Have Ereaders Affected Your Book Collection?

[DrNefario]

I'm trying to reduce it - I try to take a bag of books to a charity shop every few weeks - but I've also had a spell of buying second-hand and it probably about balances out so far.

[Sydney's Mom]

I had to choose about the same, as I have only ceased buying pbooks, but the status quo is winning. Yes, I should box them up and take them to the library for the annual book sale. But, I don't remember if I finished that one, and I really liked the ending on that one, maybe I will read the last chapter, and that one is really prescient and . . . .

[Yapyap]

Mine is still increasing, although at a much slower rate than it used to. I only buy paper books now when it's something that both looks good and that I really want to read (or, preferably, re-read and keep around), and preferably in hardback.

Other than my ever-increasing Skulduggery Pleasant collection (I buy the Kindle versions for the actual reading, but for the collection, I buy both the hardback and paperback versions, plus I've got a few in different editions and some I have as translations in various other languages), I've mostly bought some ARCs of books I've loved as well as got some personalised signed books.

And then there have been a couple of cases where I've had to buy the paper version of a book I've really wanted to read but that hasn't been released as an ebook yet. :-S

But all in all, we're talking dozens, not hundreds, of new DTB purchases since getting my first e-reader, so that's good.

[pagansoul]

I'm in the boat where just about all my paperbacks are gone. I don't buy them anymore and I had hundreds. They all went to Goodwill. I even got rid of many magazines (I collected Natl Geographic) and replaced them to DVDs when I was able. I still have my Babylon 5 and Alien Nation books but my Star Trek, Star Wars and a sh**load of romantic novels nolonger fill my book cases. I still have several boxes of comic books and TPB but I'm looking for digital replacements for them also unless they are special or the artwork is exceptional. I even get my Art magazines on annual CDs now.

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by AndrewH

I've replaced nearly all my paper books with their ebook equivalents and donated the paper versions to the library. I'm down from about 500 paper books to 20.

Yup, me too, but I do still have paper 'art' books as you call them, and actually more of those than I used to have. I feel like since I have limited shelf space for paper books, I should use that shelf space only for pretty ones :-)

[pagansoul]

I used to never buy cookbooks, I just borrowed my mothers. Now, with my mothers passing I not only have her Cookbooks but my own which take up 2 rows of shelves. My Art and Gardening books take up an entire book case. A bookcase that used to hold my paperbooks now hold my Blu-rays and some CDs.

[Ntsimp]

I only have about 6 bookcases left. It's weird, having furniture-arrangement options I never would have considered before.

[Namekuseijin]

I'm really willing to get rid of my old books and comics (as well as CDs, DVDs, old game cartridges etc)

makes no sense anymore and it's a waste of space

I mean, aside from books and comics, it's not like my grandsons would one day get to the attic and have a blast with the contents of a long dead media...

[sharphamster]

Originally Posted by Ntsimp

I only have about 6 bookcases left. It's weird, having furniture-arrangement options I never would have considered before.

Yes, me too! I had no idea just how much room I had until the books weren't there to dictate furniture placement, and what have you.

I still have 5 boxes in storage that have to be culled. Going to be tough to part with the childhood favorites, but I'm pretty sure I won't feel the need to re-read my Nancy Drew collection.

[alecE]

The size of my pbook collection has reduced slightly - whilst I have a long-term process of replacing certain pbooks with their ebook equivalents (and then discarding the pbooks) I just can't stop myself buying the occasional 2nd-hand pbook for eventual scanning and conversion. Needless to say, the purchased ebook collection continues to grow.
No, I'm not addicted; I could give it up any time I wanted, honestly...

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Ntsimp

I only have about 6 bookcases left. It's weird, having furniture-arrangement options I never would have considered before.

We're down to seven or eight here too! In a cottage-sized house, though, they still do dominate rather. I don't mind that a lot, but it would be nice to have a bit more space. I might do another cull soon.

I think my paper collection is overall decreasing in size, but preteen son is still accumulating. I hope that doesn't keep happening for too long, though I admit I'm mostly to blame.

[Tarana]

It's weird, having furniture-arrangement options I never would have considered before.

Very true. Elimination of paperbacks and books has given me vertical storage I never had before. This makes access easier and, theoretically, will reduce buying duplicate supplies because I can't find them or they devolve into something unusable.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by cromag

The biggest difference is that the paper book collection isn't growing.

Same here. The thing is a lot of the stuff I read, I just borrowed from the library. The titles I bought are ones I really like and I'm finding it quite hard to part with the ones I've collected even when I'm buying digital equivalents as they're released. I really should get rid of some, though. There's barely any space to walk in the apartment thanks to my boxes of books.

[booklover6]

Mine are mostly gone....I just boxed up the last of my trade size yesterday, going to put them on ebay in lots. I have some print books left to read.....that are not in ebook or are too expensive in ebook. Plus I still have a ton of children's books. My boys don't read ebooks. My girls do, but they like paper books, too. Especially since I won't let them take their tablets to school.

But as to my personal collection of thousands, I have under 100, including some hard covers that I will keep for the time being.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by pagansoul

I used to never buy cookbooks, I just borrowed my mothers. Now, with my mothers passing I not only have her Cookbooks but my own which take up 2 rows of shelves. My Art and Gardening books take up an entire book case. A bookcase that used to hold my paperbooks now hold my Blu-rays and some CDs.

I like your living room!