Bookworm was a family-run store along Marconi Avenue that was in business for three decades. However, it could not survive the drop in business caused by COVID-19.
*****
I'd have done something like putting a Free Books sign on the front door, donated them to libraries within driving distance, anything besides dumping them.
Crazy that people wouldn't take them when she tried to give them away but will now dumpster dive to get them.
ReplyDeleteI was employed as a high school custodian for a while and when they cleared out the libraire they were going to discard literally tons of books , I got permission to grab what i wanted , I got a truckload of good books , some about WWI and WWII , lots about different weapons , many were quite expensive. I need to build a couple shelves for them ,I've got books stacked up all over the place. not a bad problem to have
ReplyDeleteMy wife works at a library. Thy can only take so many donations and mostly just sell off the surplus.
ReplyDeletewhen my little sister and her husband finished a year at UCSD they needed to get rid of a thousand books. She is an author and publishers send some authors hundreds of books to read and blurb about. There were two used book stores in San Diego but neither were buying books so I suggested she dump them at the library. wouldn't you know, the library had signs posted saying, no dumping books. They were impossible to get rid of in the climate of the time.
ReplyDeleteI remember one of my favorite authors, Keith Laumer in Florida found his local library de-accessing the entire collection of the Wizard of Oz books. He took them in and they were all first addtions and worth a fortune. Here? We have about 20 bookshelves scattered around on 3 floors and stacks piled on the floor. We like books.
I know what you mean about 'hurting my heart', Kenny. Books are one of my weaknesses.
ReplyDeleteWe demolished an old house and rebuilt one in its place for a client. The original house belonged to a college professor and he had piles and piles of books in every room that were destined for the dumpster. Languages, sciences, maff, natural history, geology... I loaded my pickup truck bed with "must haves" and took them home. Even pulling a truckload out didn't even make a dent in it, but I already felt like a crazy-ass hoarder taking what I did. I felt terrible about all of them going to the dump, but the demo machinery was already scheduled by the time I got involved and in the amount of time I had, there was nothing I further could do.
I also rescued about 15 pieces of cast iron cookware in varying conditions, but, unfortunately, there were no corn-shaped brownie pans.
I eventually read through a lot of the books and weeded out many that I took to local school libraries. School libraries will usually take almost anything, saying that if it in inappropriate to place in the school, they can have it auctioned off and get money for new books. One country school took a bunch of old gun and hunting books I had accumulated and seemed very glad to get them.
Ed
Most libraries have a volunteer organization that holds book sales to raise funds for the library.
ReplyDeletei was never able to bring myself to throw books away. Except once sailing from san diego to cabo san lucas when I was trying to read a book so bad I finally just flung it over the side.
ReplyDeleteHell, I can't even throw magazines away.
DeleteThat is sad. I use a reader now days. I like being able to change the font and able to read without reading glasses, I like putting my finger on a word and it's definition pops up, when I can't sleep which is every night I can pull my read and turn the screen brightness down so I don't disturb my wife also like the price of books plus I can get them through the library. I knock out about three novels a week. However, I have my old standbys and classics on the shelves in book form. I like the smell of a book.
ReplyDeleteThe ex could never understand why I'd read a book three or more times. I told her it was like visiting an old friend.
DeleteJust a few I plan to read forever, Of Mice and Men, Grapes or Wrath, Watership Down, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Most of Calab Carr, Michener, Jakes and Rutherfurd. Damn this list can go on forever. Hell, I even read Chronicles of Narnia about every fifteen years. So true, they are old friends.
DeleteWhen I sold my house, the hardest part was getting rid of a 40 year library.
ReplyDeleteI'm always sad when it comes to the destruction of books. Due to many many moves I simply got tired of storing my abundance of books, due to another impending move I decided to donate them to the local Public library. All of them were high quality leather bound books pertaining to events of historical reference, from some of the most noted authors throughout history. Referred to as classical literature. They would not take most of them, and the local high school declined any of them. Which in my mind, shows their policy towards literature Is govt. policy and politically driven. I ended up leaving boxes and boxes outside the public library door and they eventually disappeared.
ReplyDeleteI estimate I've read well over 2,000-2,500 books through my life and would like the room to store and collect more. But have neither. Books are an introduction to the possible, a precursory look into the future. If you have books, you can teach yourself to read, when you read there is no limit to what you can teach yourself, when you can teach yourself there is no limit to what you can learn. The most important lesson I've learned in my lifetime, is this simple fact: "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know." And everyday is a new opportunity to learn.
I've got several 18 gallon plastic totes full of books and magazines. One tote is just paperback westerns. Another is full of woodworking magazines. And the others are filled with different genres.
ReplyDeleteI need to go by the used book store that just opened in town and see if they buy or trade used books.
I probably won't be donating anymore to the Salvation Army.
regarding libraries:
ReplyDeleteI was an avid library borrower. Every week at least 5-10 books. Seems like in the last 5 years they were getting worse with their variety of books. Everything recently published had the bullshit 'woke' stuff in it. Trangenderism, homosexuality, climate change all the trigger words that set me off to toss the books in the trash, which isn't appropriate when you are borrowing them.
My library was constantly having prizes for filling out reading logs, anything to draw you in and get you to borrow more stuff. Even if it wasn't printed. My suggestion to stop including the garbage of the current culture wasn't appreciated and I stopped going.
I DO however go to their book sales, because they get rid of the older books but the better authors. The ones that aren't coerced into inserting homosexuality or other deviant behaviors when it's not appropriate to the story.
i drop mine off at our local libraries in the early AM. like a baby left at the doorsteps. that way they can't refuse them.
ReplyDeletePart of the epidemic of stupidity & ignorance in the western world is the fact that knowledge is cheap, often free; compounded by the fact that it requires self-motivated effort to read a book or self-learn / teach. People often think something good or something worth having should cost money, it should be exotic; free books don't qualify. They would also rather someone else "teach" it to them as it puts the duty on someone else and implies less effort on their own part even if it is ultimately more time and effort. Archive.org will probably have a better college education on it than most universities if someone is motivated to go learn on their own for free.
ReplyDeleteYou can find a lot of valuable books at garage sales, preferably first print, first edition books which may have some light collection value. I keep a few old history books because of all the wokism revisionist nonsense going around, old machining books, etc. When I get a shop built, I'll probably start reading those. For now, keeping the books nice and safe in a box under my bed will suffice until I have the means to exercise the knowledge contained within. Knowledge is power and that means books read and absorbed are power.
Just a few centuries ago, before the printing press, a complete vellum book would cost roughly half of all the wages a common man would have made in his life; such is why people only bought a single leaf. Now the greats written works can be had for pennies on amazon. The entire sum of human knowledge is available for free for the asking, but too few ever ask for knowledge. I tend to buy my books used though, no sense in buying new, used is much cheaper and a new book runs pretty high, especially hard cover.
-arc
Don't touch my books.
ReplyDeleteI've tried donating books that I've read and didn't want to read again to the library---they already have rooms full of books to give away or sell to raise funds, to a nursing home---I was summarily told they don't want them. So they went into the re-cycle bin for paper. I have a personal library of several thousand books that I read continuously and I imagine when I bite the dust they'll go the same way. No one in my family or none of my friends read. Damn shame.
ReplyDeleteA mediaevalist friend (who has this kind of luck generally) went to a Univ of Ky library sale, hardbacks $1.50, and bought a medical book printed in Florence Italy in 1540, and a law book printed in Rome in 1588, both in Latin.
ReplyDeleteJohn in Indy
a)
ReplyDeletere -- 'this phase of this Economic Lock-Down'
.
"...could not survive the drop in business caused by COVID-19..."
.
I refuse to participate in any 'covid19' nonsense.
I automatically translate their hoax into 'this phase of this Economic Lock-Down'.
Based on the evidence, the results are the intention.
.
'This phase of this Economic Lock-Down'.
.
.
b)
A bookstore closes, a library burns, a heritage is lost, a culture is poorer.