started to read on my PC, just for the fun of it, actually had to be renewed every hour! They sure don't make it easy. The Canadians make it even harder. I typed in the author, got hundreds of titles and none of them even vaguely related to the author or subject! And the learning process goes on! Thanks again, the search and experimenting made the links worthwhile. I am learning new things! :)
Click to expand...
What I like about this site is that I can read one page at a time (click the single rectangle at the right bottom), and enlarge it so I can read the print better. I can also adjust the visual (you'll find a round button with three dots on the left) if the printing is dim.

When I was researching a topic for my dissertation, I would type up the subject, then search inside the books. The search would show me exactly where to go in the book. So that was great for me because it saved me a lot of time. Renewing it every hour was not so bad for me (especially if I needed the book!). Sometimes, I would use the archive to determine if a book was worth buying or not!

BTW, there are old books that do not need to be renewed. I have come across them.
 
palides2021 said:
What I like about this site is that I can read one page at a time (click the single rectangle at the right bottom), and enlarge it so I can read the print better. I can also adjust the visual (you'll find a round button with three dots on the left) if the printing is dim.

When I was researching a topic for my dissertation, I would type up the subject, then search inside the books. The search would show me exactly where to go in the book. So that was great for me because it saved me a lot of time. Renewing it every hour was not so bad for me (especially if I needed the book!). Sometimes, I would use the archive to determine if a book was worth buying or not!

BTW, there are old books that do not need to be renewed. I have come across them.
Click to expand...
You know, wasn't I thinking exactly that: that it would be a tremendous aid to someone doing research! I think the site is built with exactly that in mind! I must do a research on how to reverse the ageing process without giving up unhealthy foods! :)And, seriously, thanks again @palides2021 I might not gotten what I wanted but I did have a lot of fun looking things over!
 
I used to keep every book I read, then hard times came along and I sold most to a used book store. I now read them and donate 'em. I have a bookcase full of unread books. I bought them at yard sales, and now our son tries to find books he thinks I will like since I no longer do the yard sales.

Fact is I am a snob, don't think much of people who have no books in their home.
 
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When I was in second grade the teacher mentioned that I had read 100 books that year. I thought I was in trouble because, at home my parents would complain that I read too much. I continued to read about a hundred books a year all my life, but the large majority were from the library. Going to the library has always been part of my weekly chores, usually right after going to the grocery store. Now I belong to the library book club and we meet once a month after we've all read the same book.

I do have one room with a wall lined with bookshelves. It was full of a few hundred "special" books I couldn't part with. Until one day when I realized most were in small print and these days I have to have large so I gave most of them away, except for about fifty books that stuck to my hand so that I couldn't let them go.

My son and I have about fifteen Bibles because we like different versions to compare when we're trying to sort out the meaning of a passage: Oxford Student Bible, King James, The Message, RSV, etc.
 
I have three floor to ceiling bookcases in my living room that take up one whole wall and another similar in size in one of the bedrooms plus a couple of small ones in the garage. There are also 2 sets of shelves on both sides of the TV that are filled with a variety of books. All cases are filled with a variety of types and subjects - history, scifi, fantasy, my various other interests over the years (sewing, various needlework, music, gardening and martial arts. LOL the cookbooks are in drawers in the kitchen. I've been a lover of books - since I was the proverbial knee high to a grasshopper whipper snapper.
Now I also have a Kiindle and an I-Pod. I also belong to "Audible" and "Chirp". All have a large library of books.
.
 
Rose65 said:
My house is full of books. Full shelves in the lounge and dining room, a shelf in the kitchen where I relax and read a lot - not just cookery books. The bedroom certainly has a shelf full. Even in my bathroom, I read there.

Of course I read my kindle, containing hundreds of books. But the presence of real books, collected over the years, many from previous generations of the family, gifts, charity shop choices etc, is very important to me. I pick up books everywhere and love bargains. Sometimes I have a cull, just to make space.

So is yours a bookish home? To me it is sad if not so, a life without books is to me no life at all.
Click to expand...

I'll never dig out from under all of them but I am not adding to the pile anymore. I've gotten rid of most and will get rid of more but for the last several years I've been limiting myself to what I can check out of my local library or from connected institution.

During the beginning of the pandemic before we could check out I hunted through the house to find all the good novels I hadn't yet gotten to whether my own or Lia's. I'm caught up.

So now it is back to borrowing from the library with the exception of Iain McGilchrist's The Matter With Things for which I bought a Kindle Paperwhite so I could get it as an ebook. No way I could have read these massive books in bed with my arthritic hands any other way. I miss having a hard copy but gradually I'm learning my way around it and the ability to take excerpts as notes to share without transcribing is priceless.
 
I have an eye-level plate rail for some special oversize art books whose covers I enjoy seeing in passing (like Matisse). Most I got on sale over the years. Some are Taschen books I picked up at Abebooks,com.
 
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