Does “used” mean “useless”?
I was on LinkedIn today and answered a question about improv (improvisational theatre). The questioner wanted help including improv in a training event she was designing. I recomended the work of Viola Spolin. I suggested going to her site and I also suggested checking out some of her books.
My suggestion included the comment that one could find her books used at numerous places including Amazon. That got me to thinking: why would someone get rid of a really good book? Surely it is not because the material is suddenly useless. OK, I do have some old computer books that are not all that useful. I mean a book on using Netscape 1.0 is kind of out of date…
So, why do people get rid of useful books? Lack of space? The couple of dollars they’ll bring? To share with others? I’d love to hear what you have to say.
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your blog ate my long and considered reply which I am not sure I want to attempt to duplicate.
The short answer is bookshelf space. And if I do get rid of them they are no longer useful to me. The triage can be difficult and emotional as to which books stay and which go and it has a lot to do with my current research interests and passe subjects of interest. Reference books generally remain and they go from “When is a Pig a Hog” to the Oxford Dictionary of English Usage.