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I wish they had talked a bit more about how he managed to re-read any of the books, because from the pictures a great deal of them seemed like they were rather inaccessible.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People would put on the streets for free In the US people put "Little Free Libraries" in their yards. They're all over the place in the Seattle area.
Some dude was giving away books after his talk at the CPP Users Group in Redmond, got some good sci-fi.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have a library that you want to keep out of the landfill, your job is not storing them, but convincing another human being (who's younger than you) that the books are of value. If no one you know has ever borrowed or expressed interest in them, then the shelf you relegate them to is as good as the landfill.
I keep the ones I want and sell the rest to used bookstores or give them to the thrift stores. I tried selling some on Amazon. That doesn't work at all.
I’m not familiar with the “modern car” unit of weight. “With an assumed average weight of 300 to 400 grams per book, the weight of around 15 modern cars is currently stored in Schröder’s detached house.” 350 grams x 70,000 books = 24,500 kg. About 54,000 lbs. Can a ‘typical’ house bear that weight??
I wish they had talked a bit more about how he managed to re-read any of the books, because from the pictures a great deal of them seemed like they were rather inaccessible.
I’m not familiar with the “modern car” unit of weight. “With an assumed average weight of 300 to 400 grams per book, the weight of around 15 modern cars is currently stored in Schröder’s detached house.” 350 grams x 70,000 books = 24,500 kg. About 54,000 lbs. Can a ‘typical’ house bear that weight??
4.90 x the mass of an African bull elephant 2.04 x the mass of a London double decker bus 0.122 x the mass of a blue whale http://howmanyelephants.co.uk/
I'm not sure about other countries. There is a culture refuse to throw away books in Germany. People would put on the streets for free (I found two interesting books with this method).
German book culture is great! When he was in Karlsruhe to profile Peter Sloterdijk, The New Yorker reporter Thomas Meaney seemed surprised by it: "Over the summer, ordinary Germans who spotted his [Peter Sloterdijk] books in my hands engaged me in conversation on trains, in coffee shops, at universities, and in bookshops." [0] [0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/26/a-celebrity-ph...
and a rave
But you nobody can read 70k books, so what was the point? He had a library nobody knew about, full of books he hadn't read. That's not a library, it's an imitation of a library built by someone who doesn't understand what a library is for.
Back the 1920s having a personal library was fairly common for people with more than two dimes, they had this thing called an 'Ex Libris' which roughly translates as 'from the books of'. This was a little piece of paper, often very nicely designed that you glued to the first page of a book and then you could borrow it freely and sooner or later it would find its way back to you.
This was the rough equivalent of wikipedia, only a lot slower and less convenient. Then encyclopedias (which existed for a long time) became larger and larger, I had one from the 18th century that got lost in a move but it was a work of art, so much effort had gone into making that. The encyclopedias of the newer ages were however far larger and covered more subjects. Ever year a new batch of pages or the occasional reprint was the norm. And then personal libraries went the way of the dodo. Every time one of my family members dies there is always the same question: what will happen to all the books. These people - and me too - spent a fortune on their books, untold tens of thousands over a lifetime. They were well read, not 'browsing' information but actually reading - and occasionally writing.
That library in the article is exceptional in one way: that it does not look like it was shared. But I can totally sympathize: some people are focused on the number of digits on their bank account, others derive their sense of wealth and accomplishment from their bookshelves. I don't own any books I have not read, but I do understand people buying books that they intend to read at some point but never get around to.
As these things go, I'd be happy have a million more book hoarders, even if they don't read them all, so they can be passed on to the next generation of booklovers, assuming they can still be found.