this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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What do youse guys do with books once you have read them?
Do you keep everything, keep some, toss all?
I tend to keep reference books, work/technical books that I use and books I haven't read yet. The rest are given away or donated or even put in the trash. I have little sentimentality regarding books, it has to be very special to keep.
I keep everything.
Unless they were boring, I buy another shelf and add them to the collection. I reread good ones regularly. Just looking at them on the shelf can set off a memory cascade near to actually doing so. It takes many boxen to move house!
I reread books a lot too, only get rid of them after a few reads.
I have a lot of boxes worth of art books, mostly technical or australian , well, not that many really, maybe 5
Exactly the same as you.
I don't buy books any more because I don't wanna make the decision of keep, throw, donate.
I only buy technical books now or out of print or books that aren't digitised, the rest is audiobooks
I have a lot of books to go through for my future bookcases already. I don't wanna add to the decision making later on. I have so many I still need to read.
I'm going thru my books and records this week, I always find items to toss
I rarely read physical books any more. I used to have lots of them, I had filled a big bookshelf and was trying to figure out where I could fit another one. Then it occured to me that the money I was looking to spend on a new shelving unit could buy a lot of books at the secondhand book store. If I did decide to read them again it would be cheaper to just buy them again than to pay to keep them. I gave away almost all the books (and managed to sell a few of the better ones) and now only keep reference type boooks I may want to go back to.
I find it a bit odd how sentimental people get about books, as if giving away books is somehow destroying knowledge instead of spreading it.
I tend to keep - which has been a problem as I read a lot. Since getting the kindle app on my computer & phone, I buy fewer books. I really must do a search and destroy on the bookshelves to remove duplicates. The trouble is I don't trust computers - paper books are always available even if the power goes out. Also the kindle app is crap for pictures and photos. I do use my local libraries a lot.
same reason why I keep some of my books
I used to keep everything, but moving around a lot and renting made it really hard. I lost most of my books after a bad break-up. Now, with the Minipeelers in the picture and living in a small space, they've got heaps of books and occasionally we do a cull to pass some over to younger relatives. They're allowed to keep as much as they like.
I will never forget living alone in a freezing house a couple of decades ago, with no money and a fireplace. I had every jacket and doona on and was still freezing, so I made the decision to burn some books to keep warm. As a former student of literature, this was heartbreaking. The process of deciding which books would be burnt and which could not was not something I ever wish to repeat.