Are Books Dying Out

[nailit]

Posted a few days ago that I was thinning out my book collection (as my flat resembles a library and id like it to resemble a home again..) Managed to offload a couple of hundred novels to a local market trader who deals in those sort of books. However have got a couple of hundred encyclopedia/reference type books advertised on the net as a job lot and only asking 20 quid for the lot. Havnt had one offer. Still got boxes more to sort yet as well. In addition, my reading group that I attend once a month is now talking about going all kindle. I don't have or want a kindle, I like a book to be a flaming book, not an electronic device. I also recently donated some furniture to a charity, when they came to pick it up I offered them a few boxes of books. They refused to take them (ironically, some of the furniture I donated included book cases!)

Doesn't anyone read books anymore?

[DTCwordfan]

following on from Mamya's and yes, that was great, Mamya...remember this one in Edinburgh...very moving.... http://www.cityofliterature.com/the-literary-city/meet/meet-mystery-paper-artist/

[Cloverjo]

The Heart Foundation came and picked up some boxes of books. The local hospice charity also happily accepted a couple of bags of them.

[jno]

I think as OG says, encyclopedias and reference books don't do so well; they get out of date quickly, and Wikipedia and other such sites are just as easy to use and much less expensive. Fiction seems just as popular as ever when I'm on the train; I once assumed everyone would be reading Kindles but it hasn't happened, books are still widespread.

[Mamyalynne]

Yes DT, I do remember that - beautiful and moving.

[nailit]

I can understand reference books becoming out of date but a lot of my books that I'm trying to get rid off are history books...how do they become 'out of date'???
Don't really care what happens to them, just don't want them chucked. Ive had hours of pleasure reading/studying them, just a waste to tip them.

[yogi-bear]

I like a good read, and always have a good book on the go....Stephen King, Charles Berlitz, Andy McNab, Peter Benchley, Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novel's, and much more.....currently on Peter Benchley's novel The Island.

[woofgang]

It depends on what kind of history they are. Dates and incontrovertible facts don't change but what we think we know does change. Much of the history that I was taught at school as historical fact has either been disproved or had doubt cast on it....big example The Princes in the Tower killed by Richard III.

[-SharonA-]

I buy a lot of books, both paperbacks and ebooks. I buy from second hand shops and donate back what I've read.
I love thrillers and who dunnits.

[jno]

it depends - history books are a sort of reference book, and interpretations of history change over the years (academic historians are always trying to come up with something new in order to sell books). When I was doing history at school I used my grandmother's history text book, which was then about 70 years old - Victoria was still alive - and is now 120 years old, and still good. But teaching then was very fact-based and didn't depend so much on interpretations.