Write Every Day: Day 27

[the_siobhan]

I live in a pretty small house with two other adults and so storage space is always at a premium. A few years ago I got a Kindle and started converting some of my collection to electronic copies and purging the paper copies. Most of my purchases of new books now are digital.

In ye olden tymes when I was in college, if I wanted to get rid of a stack of books there were several used book stores in town. None of them are in business any more, so this is my current solution. The above is a picture of the Little Free Library on my front lawn. There are dozens of them in this neighbourhood and I am always finding new authors to check out.

Not everything new I buy is digital mind you, nor have I gotten rid of all my hard copies. I still only buy comics in hardcopy. I have some gorgeous pictures books and signed copies that I want to keep. And you will pry my Darwath Trilogy books out of my cold dead hands.

What do you do with old books? Is there still a currency in used books where you live? Do you love or hate e-readers?

Day 27 Tally:
china_shop, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, luzula, shadaras, sanguinity, nafs, sakana17, brainwane, cornerofmadness, phrenk, lferion, yasaman, silveradept, ysilme, alexseanchai, auroracloud, firecat, iberiandoctor

Day 26:
china_shop, badly_knitted, silveradept, sylvanwitch, shadaras, sanguinity, nafs, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, phrenk, sakana17, luzula, saki101, ysilme, auroracloud, firecat, iberiandoctor

Day 25:
china_shop, badly_knitted, shopfront, phrenk, luzula, sylvanwitch, shadaras, brainwane, firecat, nafs, cornerofmadness, sanguinity, alexseanchai, lferion, yasaman, phrenk, sakana17, silveradept, ysilme, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

Day 24:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, , alexseanchai, sylvanwitch, shadaras, nafs, lferion, sakana17, cornerofmadness, yasaman, shopfront, silveradept, brainwane, sanguinity, ysilme, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

Day 23:
china_shop, shopfront, badly_knitted, luzula, anankastick, sylvanwitch, shadaras, alexseanchai, yasaman, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, ysilme, silveradept, sanguinity, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

Day 22:
alexseanchai, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, shadaras, brainwane, sakana17, sanguinity, nafs, phrenk, cornerofmadness, lferion, yasaman, auroracloud, shopfront, luzula, silveradept, ysilme, iberiandoctor

Day 21:
china_shop, alexseanchai, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, shadaras, silveradept, brainwane, lferion, sakana17, nafs, cornerofmadness, yasaman, phrenk, auroracloud, shopfront, firecat, sanguinity, luzula, iberiandoctor, ysilme

Day 20:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, badly_knitted, luzula, alexseanchai, shadaras, nafs, sakana17, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, phrenk, shopfront, firecat, sanguinity, silveradept, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, ysilme

Day 19:
china_shop, ysilme, shopfront, luzula, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, brainwane, silveradept, cornerofmadness, nafs, sakana17, yasaman, lferion, sanguinity, alexseanchai, phrenk, shadaras, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

Day 18:
china_shop, alexseanchai, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, shadaras, brainwane, marvelouscity, nafs, lferion, cornerofmadness, yasaman, sakana17, sanguinity, phrenk, firecat, ysilme, silveradept, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

Day 17:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, shadaras, alexseanchai, sanguinity, brainwane, nafs, cornerofmadness, sakana17, yasaman, lferion, marvelouscity, silveradept, phrenk, iberiandoctor, firecat, ysilme, auroracloud

Day 16:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, sanguinity, yasaman, brainwane, firecat, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, silveradept, iberiandoctor, shadaras, ysilme, auroracloud

Day 15:
china_shop, alexseanchai, sylvanwitch, badly_knitted, trobadora, luzula, yasaman, sanguinity, shadaras, brainwane, nafs, sakana17, cornerofmadness, phrenk, lferion, silveradept, firecat, iberiandoctor, ysilme, auroracloud

Day 14:
china_shop, ysilme, sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, luzula, alexseanchai, shadaras, sanguinity, nafs, brainwane, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, shopfront,silveradept, firecat, ysilme, auroracloud

Day 13:
china_shop, shopfront, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, alexseanchai, sylvanwitch, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, yasaman, phrenk, sakana17, silveradept, ysilme, iberiandoctor, trobadora, sanguinity, auroracloud

Day 12:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, shadaras, brainwane, silveradept, alexseanchai, thevetia, yasaman, zulu, sakana17, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, lferion, phrenk, badly_knitted, saki101, ysilme, iberiandoctor, trobadora, luzula, auroracloud

Day 11:
china_shop, firecat, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, shadaras, thevetia, sakana17, brainwane, sanguinity, yasaman, cornerofmadness, china_shop, nafs, lferion, saki101, alexseanchai, phrenk, firecat, shopfront, silveradept, zulu, trobadora, ysilme, iberiandoctor, auroracloud

Day 10:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, shadaras, sanguinity, brainwane, nafs, firecat, yasaman, cornerofmadness, sakana17, saki101, lferion, phrenk, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, silveradept, thevetia, trobadora, ysilme

Day 9:
china_shop, shadaras, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, sanguinity, saki101, nafs, yasaman, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, badly_knitted, ysilme, silveradept, solo, carenejeans, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, luzula, brainwane, trobadora

Day 8:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, badly_knitted, luzula, saki101, silveradept, sanguinity, shadaras, thevetia, brainwane, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, yasaman, phrenk, alexseanchai, firecat, auroracloud, ysilme, solo, carenejeans, iberiandoctor, trobadora

Day 7:
china_shop, shopfront, falkner, badly_knitted, luzula, trobadora, sylvanwitch, shadaras, nafs, brainwane, sanguinity, lferion, yasaman, sakana17, phrenk, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, firecat, saki101, silveradept, auroracloud, ysilme, iberiandoctor

Day 6:
china_shop, ysilme, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, saki101, sanguinity, shadaras, brainwane, nafs, alexseanchai, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, shopfront, silveradept, iberiandoctor, firecat, solo, carenejeans, auroracloud

Day 5:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, sylvanwitch, nafs, sakana17, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, lferion, brainwane, saki101, phrenk, firecat, ysilme, shopfront, yasaman, carenejeans, houseof9cats, thevetia, robadora, silveradept, auroracloud, trobadora

Day 4:
china_shop, shopfront, luzula. alexseanchai, shadaras, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, ysilme, sanguinity, saki101, silveradept, nafs, yasaman, thevetia, sakana17, cornerofmadness, lferion, phrenk, solo, iberiandoctor, firecat, brainwane, carenejeans, yasaman, auroracloud, trobadora

Day 3:
china_shop, alexseanchai, alexcat, sylvanwitch, sakana17, thevetia, nafs, lferion, cornerofmadness, phrenk, solo, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, yasaman, brainwane, trobadora, ysilme, sanguinity, silveradept, iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans, auroracloud

Day 2:
china_shop, shadaras, falkner, luzula, badly_knitted, alexseanchai, trobadora, saki101, sylvanwitch, brainwane, thevetia, lferion, cornerofmadness, nafs, sakana17, yasaman, solo, phrenk, auroracloud, ysilme, sanguinity, silveradept, alexcat, iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans

Day 1:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, luzula, badly_knitted, trobadora, falkner, alexseanchai, silveradept, shadaras, sanguinity, thevetia, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, alexcat, marvelouscity, saki101, yasaman, solo, auroracloud, phrenk, shopfront, brainwane, dreamwriteremmy, ysilme, , iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans

Let me know if I missed your name at any point. And participation is always open, so jump in with a comment any time.

Comments

[sylvanwitch]

I love the little free library movement, and yours is marvelous!

I am an inveterate collector of physical books, but I don’t keep every book that I read, and the discards all go to our local library, which has a huge annual book sale to raise money for its programs.

We are fortunate to also have a favorite used bookstore nearby, but we always end up buying from rather than selling to him. Lol!

Today, before beginning my annual Black Friday LotR tradition, I got 892 words in on the novel. Now, back to Fangorn Forest!

[the_siobhan]

Our libraries don't want them - I think they get swamped with donations. I've read that prison libraries will take them, but I haven't checked that out myself.

Well done on your words!

[ouranophobe]

eReaders and I don't tend to get on particularly well, sadly. I wish it were otherwise. We still have some used bookstores in Ann Arbor, but I have no idea yet the true situation in DC... the intercatz suggests there are used bookstores, but that report may be out of date. There used to be a shop locally that I took used books to and they would sell them on commission on, like, eBay, or whatever, but I think they, too, have gone the way of the dodo.

(no tally)

[the_siobhan]

I think there are just too many books out in the wild. We couldn't give away my mothers furniture because all the boomers are downsizing and moving into apartments so there is just too much free stuff out there.

[badly_knitted]

Really not fond of e-readers, or new tech at all right now =(

My unwanted books go to charity shops that sell unwanted items for their charities. I always prefer paper books, and usually paperbacks because they're easier on my weak wrists. I actually injured my wrist once reading a book, I was in bandages for 8 weeks and using my hand was agonising.

I've managed a measly 250 word drabble today because the new version of windows is horrible, MS Office is a torture device designed to make writing anything impossible, and when I saved my little drabble it was stored somewhere I couldn't get at it to put it in my fic folder so I had to copy and paste into a text file. How I'm going to manage to keep up with challenges now I don't know. Right now I feel like just giving up.

[the_siobhan]

I have the new office suite at work and I 100% agree with you that it's garbage. LibreOffice is free if that's an option.

Well done on your words regardless.

[armiphlage]

For me, it's the other way around. Yesterday I opened up a paperback book for the first time in a year. It shocked me how much my eyes hurt from reading it, and how sore my right wrist is today. It was a rather thick paperback, but I've been spoiled by my lightweight Kobo (which lets me increase the font size so I can rest it on my knee, instead of holding it at the right distance for focusing).

[luzula]

No new writing, but since I finished chapter 9 yesterday, I read it over, did some slight editing, and sent it off to beta. Also I reviewed beta comments on chapter 8.

Hands hurt now, so short comment!

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your progress and I hope you hands feel better soon~

[shadaras]

A hundred or so words today.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[sanguinity]

Maybe 500 words today. I'd hoped for better, but I'll take the 500.


Powell's Books is here in town, so there is in fact a market for used books -- although they won't take anything like everything that you try to sell them. I love my ereader, and mostly use it to access out-of-print public domain stuff: I write mostly historical fandoms, and a LOT of contemporary-to-my-settings writings are available in digital format, where you'd NEVER be able to lay hands on a print copy.

[the_siobhan]

Wouldn't it be lovely if reference libraries moved all their content to online?

Well done on your words!

[nafs]

Your little free library is so cute! I haven't bought myself a physical book in years, apart from some graphic novels, and I occasionally get books as gifts, but it's all ebooks and often ebooks from the library too.

I have a Sony Reader which I don't use very much anymore because Sony stopped updating its firmware long before they gave up on eReaders so it stopped being able to connect to Overdrive to borrow library books yonks ago and it wasn't even compatible with the wifi at the university. These days I usually use my tablet to read. It organizes my massive library of downloaded fanfic better than the Reader but I do miss the lack of screen glare.

Another alibi sentence again. We'll see if the weekend holds more productivity.

[nimrodiel]

My husband had the first model Sony ereader. He mourns it's firmware death...

[sakana17]

Day 27: 490 words.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[nimrodiel]

I read anything, print, audiobooks, and ebooks. I have quite a stack of print books registered on bookcrossing.com from other folks. So those tend to go into local Little free libraries. Like you, I have a lot in my neighborhood. The problem I'm running into recently is that most of the ones I drop books in regularly are full most days.

I do love your LFL.

[the_siobhan]

Normally ours is busier in the summer, but I've noticed they're really piling up now. Maybe people are purging to make more space for working from home?

And are you checking in or just commenting? :-)

[brainwane]

Nov 27th checkin: 428 words.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[cornerofmadness]

ereaders give me blinding headaches and I have found one that isn't so bad but no one should be reading ereaders at night (my usual reading time) because the light messes with the brain chemistry for sleep so I try to keep my night time reading for paper books. I donate a lot of my books to libraries, give them to friends or take them to Half Price books or other used book stores.


I got 3806 words on two Pson stores

[doggiesushi]

Most e-readers do the same to me. I purposely get the e-ink one with the backlight (which I rarely use) since, to my eyes, it feels so much like paper. Plus, they're usually the cheapest option since they don't need to be a full-fledged tablet. I don't know if you've tried that option yet, but maybe it'll work better for you?

[satoyan]

Day 27: 309 nano words.

I got a kindle a few years ago and I adore it. It's so easy on my eyes no matter the situation (no glare, front lighting, text size adjustable, etc), and I love being able to carry around however many books I want. I mostly read in Japanese, so I also regularly use the Japanese-Japanese dictionary to look up and save words I don't know to add to my flashcards later.

[the_siobhan]

That's a great idea - I'm trying to learn Spanish so that sounds like a fantastic method.

Well done on words!

[lferion]

Day 27 - 115 words on something drabbleish.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[yasaman]

Day 27: 386 words tonight!

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[china_shop]

28th: About 700 words. I finished a flashfic, edited and posted it. :-)

[the_siobhan]

Well done! Congrats on your milestone.

[silveradept]

My old books are mostly sitting on my shelves, but I also don't have a lot of old books. If I wanted to get rid of them, I would probably let them be sold in a Friends of the Library sale after anything that might be variable got set aside.

There's some places that sell used books, but you have to know they're there before you find them, for the most part.

I don't use a dedicated ereader for my digital books, as my tablet does just fine and has a suitable app for the job. I see people who do, though, and it seems to work well for them, especially people with low vision that can be assisted by magnification or people with lexical issues that can change the typeface to something that doesn't cause so many issues.

Checkin for 27 has had more progress on preloading the December talking days.

[the_siobhan]

I am definitely one of those people. :-)

Well done on your progress!

[ysilme]

The Little Free Library is so awesome, and yours is particularly neat! :o) Thank you for the explanation the other day! We do have more and more "public bookshelves" being more or less in use, depending on the area, location, and how well they're known, but in general this works well. Some of these are sponsored by the commune, others by institutions or private persons, and most are taken care of by volunteers (making sure the bookshelf is all right, checking for vandalism, taking away the leaflets somebody always leaves there, or pamphlets camoufalging at books.
We're only two humans in our none-too-large house and thankfully the cats don't read, but shelf space is limited enough, too, and the husband adds half a bookshelf every year or so. /O\ The advent of the e-readers was a blessing for me as it made reading easy and comfortable again, and increasingly so. I have various eye- and sight-related issues, including by now also presbyopia, and reading books in a comfortable position (as in, in bed) had become more and more difficult and eventually impossible without the birghtest light - which in turn sucks if your bed partner wants to sleep, and makes yourself awake again, too. At the beginning, I used my kindle mainly to read fandic, though, to save paper and printer ink as reading fanfic at a computer or laptop never really worked for me. Roughly at the same time came the phase when I discovered bookcrossing and weeded out my own books, donating nearly 2/3rds of my own novels to it over time, including favourites I wanted to re-read but got myself as e-books instead. I still have a lot of books and am still buying some, but not novels etc. beacause reading them doesn't really work any longer (by now I need to sit upright with bright ligth to be able to, and that's nothing I fancy for leisure reading, rather spend that time doing needlework *g* ). Some are cookbooks, some are coffee table books, some are beautiful hardcover editions of alltime favourites (for example, I have several editions of various of Tolkien's books in German and English, some "regular" ones to lend to family members, some beautiful editions for the sensual and haptic pleasure *g* ), and I'm also keeping a lot of my books just because I can't let them go, but have digital copies now to re-read them.

For my tally, I'm reporting in for days 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 (OMGoodness how can it be so many I missed? /O\ ), and I'm missing on days 20, 21 and 22. Sorry for popping in so rarely, this is really not a good month for me. *sigh* I finished NaNo on the 25th and have been only doing alibi work for NaNo since - I want to finish the month with working on the WIP but am not in the mood for it, so I'm doing file housekeeping, character list editing and such. But "winning" NaNo was totally anticlimatic, as was the whole NaNo experience, like last year. The relative ressure of the daily word count goal was really helpful, but I had no sense of communtiy whatsoever this year - likey because the easy way to encourage your buddies via PM no longer is easy, and the forums haven't worked for me even before, and are more difficult to use now, too, I've been told.
[Bad username or unknown identity: https://shopfront.dreamwidth.org/451595.html]shopfront did a NaNo chat post for us WEDs which is a super idea, and altough it didn't really take off this time, perhaps soemthing of the kind would be an alternative. I confess I forgot about the post a while in, and had so little social energy throughout the month that I wouldn't have posted/commented much anyway.

[the_siobhan]

Don't worry about late check-ins, I'm happy to catch you up.

I'm sorry to hear about your Nano experience this year - I've also heard through a lot of people that the forums are broken now, hopefully they'll learn from this and fix their UI before the next event.

Well done on finishing your Nano regardless, it's worthy of congratulations. I hope December is kinder to you.

[doggiesushi]

I love Little Free Libraries! They're popping up everywhere around here (with quite a few converted into Little Free Pantries during the pandemic). My daughter loves them; she makes a point of stopping at one every time we're riding our bikes.

For me, I know it's sacrilege, but I still buy books. However, I'm not a "stuff" person. I'll only buy a book if I _know_ it's something I'll read more than once. That's why I only own 30-40 books. When I check out books from the library, I don't really care if it's an e-book or paper copy.

[the_siobhan]

Yes! We have one in the public park that converted to a pantry for the duration. Maybe that's why the ones that are left have been so crowded.

I still buy books too, but they're only ones I can't get in e-copy or ones that I know I'll be rereading over and over again.

Are you checking in or just commenting? :-)

[alexseanchai]

whoops, did write for the 27th

am still 111 words short of the "broke personal record! time to party!" magic number that wasn't but 2K away at the start of November

(mind you my stated goal for November was to draft the last couple chapters of where the firelight fades, estimated total of "enough words to tip the whole draft past the 100K mark and probably then some", and the 2007 story I'm trying to beat isn't quite 90K…)

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your progress regardless. :-)

[greylock]

I always figured your 'ouse was huge. Maybe it's a consequence of the yard and having multiple levels.

What do you do with old books? Is there still a currency in used books where you live? Do you love or hate e-readers?

I hoard them. I have a room where every available wall is covered in books. And my hall/. entry, and my bedroom has one bookcase.

Space is at a premium. But I just can't bring myself to use an e-reader. I even grabbed a pad to read e-comics and, just couldn't.

[the_siobhan]

I think pads are more like computer screens. There's something about the way e-readers are lit that I find them a lot more comfortable.

That's entirely subjective, of course.