Discard books? Ours sells the ones they don't think they need anymore at really good prices, and use the money to buy more books. I always go and end up bringing home way too much that we don't have shelf space for :)

My bad, I probably should have said divest.
Yes, they try to sell them to recoup their money. I bought a used, out of print, book online from a guy in Philly, that had been in a New Hampshire library. No one checked it out in 6 months so they sold it.

Growing up (actually still), I believed a book was a valuable thing. Even a romance novel has the power to entertain, distract from adversity, teach writing style or level a table leg. There's not a book in the world, I can't learn something from.

I thought libraries would keep every book they ever got in case someone, sometime, wanted to read it. In my mind, a library was a magic place, hallowed ground, divorced from the economic realities of the real world. :blush:

I love books, they are sacred to me. Do not bend pages, write in them or set glasses on them. I love their portable-ness. I can entertain myself anywhere, with a book.

I was a branch librarian in CA before we moved out of state. Most of my patrons were children from the grade school across the street. I firmly believe, if you can instill a love of books/reading at a young age, it will help that child in all aspects of its' life. When they can read and assimilate the information as fast as they can speak or think, it will help them in later schooling when the books are drier and more info-oriented.

I remember going to my local library last summer. There had been a thunder storm move through the area and the internet was down. I walked in to pick up a book I had requested that was in and a little boy jumped up and informed in the most DIRE tone of voice that the internet was "out"...
I smiled at him and told him I was sure glad I didn't go to the library for computers and internet!
The librarian commented that some people actually come to libraries for books. To read.
I don't think he got the joke.
HH

I've actually gotten some good deals on books that libraries discarded.

I also take the used paperbacks that I don't care to keep (I read wayyyy too many to keep all of the ones I read) and trade them in at Paperback Palace for credits against other books. When I find an author I like, I go buy all the books I can find by them and dig in. PP is a great store for that as they generally have a huge selection of used books, sorted by genre/author.

Oh, and I have started writing a book. It will be an autobiography of sorts. Maybe I'll start a thread here somewhere with some of the stories from my life that I'll be including ;) .

Stormie

Having cable and raising children are mutually exclusive?

I read constantly. I LOVE to read. If reading had been a sport in my high school, I would have lettered. If I could be paid to read-that would be my perfect job. I read classics and crap and the O magazine and National Geographic and the indie paper around here and poetry and...and...

I don't buy it. (PDF of NEA 2004 survey results.)

A decline in reading? Yes. "58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school?" I don't think so.

To me, they are. On some other thread, Ibram made a little mistep saying that "society" had f*cked a particular child. The real deal is uninvolved parents destroyed that child by not imposing themselves between society and their offspring. I know cable has some value like propaganda er news channels but right now I have two wonderful kids who come to Pete or myself when the world seems screwed up or scarey, rather than getting their values from Fox or CNN. When they are older and are ready to process all the images, we may get cable, but don't count on it. We broke the tv habit and I'd hate to give up book or Cellar hours to go back.

I'm with you Griff. Our girls are now 13 & 14. The only broadcast TV they have ever seen at home were the various Olympics. Otherwise our TV is a monitor for the DVD and VCR. On school nights it's never turned on. Obviously that's just one factor, but both girls do well at school.

I have cable TV and my sons have managed not to embrace CNN or Fox or any other network, cable or not, or show for their values. And I can't recall that they ever sought comfort from the scarey world in television, either.

It is only my way. Your mileage may vary.

I just ask myself, would I invite people into my home who behave in ways which seem normalized on tv?

Dude.

Ballard Bookcase. Practically in your neighborhood. Drive by it twice a day. Check 'em out.

My mom made sure we had only a 12" black and white TV, on purpose, and was careful about restrictions, etc.

Today I have the biggest TV I can afford and digital cable with 100 channels + 7 HBOs, TiVo, surround sound, etc. and watch hours upon hours of propaganda every day. In the truck it's Sirius with 150 satellite radio channels.

One of my Radio-TV-Film professors had a standard question on the first day of every class: "How many of you were not allowed to watch television as children?" The percentages were astounding; usually more than half the class.

I watched a lot of TV, but only the fun stuff. If it was supposed to be intellectual or funny or something and wasnt, i didnt care. I think ive always been a bit ahead of the age curve... I started reading when I was two... and here I am as a teenager, hanging with and getting along just fine with a bunch of people twice my age. I cant stand most forums populated by people my age, theyre pretty chaotic yet boring. No real content.

As I was trying to pick out the next book I'm going to read, I had a little movie flashback that should help everyone understand how into books I am ...

You've seen Fahrenheit 451? You know that house, the one where the girl lives with the older folks ... I don't have that much clever space, but I have nearly that many books.