I have had the Sony Reader for just over a year and it has already started to pay dividends. I now have one bookcase shelf clear and I can see the back on another. Before the Sony I was plotting on how to add more bookshelves to the room.

No new books have been added in over six (6) months and the tide is going out as I am finding new homes for some of the older ones. Also the stacks on the floor are gone. I can walk around the room again. (I remember doing that back when we first moved here about 17 years ago.)

I can even find things easier than before. This is a good thing. First the CDs were converted to the music server and now the books are moving to electronic form too.

Pretty good news :)
I hope my recently acquired Sony Reader will help me get ride of some of the piles of books that I can't put on my crowded bookshelves...

Before the Sony I was plotting on how to add more bookshelves to the room.

That's great, I know exactly what you mean about trying to figure out how to add more shelf space. I really hope I can do the same thing as you. Since getting my Reader last month I've bought only 3 pbooks (a usual month before that would see me buying a lot more) & everything else has been ebooks. I really hope we start seeing more & more ebook releases, both new & catalog titles, so we get to the point where everything I want is coming out in e form.

I love e-books and e-readers. They have some advantages over p-books. However, there will always be some real books on my shelves. No matter how improved e-readers will get, there will always be a difference in the physical reading experience between e and p. Maybe future generations will feel differently and won't want p-books.

I'm reminded of the several scenes from both Star Trek TNT and Voyager where the captain is seen reading a p-book. It is always portrayed as a quaint, somewhat eccentric habit, in an age of super technology.

I have managed to clear several metres of shelf-space in my book-crowded house, replacing the paper copies with electronic versions from this forum and elsewhere.

I've also managed to restrain my serious Amazon habit. Before I got the reader, the postman was delivering two or three books a week. Now it's about one a month (mostly needed for work).

The house is still full of books, but they are no longer taking over.

This past weekend I got rid of 3 large boxes of books and restored some semblance of order to my shelves. I cant remember how long Ive had the iliad, perhaps 3 months, and I have not bought a p book in that time. I am saving space and I have improved the quality of my reading material. I am also saving around $100 per month.

Thanks again to the people that encouraged me on this forum.

I am also saving around $100 per month.

Lucky dog! I'm actually spending MORE than I did before simply because I no longer have to worry about where they will go.

You guys are my heros. I'm starting to see some empty self space. I sort of have a rule: two pbooks have to go out before one new pbook comes in. So far I am WAY ahead on the pbooks going out.

Lucky dog! I'm actually spending MORE than I did before simply because I no longer have to worry about where they will go.

You also haven't being paying the inflated prices for books I have been paying nor the shipping when buying on line. My wife is waiting for her reader and that will for the most part be the end of p books for us.

I am reading more though and mix in my purchases with judicious amounts of free reading.

Ah, you are probably correct there. Much like real estate, pricing can be affected by "location, location and location".

Another nice advantage of ereading.

And how do you explain it to your friends and visitors that you've no more book at your place? It makes you look kinda... being uninterested in books ;)

Have you also had the experience when you are at a party that someone picks out a book from a shelf which suddenly draws everyone's attention making it a wonderful topic for discussion?

This is probably the biggest drawback I personally have with e-books. You cannot physically display them to others.

I suppose you could print the cover art from Amazon on card-stock and put those on your shelves. :wink2:

I suppose you could print the cover art from Amazon on card-stock and put those on your shelves. :wink2:

LOL! I remember at my job a company introduced itself to us (we sometimes do VCs) who had the idea to sell CD covers of music albums. The idea was a person could buy the cover, and buy the right to download the music associated with it through iTunes & Co (the cover would have a pin code that needs to be activated first). This way, he would still have the original cover after downloading the music; it appears, according to this company, a lot of people (collectors) want to have the original cover. Don't know if this idea ever went to market though...

This is probably the biggest drawback I personally have with e-books. You cannot physically display them to others.

I think I'll always have a shelf or two of pbooks, they're old friends & it's hard to get rid of some of them. My problem, & one of the things that really got me into ebooks, is I've got about 10 bookcases & still didn't have room for everything.

Have you also had the experience when you are at a party that someone picks out a book from a shelf which suddenly draws everyone's attention making it a wonderful topic for discussion?

That's not always a good thing. Especially if you don't get the good ones hidden in time.

(Oh, uh, that's not mine. Someone left that here. Someone who's not me.)

I suppose you could print the cover art from Amazon on card-stock and put those on your shelves. :wink2:
I remember seeing at a model home cardboard setups of book spines in a built-in bookcase that simulated books. This could make a mainstream product once ebooks become the standard.

LOL! I remember at my job a company introduced itself to us (we sometimes do VCs) who had the idea to sell CD covers of music albums. The idea was a person could buy the cover, and buy the right to download the music associated with it through iTunes & Co (the cover would have a pin code that needs to be activated first). This way, he would still have the original cover after downloading the music; it appears, according to this company, a lot of people (collectors) want to have the original cover. Don't know if this idea ever went to market though...
iTunes Store does offer "digital booklets" with some albums (http://www.mcelhearn.com/article.php?story=20041123102518587).

Please forgive me but I just have to ask: For those of you who have reduced your collection of paper books, how many books disappear because you've found or converted or purchased the ebook equivalents and how many do so because you've scanned or imaged them and created the ebooks from your paper copies?

I slowly build up a stock of books over time and when I run out of space get rid of them. I have not therefore replaced p books with e books nor have I scanned any. I have not thrown away reference books or coffee table books. I have also kept my Buddhist books as I don't find them in electronic form. We have around 150 Buddhist books. I do intend scanning these books for my own use in the future. I vastly prefer reading on the iliad to reading a p book.

My habit of disposing of books has resulted in me buying some books over and over such as Dune which I have purchased 3 times. That is one of the reasons that drm is of little or no consequence to me.

Please forgive me but I just have to ask: For those of you who have reduced your collection of paper books, how many books disappear because you've found or converted or purchased the ebook equivalents and how many do so because you've scanned or imaged them and created the ebooks from your paper copies?

I haven't created any from paper copies myself. To much work, not enough time, when what I've replaced with an official ebook copy has generally been $6 or less.

Please forgive me but I just have to ask: For those of you who have reduced your collection of paper books, how many books disappear because you've found or converted or purchased the ebook equivalents and how many do so because you've scanned or imaged them and created the ebooks from your paper copies?Exactly my thoughts. The paper from the now empty shelf is still in circulation.
The best part, this one to boast about is:
"How many shelves of paper books have you not bought because of your ebook device".
Or:
"How many virtual e-shelves of books have you filled?" :)

Well, I was just curious. I love my Reader and my purchases of dead tree books has slowed in the last 5 months but I'm still staring at over 1000 books on the shelves in my study. I'm itching to reduce them to electrons and so I'm curious how many people break down and do just that.

pbooks replaced by ebooks, 200+

Any old (and usually beatup) pbook I have that can be replaced by an ebook goes out the door. When I know I'll really want to read it, I'll download it--often from Mobileread.

I have given near 1000 books to a charity that teaches adults who never learned to read.

Recently I cleared many bookshelves and donated the books to the local charity shop. Still have many bookshelves scattered around the house with groaning shelves. Many of these books still need to be disposed of, juts haven't gotten around to it.

I rarely by pbook novels now unless they are by an author who does not publish in e-book or that e-bookedition is likely to be delayed and "I simply must have it now". Dianna Gabaldon books fall into this category.

I have approximately 250 books on my reader which would have demanded a lot of bookshelves.

A comment on the belief that p books keep a reasonable resale value. My sister recently cleared out her overloaded bookshelves and actually struggled to find a charity that would even take the books. Eventually the Salvation Army agreed to take them. If, or when, e books start to dominate the market, what on earth will happen to all the p books. I also wonder if there are any figures available as to how much paper is being used for books.

That's exactly why I end up just throwing books away - it's so difficult to find anyone who'll take 2nd hand books. That's why I just don't buy the argument that the fact that you can't re-sell eBooks is any big deal; in practical terms, it seems to be virtually impossible to re-sell pBooks!

Curious. I have always donated books to the local library wherever I was living at the time. But now that I think about it, I have noticed over the last very few years that they seem almost disappointed when I offer them a box full or two. There are also fewer used book stores where I live than I could ever have imagined. But I would have thought that libraries would always want a free book - unless it's their twelfth copy of some popular novel. I can't help but wonder why this is happening, really. Surely the decline in book reading isn't that dramatic, is it?

About 2 or 3 years ago I more or less stopped haunting used books stores to find the backlist books I wanted and started using ABEbook, Amazon etc, to find them. Now I more often use Guttenberg, manybooks, munseys, etc. I'm even starting to buy new books on Connect.