Books - When the student is ready the teacher will come

[W2R]

Emphasis on the word "one"!

Tee hee!! Yes, one. I have just one "official" box of nostalgia for hurricane evacuation purposes.

But then, not in the box is all my old piano music back to age 6, and guitar and cello music. I am ready to dump it - - even my Bach, even my 1965 "Peter, Paul, and Mary Songbook" - - really, I am - -?

 

[haha]

I do not understand the assumed air of virtue created by having physical possession of many books. Most stuff can be looked up on the internet. A physical book can be borrowed from the library or purchased and passed on.

This is an assumption about people's motivation that like most assumptions is wrong.

Your facts are also wrong. I live in a big city, with access to 2 large library systems- nevertheless many books you cannot borrow, because they never bought them.

Perhaps you cannot imagine anyone not trying to assert their moral superiority because of some personal issue?

Ha

 

[Meadbh]

Okey dokey....let's all head down to NOLA to help with W2R's garage sale!

 

[W2R]

Okey dokey....let's all head down to NOLA to help with W2R's garage sale!

ROFL!! Hurry, before I change my mind.

 

[Marquette]

I've culled almost all of my technical books. I maintain a subscription to safari books online for the rest.

 

[Zoocat]

As I see it this thread is about two topics
1. Books
2. The worthless (or worthy?) sixties generation.

My take
1. Books -- YUM! Can't read just one.
2. Sixties women were/are the bravest, most amibitious women in history, IMHO. They braved the working world,venturing where women had never gone before. They opened doors for the next generation, pushed back the sexual conventions, demanded birth control, and made it possible for women to function as working professionals in society on an equal basis with men. This is heroic and without precedent.

 

[Meadbh]

As I see it this thread is about two topics
1. Books
2. The worthless (or worthy?) sixties generation.

My take
1. Books -- YUM! Can't read just one.
2. Sixties women were/are the bravest, most amibitious women in history, IMHO. They braved the working world,venturing where women had never gone before. They opened doors for the next generation, pushed back the sexual conventions, demanded birth control, and made it possible for women to function as working professionals in society on an equal basis with men. This is heroic and without precedent.

How did we get on to 60's women? (I agree with you, but how is it relevant to the thread?)

 

[Sarah in SC]

I'll veer back to the books: I used to be a book collector, but Hugo (Charleston's Cat 5 hurricane in 1989) took all my books with it. Flooded under 5 feet of salt water and ruined. After that, I tried to take a more philosophical approach to books, lending libraries, and collecting. I still collect books, but not everything I read finds its way onto my shelves. It seems to be easier on the budget as well!

Now these old record albums...I have a really hard time ditching any of them!

Want2, we have an "evacuation list" like I"m sure you do--what has to go with us if we leave for a storm. Now that we have the old motorhome, it makes it easier to fit everything including the pets aboard, in theory. Maybe...

Heard an NPR story on the way home about the baby on the cover of Nirvana's biggest album, who is now 17. He was waxing poetic about wishing he'd been a teen during the 90's, when, you know, people did stuff. I howled! Nostalgia for the 90s! Indeed! This 1960's stuff made me think of that again--I guess every generation has some of the same ideas.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I also love real paper books and other printed material.

I kind of grew up in used book stores and several public libraries in Portland, Oregon. They are still magic places for me.

I got rid of my comic book collection, my collection of Astounding Science Fiction, my Byte magazines (except #1) and most of my technical magazines years ago. (The latter keep piling up, though. Gotta do it again.)

I have many boxes of references and technical books that would make a nice, wide-ranging technical library for someone, but the only people who would truly appreciate them are a few of my peers; old farts like me. I doubt that I will ever find a young engineer who would value them, much less use them, which is sad because the content will always be useful. The basics of the business are pretty timeless.

My dad gave his papers to his university library. They had historical value. Mine are just tools.

I am remembering my grandfather's woodworking tools. He made his living as a carpenter when furniture-making was still done by hand. His tools were old, but serviceable. I suppose there is an analogy there.

I am trying to remember that you can't take much with you to the rest home.

 

[Pete]

We must be careful that our biases don't lead us to books that simply agree with how we think already. If that is the case you might not be the student you think you are.

 

[DragoMuseveni]

One idea that occurs to me is for the bookworms on the Forum to start cataloguing their books so we could start an exchange. We could do it for the price of mailing.

Try Bookmooch @ www.bookmooch.com

 

[FUEGO]

Books are about to go viral! With the advent of facebook and other social networking sites, the literate folks on the net are able to load up applications where they can show off their well-read-ness to fellow net nerds. I still haven't gotten my "bookshelf" (or whatever it is called) set up on facebook, but I have looked at others' listings of favorite books, their reviews of the books they have read, and what they are reading soon.

You know your friends, so if they like/hate a particular book, you can evaluate their liking or hating in light of their personality. It is like a book review squared - helpfulness squared as compared to the typical NYT or amazon.com book review where you don't know the reviewer.

I have gotten ideas for what to read almost exclusively off the internet, mostly because the baboons I associate with on a daily basis don't read books (in general).

I don't know what the future of books, per se, will be. But it seems reading as a form of enlightenment, education, and entertainment will be around in some form or another for a long time to come.

 

[sailor]

I was about to post an excellent idea of BookMooch , but decided to search the the forums before posting, and of course ER board already talked about it.
5 years ago in this thread

Also - speaking about friends book recommendations - instead of Facebook bookshelf, I decided to use GoodReads as the means of evaluation the books (and keeping track of what you already read).
Two thumbs up (and it integrates with Facebook too)

 

[ls99]

Great old thread.

But who needs books besides this robot, which when I acquire it will provide answers to any questions after "major input"

 

[FUEGO]

Sailor, thanks for reviving the thread. That reminds me, I still haven't set up my facebook books read app. Can you bump this thread in another 5 years? Hope to be ER by then and have more time to read and manage what I want to read.