I love Goodreads and think it's a great site for all manner of things related to books. I enjoy being able to keep track of what I read (previously I just made a list of titles for each year, which was okay, but didn't have any detail), but I find one aspect of the 'My Books' section a bit frustrating.
I've always been one of those people who doesn't finish every book he starts, but Goodreads doesn't seem to like this idea much. You almost get the feeling you should finish everything you begin. Well, sorry, Goodreads, I just can't. Some books get to the point where they're either overtaken by something more interesting, or where I've got the general idea and find the author's just repeating him/herself, or where they just fail to keep on grabbing me. This can happen early in the book, or late, but there comes a time with some books when finishing them is just wasted effort for me.
This can include 'classic' novels like le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which, in spite of its stylish writing, just failed on a storytelling level for me. Not just confusing, but almost opaque. I got about halfway through it before giving up.
So what do I do with books like that? You can make up your own category: Books I Failed to Finish if you want, but they'll still show up as books that aren't done with. (In fact I do have two categories along these lines: one's called 'Put aside for the time being' and the other is 'Giving up on'.
But the books in these can't officially be put in the 'Read' category. Well, it looks as though I'm going to have to pretend I've finished them, and put a note (mostly for my own benefit) in the review section to say that I couldn't get any further with a book. And why.
I've started doing that, but feel as though I'm being sneaky and that Goodreads will catch up with me soon, and give me a slap on the hand.
Showing posts with label shelves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shelves. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Friday, March 01, 2013
Book clearance
We've been having a major clear-out of books from our house. We're planning on having a garage sale in a week or so,to see if we can sell some of them then; otherwise we'll take them down to the Regent.
When I say, 'major' I mean huge. We've taken down one set of shelves completely - these ones hung on the wall, and were one of the first set of book shelves we put up in the house. We've no further use for another set of shelves - at least not for books. And we have space on two other sets of shelves in case we happen to acquire any more books. Hopefully, with a large number of them moving on, we won't find that they've been breeding overnight to such an extent as seems to have been the case in the past.
Of course there have been some finds: books we'd forgotten about; envelopes with old letters, or aerograms that have been used as bookmarks; postcards, greetings cards, and more. Some of them no longer have any relevance, but one or two have been real rediscoveries.
It's quite a task to clear out books you've had for decades - you grow attached to the sight of them round the house, even if you don't actually ever read them again. A few of them I'm sorry to see go (especially those I bought at some expense and which turned out to be duds!), but for the most part we've been able to throw out multitudes of books without too much qualm. The house is already feeling a good deal lighter - in weight.
So what kind of books are they? Well, there are a heap of novels; a heap of history books (my son left these behind when he went to the States) on a wide range of subjects; a boxful of Dr Who stories (same son left these behind), a bunch of Christian books that have become surplus to my requirements; and innumerable non-fiction titles that we just don't need to keep giving a home.
The books are going to go out at very reasonable prices, so if you like books, it may be worth your while checking them out! (Incidentally, they're not all decades old: there are a number of quite new books, - a few in pristine condition - that we just don't want).
When I say, 'major' I mean huge. We've taken down one set of shelves completely - these ones hung on the wall, and were one of the first set of book shelves we put up in the house. We've no further use for another set of shelves - at least not for books. And we have space on two other sets of shelves in case we happen to acquire any more books. Hopefully, with a large number of them moving on, we won't find that they've been breeding overnight to such an extent as seems to have been the case in the past.
Of course there have been some finds: books we'd forgotten about; envelopes with old letters, or aerograms that have been used as bookmarks; postcards, greetings cards, and more. Some of them no longer have any relevance, but one or two have been real rediscoveries.
It's quite a task to clear out books you've had for decades - you grow attached to the sight of them round the house, even if you don't actually ever read them again. A few of them I'm sorry to see go (especially those I bought at some expense and which turned out to be duds!), but for the most part we've been able to throw out multitudes of books without too much qualm. The house is already feeling a good deal lighter - in weight.
So what kind of books are they? Well, there are a heap of novels; a heap of history books (my son left these behind when he went to the States) on a wide range of subjects; a boxful of Dr Who stories (same son left these behind), a bunch of Christian books that have become surplus to my requirements; and innumerable non-fiction titles that we just don't need to keep giving a home.
The books are going to go out at very reasonable prices, so if you like books, it may be worth your while checking them out! (Incidentally, they're not all decades old: there are a number of quite new books, - a few in pristine condition - that we just don't want).
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