Ever offload a collection. . .

[mastadge]

. . .and then regret it?

15 years or so ago my Trek enthusiasm had waned quite a bit and when I moved I got rid of my whole collection of Trek: every DS9 published to that time, all the New Frontier, all the Voyager, and a good chunk of TNG and TOS, including a number of hardcovers, plus a bunch of the reference books. (Not to mention some other collections, like the Shatner TekWar series, the Tor Conan series, the Mars Attacks books published around the release of the movie, the whole line of Aliens and Predator novels mostly based on the Dark Horse comics, etc -- basically a huge chunk of my childhood and adolescence.)

And then a few years ago my enthusiasm was rekindled and I've been (slightly more selectively, but still pretty ambitiously) working to rebuild that whole collection, plus catch up on the whole novelverse since. Yikes. Oh well. I hope all those old books found good homes, inspired new fans, and in the case of some of the more collectible ones like A Stitch in Time were treated kindly and appreciated.

It's been an experience. But fun.

 

[Kilana2]

I never thought about selling all my books off. Almost lost some of them during an incident with water in my cellar. All the Trek books are so dear to me, especially the German editions, some of them with new covers. A Stitch In Time is one of them. I regret that some of the books are too worn as I acquired them secondhand.

 

[Little_kingsfan]

When I first got my Kindle, I started collecting a lot of the same books that I had on my shelf - because, hey, it's easier to carry around one Kindle than numerous books! - and then I moved about a year later, getting rid of a lot of the paper books I'd also gotten the ebook editions, including my complete sets of Vanguard and I.K.S. Gorkon, all of the Titan books up to that point (I don't remember if I had already grabbed Fallen Gods, but definitely all of the books before that one), my handful of DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise books, and a lot of my Next Generation stuff (in fact, if a TNG wasn't a part of the Relaunch - other than the Battle of Betazed, which is at least Relaunch-adjacent - I probably got rid of it) and my collection of the Original Series stuff was pretty haphazard anyways so I can't tell what I kept and what I donated. It took a couple of years to realize that I missed the paper books (especially when I just wanted to look up one little thing and not necessarily reread it); fortunately by then, I had a real job and could afford to buy a new paper copy of the book and have been rebuilding my collection a little at a time.

Oh, I also kept my first six S.C.E. paperbacks while 7-13 are all on my Kindle.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I also kept my first six S.C.E. paperbacks while 7-13 are all on my Kindle.

Time for some final SCE omnibuses, please!

 

[Relayer1]

I'd started getting rid of stuff before Covid struck - I'll be getting back to it soon.

Dozens of music biographies, a big Star Wars novel collection gathered over forty odd years, Alien novels, magazines, comics, graphic novels.

I was going to keep my hundreds of Trek novels, but...I don't know now.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I’ve misplaced a box of books following a move (I HAVE a photo of that box with the rest! Why can I not find the bloody thing?! *ahem*), and it’s a bear trying to replace them.

Especially since I can ONLY find the novelization of First Contact online as an ebook, not a hard copy...

But I’ve built up a veritable library of books over my lifetime - Star Trek. Star Wars, Buffy, various others - and the thought of actually getting rid of any of them is virtually unthinkable to me. Like my goal is to have them all in proper shelving, something that, in my mind’s eye, greatly resembles the library room in Beauty and the Beast. In theory, I understand why they could be sold off, but in practice... There’s a part of me that wants to call the very thought akin to sacrilege.

 

[Kilana2]

The First Contact novelization is one of the few books missing in my collection....

 

[mastadge]

Like my goal is to have them all in proper shelving, something that, in my mind’s eye, greatly resembles the library room in Beauty and the Beast. In theory, I understand why they could be sold off, but in practice... There’s a part of me that wants to call the very thought akin to sacrilege.

I've been there. Had an enormous finished basement that I literally lined the walls with bookcases. Plus built-ins in bedroom, etc. And then I had to move across the country and had to make the hard decision to get rid of thousands of books. I love having my library but books are a bear to move and so . . . yeah. But then rebuilding a collection that's been lost is also not easy, if you decide you want to. I'd still love to have an enormous library like that but have come to terms with that it may never happen, and even if it does it needs to be planned for so it doesn't become a burden on whoever's dealing with my estate.

 

[Smiley]

At this point in my life (late thirties), I prefer to get most of my books as ebooks. If I lose interest later on, there's nothing to get rid of; I just don't have to return to the title. The book space is used for those books that either are not available electronically or have some other advantage in tangible form (autograph, collectible book, etc.).

 

[publiusr]

Almost lost some of them during an incident with water in my cellar.

I hate water leaks. If I ever come into money, I’m going to design a house with layered roofs and all plumbing away from shelving

 

[Kilana2]

I hate water leaks. If I ever come into money, I’m going to design a house with layered roofs and all plumbing away from shelving

The water came from outside, there was stormy weather just hours before.

 

[JD]

I have done several purges of books I had and never read or didn't think I was going to read again. I don't remember what most of them were, but one I do regret getting rid of is the English version of original Planet of the Apes novel.