Have Ereaders Affected Your Book Collection?

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Tarana

As everybody can see, over 75% of poll respondees have reduced their physical books since getting their ereaders. I would still continue to get paperbacks at garage sales for my Mom (hey, 25c-50c is still cheaper than an ebook and her vision is fine), but she is enjoying the additional space she garnered by getting rid of lots of paperbacks that she did not want to reread. The Senior center is happy to take whatever we don't want.

Crowl - I understand that you do not want to just throw out books. Can I suggest that you look for a hostel or other place that is frequented by American tourists? Perhaps there is a used bookstore in the area that would be happy to have english books? Perhaps even contact your library and find out if they would like to offer them for free to patrons - I have no doubt there are more english speakers in your area, just like there are german speakers in my area.

Everybody can't see...
Number of books decreased some (0-25%) 24 17.27%
Number of books decreased a lot (25-75%) 22 15.83%
Number of books almost gone (over 75-99%) 30 21.58%
All books gone 4 2.88%

Total looks more like 57.56% as none of the others record a decrease so hardly over 75%... I find the fact that around 40% of respondents have seriously reduced their pbooks to be more interesting on a site heavily prejudiced in favour of ebooks by its very nature although it is still a very limited (139 at time of post - 23:04 on 23rd Jan 2014) sample considering the number of forum members...

[Tarana]

It was a simple mistype.

[shanghaichica]

The number of physical books in my apartment is now almost non existent. When I first converted to ebooks properly in 2010 I had a massive cull of all my physical books and have for the most part resisted the urge to horde them again. I just horde them on my kindle now.

[Katsunami]

Yesterday all of mine were donated to a charity store. The only paper books I still have are:

- Some hardcovers that were never released as ebooks (and are even out of print themselves)
- Some reference books about software, software engineering and programming
- A huge stack of lead sheet books (which I use as a source to create my sheet music on the computer so it can be properly enlarged)

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Crowl - I understand that you do not want to just throw out books. Can I suggest that you look for a hostel or other place that is frequented by American tourists? Perhaps there is a used bookstore in the area that would be happy to have english books? Perhaps even contact your library and find out if they would like to offer them for free to patrons - I have no doubt there are more english speakers in your area, just like there are german speakers in my area.

I'm in the same situation as Crowl and, believe me, there aren't all that many options. I've asked at the local libraries and they don't want English language books - I suspect because they'd get donations that aren't on the school reading list. The American Library in Paris runs an annual book sale of donated books - but that means hauling boxes of books into Paris, which isn't exactly practical.

Plus, I tend to be a bit of a pack rat. Never know when you'll want to refer back to a title you bought and read long, long ago.

But at least my collection is not growing anymore - other than on my computer, where I store my e-books.

[Gaius Primus]

The last book I purchased was in 2004, 1 month before I picked up a blackberry pearl and loaded the Mobiread app onto it. By the end of 2005, I had donated 2 bookshelves of books and went completely paperless.