Print Books: Should They Stay Or Should They Go?

nytimes.com:

At the end of the week, I’ll be moving west and writing about technology from The New York Times’s San Francisco bureau.

I’ve lived in New York City for 15 years, and over that time have amassed a lot of stuff. My personal belongings are strewn about the city, piled up in my apartment, stuffed into drawers at my office and stacked in a storage space in Brooklyn.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[KaraC]

06:05 PM on 07/31/2011

I love phsyical books, and resisted getting an e-reader until I received one as a present. I love it, and it has prevented the problem of having to regularly purge my limited bookshelves. Now I feel vaguely guilty, and saddened by the demise of Borders and other book stores. I do hope a new business model arises that keeps the best of the physical book store experience with the convenience of ebooks. Now they need to add that "book smell" to the e-readers!

[birdsofafeather]

02:33 PM on 07/31/2011

Interesting article. It's a tough call - books are transporters & decorative comfort...I go thru them about once a year when the stacks pile up on the floor and the shelves get dusty and tired...when it's time for a reboot of sorts. I'm no e reader (yet) and I'll never stop going to bookstores (or record stores) as long as they're around...there's nothing like it and I hope it never goes away totally. There's room for both with good editing.

[thebigbike]

12:13 PM on 07/29/2011

I don't like e-books I do like actual Book books, but I have a few I don't need, and I am continually culling and trading, and donating.

if relying mostly on e-books works for you, fine. I've have more books than I will ever read during my life time, and I'll be gone sooner or later, and if e-books take over, as long as they don't come after my books, then if commerce and the unfettered free market laissez-faire capitalism has decided that e-books are the most profitable, who am I to get in the way of future generations enjoying those blessings?

[jamsie]

08:41 AM on 07/29/2011

One of the most awful things I ever had to do was jettison my book collection­. Some years ago, I was recovering from cancer and had to move. The movers wanted a small fortune (it was more like extortion) to move them, and I couldn't afford it, plus I was moving into a place much smaller and didn't really have the room. I was in no kind of physical shape to move them myself. I donated every book, save for reference books, to the League of University Women for their annual used book sale. The minute they drove away with my books, I regretted it, and still do.

[noaxe397]

06:34 PM on 07/28/2011

I was an English major in college generations ago. I took a course in 17th century lit and was required to purchase an anthology for the course. Beautiful, hardcover, gold lettering. I paid about $11 for it new back then, The equivalent today would be unaffordable for me. I kept most of my hardcover college books from that long ago era.. My books would definetly come with me. Given their great weight, were I to move, I would probably not pay movers to take them but haul them myself along with other heavy equipment I own. I would LOVE to own a home with a library room: built in book shelves, a skylight, hardwood floors.

[pcampana]

05:44 PM on 07/28/2011

I would have done the same thing as the author of this story. E-books are books! I love books and I love my kindle.

[Makisupamerican]

04:14 PM on 07/28/2011

I'm not old fashioned, only in my early 30's. Tech savy etc. But there is something about openning a new book, the smell, the feel... how I initially try and protect every page, no folds, creases or stains. By the end of the book, strewn with folds, notes in the margins, coffee stains- its like a time machine. Informing, enlightening, enriching.
Try spilling your beer on a Kindle.

[eric14]

05:51 AM on 07/29/2011

Readily dispose of books of no value, keep the rest, acquire more.

[NateinMpls]

02:14 PM on 07/29/2011

My books are stained with food and beer from reading at the bar :) Great times.

[signgrrl]

04:06 PM on 07/28/2011

i left several (ok, many) books behind when i moved 2 years ago. at least once a week, if not more, i kick myself for leaving one book or another. if i had had more time or money, i would have brought them all. and i had A LOT.