How about a book party?

I need to sell my spare books, sorry. Need all the cash I can get at the moment - but good idea!

This is a really cool idea, and I have a LOT of books I don't want but 1) I've got too much going on to be able to get around to actually sending anything and 2) I don't want to replace my books with more books. I need the space.

I might partake if I partook in your party.

I will, but I'll have to check my shelf. I already trade books with friends, and I can't remember what is whose.

I'm sorry, but the only books I'd be able to bring myself to send away are the ones I really didn't like, and that would be just uncool.

I have this, that I just read and enjoyed and would be willing to send to someone:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (hardcover)

...I also have a lot of other stuff, but it's too much to list it all.

I don't have books that I want to discard per se, but if asked, I will be more than happy to share.

Henry James- The Turn of the Screw. I'll be interested to know if this works! Good idea, though.

OK. Here are books I am willing to part with, with partial and hopefully mostly correct summaries (all are fiction):

Djuna Barnes, Nightwood. (I never got more than a page into this so I can't say anything about it.)
Lynda Barry, Cruddy. (Good story about a very fudgeed up young girl.)
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie. (Depressing, but apparently a classic. Not as depressing as Tess of the D'Urbervilles, though.)
Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White. (About a London prostitute/social climber in the 19th century if I recall. Pretty good, if not amazing.)
Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic. (Cute. Self-explanatory.)
Chaim Potok, The Book of Lights. (Great book about a Jewish man finding himself during the Korean War.)
Kerri Sakamoto, The Electrical Field. (About Japanese families in Canada in the few decades after WWII.)
Ahdaf Soueif, In the Eye of the Sun. (About an Egyptian woman whom you will wish would just leave her husband already. Ringing endorsement, I know. It's not a bad book, really.)

Ooh, ooh, I'll take that! I've been wanting to read it.

Just for general edification if folks don't already know: if you're mailing books through the US Postal Service, you can send them media mail, which is super-duper cheap.

email me your address... I'll send it media mail.

Sure - I will participate...but I'll have to wait till I get home to see what I have lying around on the shelf that is looking for a good home... I'll post it later...

Yay!

no, not as long I am not in college and have my own po box. Sorry.

I also have E.L. Doctorow's The Waterworks. It's sort of a mystery, I guess, set in 19th century New York.

Yes, I would like to participate. Here is what I have to offer:

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Sounds like a great idea. I am in a book club and we read one book a month and meet for dinner and discussion. I have quite a few so I'll have to check my book case. But these two come to mind right off the bat: "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger and "The Cider House Rules" by John Irving. I also have a copy of "A Prayer for Owen Meany" in paper back without the cover. No, it wasn't a bootleg copy, my dog chewed it off. There are some small teeth marks in the first few pages but it is still readable and a very good book if anyone is interested.

I *would* like to participate, but I'm at uni and don't have any random books at the moment. I'll post a list when I get home though. (And I haven't forgotten other things I am supposed to be posting to some of you, just been busy ).

Glad to see this is working out, at least a little bit!

I'll be back with a list shortly.

No thanks, most of my books are from the library so I can't send them to anyone.

No, because I am unemployed and unable to afford postage. Shipping info is okay, but not the cost of shipping. Are any of you guys familiar with Book Crossing (and their Website)? I am a member of this -- where you have a book (that is maybe passed on to you, or you find somewhere) and instead of keeping it, you pass it on to someone else by leaving it in a park, etc. with a word of explanation, for someone else to read and pass on?

I have a crapload of books back in Toronto. I only have few here. Actually just one that I would part with. I have the whole collection of Greek Tragedy, everything that was ever written (that we have), but I'll die before I let anyone touch it.

i dislike reading only if i have to

blowfly by patricia cornwell
jackdawes by ken follett

The book just arrived! Yay! I'm still working on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, but I think I'll read this one when I'm done with it.

Great! I just started reading Infinite Jest (which I had skipped years ago when everyone else read it). It will probably take me a year to get through it.

That's one of my all-time favorite books. I just love it (I've read it twice now). I got really into it when I first read it; there were a couple of things going on in my life that really connected with themes in it, so it had quite an impact on me. It was life-changing, as cheesy as that sounds. It really helped me understand a lot. It'll definitely take a while to get through it, though--and it may take a while to really get into it. For the first 50 pages I didn't really like it very much. But it clicked about 50 pages into it, and then I was hooked. So my advice is, don't give up until you're at least that far in. And you'll need two bookmarks--one for the text, and one for the footnotes.

My books are all in storage. I moved from a house to live on a boat for 3 years, downsized almost 60 years to 12 boxes... feels good.

When I lived at the Port of Everett Marina (36' ChrisCraft 1941) there were books left all over with the notice... read me and pass me on. I thought it was a way cool idea. We had a little store where people would leave their read books. I got my complete edition of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that way.

It's a great idea. Wish it would catch on in a much bigger way here. I was given one once, my intro to Book Crossing, by a neighbor who found one-and passed it on when done - left it on a park bench; then I received free and postage paid a book from Book Crossing to read and pass on, which I did, to another neighbor. Since these 2 times I have not seen anymore pass-on books like this though. I used to leave paperbacks I'd finished reading and didn't want to keep with a neighbor and he appreciated this. Sometimes people will just leave books out on the sidewalk for others to pick up--once there was a whole supermarket-sized shopping cart full of paperbacks left out on the sidewalk and I helped myself.

yard sales... great place for dime books! And the lunchroom at work was my favorite place to give and receive! I've been known to paw through thrift store shelves for a copy of that book I want to reread! (Shogun comes to mind first)... and if I loan someone a book and don't get it back, oh well... at least I read it first!

Yes, being a garage-saler, I get a lot of books this way too. And a local thrift store has books for 50 cents to a dollar.

I learned to read very early. I sat with my mother as she read to me.

When I was in 2nd grade, I was so good, they sent me to read with then next class... I remember having to "cool my heels" waiting outside the classroom door untill the reading class started.

Both my parents were avid readers. Imitative behavior is SO important, kids need to see their PARENTS engaging in healthy activities.

Oh how right you are! I remember being bored because I could already read and was ahead of my class (but only in reading) -- the readers didn't make any sense to me.

Galo, I'm old enough it was the "Dick and Jane" series, too. I think kids would read a lot more if teachers assigned more fun things! Anything to get that interest sparked, I say! Reading and writing (sounds so dull) opens the world. This new generation is missing out on so much. To understand and be understood. Like Plato said, learning is remembering. Reading is a fuel that can spark the fire. Glad you responded..... pat

Yes, I do believe you are right -- the schools are too restricted in the reading material they can use in their classes. It's all strictly controlled. The teachers are probably not allowed to challenge younger kids with certain reading material the "experts" think is too difficult for a particular age/grade.

I believe all kids should be encouraged to read whatever they want... science-fiction, animals, adventure, sports... some dull story is not going to spark their interest, and when young, it's that spark we must ignite! And reading starts YOUNG... I remember visiting and their kid always came to me with a book to read to him... and I made it more "with" him... and that was what he loved... that was years ago... I like to think he's a reader today!

PS, you ever read Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series? Or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Much fun!

I agree -- yes, they should be encouraged to read whatever they want. No, I have not ever read Terry Prachett's Diskworld series nor Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- even though I have been a lifetime reader.

just good fun satire on the 2 books I mentioned

Ahhh. I'm always looking for thrillers and various nonfiction stuff, and cookbooks for my neighbor.

I hate books.....well story books....i like books that teach me something.....like in english class i am reading the encyclopedia of botany...its pretty interesting actually.....

I have very few books except those checked out from the library. I just don't have any place to keep books and barely have enough room for the rest of my possession. I would like to be able to afford a bigger place some day so I can get some bookcases and fill them up with copies of my favorite books.

No.