More About Books

I just loved your comments on my recent post on books! If you enjoyed that post but commented early (or skipped reading the comments) they are well worth a read! You shared so many of your favorites and how you like to read and so much more, some of which I've incorporated here as we keep the discussion going!

One thing is sure and reiterated by almost all of you: You love books. You may find challenges in having too many or what to do with the ones you are done with. You may have special types of favorites (or maybe you love them all). You may be a minimalist who has gone to digital reading -- or perhaps done so because you are clearing out your physical books as you downsize.

Or, you may have special shelves or libraries for your books. They may be stacked on stair steps or in attics or in the basement. I was delighted to know I wasn't the only one who kept books in the bathroom! But you love books, whether they are hardcover, paperback or digital. And I just love you all for that!

I've loved reading since I was a child. And loving books long before I knew my alphabet! Shortly after I learned how reading could take me into stories I might never have otherwise imagined, my parents took me to the Adirondacks on spring vacation. They were both delighted and frustrated that I hardly saw any of this trip as my head was in a book the whole way!

 From the comments, I learned that many of you developed your love of reading as children. You couldn't get enough then, you can't now.

I also learned that we all have lots of ways of tracking our reads, getting our books, storing them and (sometimes) letting them go!

Pat wondered if I got books from the library or purchase them new or used.

It depends on the book. If it's one I think I'll keep and refer to or add to a series, I'm inclined to buy it new (usually online) or possibly get used if it's in excellent shape. I have two friends with whom I trade books (see purging question below!). We'll send books we're done with to each other. Some of those move on again, others stop on my shelf forever. Finally, and this is mostly for a book club read of a current new book, I'll borrow from another Savory Sister (our book club). I did just get a library card (believe it or not -- my first since high school!), so who knows what might change.

I found that a lot of you use the library and three cheers on that! A recent Gallup Poll found that in 2019, more people went to the library than to the movies and I think that says great things for this valuable institution!

And what do you do with them after? How does one purge books when they are hard to part with?

Well, as you might guess, there are a lot I keep and they get shelved (see below). Others I might save for my friends Joan or Suzanne or another friend who might like something specific. (I was thrilled when an MSU theatre student took several boxes of stage bios, plays and more from my theatre library last year!) Our bookstore takes used books in good condition and for those recent ones in good condition that I know I'll not keep go there first. We get either cash or a store credit. If none of the above fly, they go in the donate pile. I have rarely put a book in the trash.

A lot of you have the same problem, I'm happy to say! Many of you said you took books to the library for their sales after and Penny was fortunate in being able to donate a large collection to a senior citizens community for their library or to use as a fundraiser. (That's a great idea I will remember!)

And here's a good question from Joyce F. -- What do you do with an old World Book Encyclopedia? That's a good question -- loads of volumes; lots of the info out of date. I remember doing school reports from those -- but I was in fifth grade then. Six decades later, I don't think my 60s World Book would have much value, at least till it's a little older! (I did once buy a 1940s World Book at a sale. It was only one volume and given the time it was published, fascinating.) Any ideas?

Someone else asked "How do you organize your books?"

The short answer is "badly." I do try to keep the mysteries together by series. And, as many of the England/France books that will fit on the shelf together (there are always strays in this category). The same for the bios on the Royals. (I was relieved when at least one of you said your shelves were double-deep, too!

As for the rest of it, wherever it fits on the shelf!

I'm happy to note I'm not alone in the organizing department! Elizabeth and Mae said they had their books all over the house and in fact more than one of you had books in every room of the house! Erika says there has to be a really good reason for her getting rid of a book, and some of you either have or are hoping to convert spare rooms into libraries. (I'm a little envious!) Others still have part of their book collections at the home of a parent (especially children's books).

How Do You Track Your Reading?

I keep a little notebook with the title, author and number of pages and try to set a goal each year. I've done this for eons. My current paper record goes back maybe 15 years (I should check!) but I remember doing this throughout high school and college. I know others of you track on Goodreads or through your blogs, and perhaps notebooks.

Erin has come up with something interesting in her recent post. She's tracking plenty of things -- titles, challenges, and even money saved by using the library! Check out her post to see how well she did in January -- I was impressed!

Kindle or Paper? 

I don't read well on a screen and I love the tactile feel of paper, being able to take notes if I want. Maybe someday...what about you?

I was glad I asked! I learned that many of you who have let your physical books go are reading on Kindle or Nook. And, as several of you said, that way you never have to worry about running out books when you are finished with one! Rick told me I could download books from the library, which I never knew. Barb says she must read on Kindle, though she prefers the other, due to an allergy to the formaldehyde that is in paper. I had no idea about the formaldehyde in paper. Her story is fascinating. Others read that way because it is portable. .

And others? No way that Kindle is coming into use unless physical circumstances mandate it! I fall a bit into that camp and was glad there were at least some "Kindred Kindle Spirits" out there with me!

Some of you also listen to audio books and enjoy those tremendously, even having favorite readers. I do recall some road trips back during the books-on-tape days where we listened to some good books. I might have to revisit that for travel.

What About Children's Books

Several of you mentioned that you still have some of your favorite children's books -- and wish you had more. Others have picked up children's books as adults, simply because the illustrations are so beautiful.

Storytime at the lake with my Aunt Grace and Cousin David.

Some of you, like Lisa, are building libraries for your children. These (mostly) moms spend a lot of time reading with their children.

And still others are introducing their children to the local library.

The first time I read "Little Women," I was eight and it was abridged. By sixth grade I was ready for the real deal!

I spent a lot of time in the library as a kid. I could ride my bike down to the local library before we moved and then it was the school and city library. What a feast!

And Magazines? How Do they Play Into It?

I didn't ask about magazines in the post but many of you said you had the same problem with magazines as I do -- they are hard to get rid of, for some reason.

I've pondered this. I think probably the best strategy would be to rip out the pages I want to keep and say goodbye to the rest. And I do that -- but not often enough. They grow like tribbles. I have considered, and probably will, take some of more universal interest to my next doc appointment and leave them in the waiting room as an alternative to those who don't want to read "People" or "WedMD" magazine!

Here are some book tips for culling down your stack -- Do as I say, not as I do!

Many of you mentioned you are in the process of downsizing and bidding farewell to books. Some, because of moves, others to get a better handle on space in your home or simply because it's time to let go. Here are a few ideas if you're in that position -- and if you have others, add them to the comments!

• Share with a friend. Not a loan. Forever. Then it's their problem -- and they get to read a good book!
• Donate to your local library. But first, check to see what they want. They're not a dumping ground. Trust me on this! (Vivian Swift fans will know what I mean!)
• Drop them off into Little Free Libraries you might find on the street. (Good LFL etiquette -- ask the owner before you dump 20 books into their stash! They might have preferences!)
• With thematic books, check with related groups, such as an academic department at a nearby university (such as I did with that theatre student I mentioned above.) I've also passed on many of my astrology books and others that target specific interests.
• Check with local used book stores. Some will give you half of their used selling price or store credit.
• Try a yard sale. Not my cup of tea and no guarantees they will go, but if you're having one anyway, give it a shot. Price appropriately! I've found wonderful books at yard sales and more (possibly better ones) at estate sales.
• Try online sales -- Not my thing either and I've heard mixed results with this but if it's something you're comfy with, give it a go.
• Pull a few to use for craft projects and/or decor. Consider art groups that might do mixed media for some that may be particularly interesting.
• And if all else fails, recycle! After all, there may not be a big market for a 40 year old calculus book. 

I do hope if you have a chance, you'll weigh in on some of these points and ideas in the comments or for a lively discussion, check the comments on the earlier book post here. I would love to have included every single one!

Meanwhile, you'll find me reading somewhere! Just don't interrupt me at the good part!

Making Friends with Your Old Photos

I'm wondering if you might not be like me -- you have boxes of photos representing decades of a life. Or, more likely, many lives.

They may be ones you took yourself, photos taken by parents of you and your siblings or their life before they met or even those taken by grandparents. Some are in albums, others scattered.

And you look at them and might have these thoughts:

Who are those people anyway?
What in the world am I going to do with them?

It can feel a little overwhelming -- and a little scary, so one step at a time!

As anyone who has tried to pull together photos for a picture board at a graduation, funeral or milestone birthday knows, it's tough to do it when you are under pressure. And these days, often a video is the preferred form of viewing and how in the world do you make that happen with this odd collection of paper memories.

I have those boxes and photo albums (my own and my parents), along with literally thousands of photos on my computer and external storage devices and I've wrestled with that issue -- trying to get them in some rightful order and to get the photos to those who might really care about them after.

Here are my tips -- feel free to add some of your own in the comments.

Rule Number One! Identify people. You may know who these folks are but as I've been doing my family history I've encountered a lot of anonymous faces that show up often. They must have been important to someone but I have no idea who they are! (Below, I can pick out four people in this group.)

A pencil marking on the back of hard copy (or a thin sharpie or specially designated photo markers) are fine. Just something to tell future generations if those are people they should care about or their great grandmother's next door neighbor's grandson playing with the family dog.

Two: Get them digitied. For the golden oldies -- two options.

The one I don't like is to take your camera or phone and photograph the piece. Sometimes this works. But you need a good camera and you need to be sure the photo is flat (lots aren't). And you if you are shooting an entire scrapbook page, you need to know how to crop. Not hard, but not the best method.

I prefer getting a scanner. A good scanner that can also do slides. The default for many scanners is 200 dpi and this is fine for most uses -- certainly the computer or smaller prints. If you are planning on making a printed book or bigger enlargement, go to the 300 resolution setting for the best outcome.

Rule Three: As technology changes, transfer the media while you can. Trust me -- if you look at a pile of old floppies you can't open containing old photos you'll cry. Everything changes. Transportation. Communication. Technology.

Think of the betamax, eight track and records. OK, I know vinyl is coming back, but the principal is the same.

One other tip. If you are going through the mechanics of doing all this, consider color correcting or brightening up the faded colors while you're at it. Your gray snow will look whiter, you may even pick up details on the photo that had faded. Many scanners have this feature. If you are looking at your regular photos, consider a program like Picassa where you can edit by color/brightness modification and crop. Some of these basic programs are free.

What's Next -- Or, How do I Find It?

So, you scan (and scan and scan). And now you have all these photos on your computer. On top of the ones from your digital camera you've already put in there. And you still can't find anything.

Everyone will have a different system but mine works pretty well. Here's how I do it, bearing in mind that I use a camera, not a phone. (The same principle would apply to phone or tablet shots, once they are downloaded.)
.

Here you can see some of the folders I use when I initially subdivide.

• For new photos, as I download them, I name a file with the year, month and then an idea of what's in the file. For example: 2018 June -- Lizzie, Ditch, Lake
• Then I make a file for all 2018 June and when the month is over (and you could do it before, I just don't) put all the individual files there. And then one for the year -- 2018. When the month is over, I move all the 2018 June to the 2018 file.
• At the end of the year I have all the photos for one year in one file.

Do a junk edit -- these are things you know you don't want to save to an external.  Photos of book covers done for a reading post? Gone. Six photos of the same smiling group from a birthday party? I delete at least four and keep the best one or two.

Back up your best to an external drive or the cloud.

Then I edit. Again.  I delete things with a vengeance. I do this with everything. This edit will probably be less if you did your work well before the back-up!

And it makes a big difference to your computer. I still have to edit half of 2018 but so far I picked up 34 gigabytes of memory on my computer!

After I have saved the "Best of" on an external drive or flash, I go back through and subdivide. Flowers go into a file called "Flowers."  Family goes into "Family" and then gets subdivided ("Mom Only," "Mom and Dad," "Dad Only." The same for friends by name or group (like "Cork Poppers"). There are Travel US and Travel International and each is subdivided.

The "Family" folder

SO, when I am looking for photos for a blog post or to pull together a Shutterfly book for a friend or family, I know right where to go.

Photos Not Scanned or Otherwise on the Computer

The other ways to save and share photos are online, printed books, videos, old-time photo albums and scrapbooks.

Online: You can save the photos on the cloud. I have a google drive I use for family photos that I can share with the cousins. I also have a Shutterfly share site that has some of Rick's family things. I'm sure there are others; I just don't know them because I don't use them.

Google drive

Shutterfly folders

Printed Books: I use Shutterfly because it is what I started with but I have seen beautiful MacBooks, things from Snapfish, Blurb and other sources. These can get expensive but when they do I think about how much I used to pay for a) film b) developing c) all the bad ones you throw away after you got them back from the processor.

Shutterfly project page

Almost every year I make yearbooks for Rick and me -- an overview of friends, family, trips and such. These we actually look at because we have chosen the best of the pix and don't have to thumb through all the bad ones!

 You can even add text. Or bad poetry.

Videos: There are loads of easy ways to make video slide shows on your computer and share them with youtube.

Traditional Methods:  And sometimes you want to paste things into a book. I do. Maybe it's a beautiful handmade book or journal. If you're doing that, make sure it is a book worthy of your time and that it uses acid free paper as a background.

And if you still have photos in those magnetic page things -- pull out the good ones, dump the bad. Just get them out of there.

And when you are done -- well, if you no longer want those photos, you have a couple of options. I've used both. Toss them. Or, send them off to whomever is in them -- or knows those people -- and let them make the choice to save or toss. Half the time our friends never see all the great pix we took of them in the way-back machine and it's kind of fun to see yourself looking a whole lot better -- or at least younger -- than you are now!

Oh, here's a parting tip. We're all going to die. If you want photos shown at your memorial, choose them now. Make a folder called "funeral" and tell someone where it is and put in all your favorites. They will thank you and that really lousy photo of you in your swimming suit at the family reunion isn't going to show up -- unless you looked better than I did!

OR, make them yourself. When a friend's mom was nearing the end of her life, she began making the photo boards for the memorial so that she wouldn't have to do it in a short period during the grieving time. I have been thinking about making large collaged posters of the ones I would like for that time. I haven't done it yet because it doesn't seem too imminent. But then, we never know. And it would be so nice if Rick didn't have to worry about that.

If you've read along so far, thanks! And if you do anything -- please label!

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