h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ivan I completely love that idea!! I was thinking of duct taping them to chairs.... but your plan sounds much better... It comes with a somewhat plausible explanation!

Today they had the most awful table manners I've ever seen. Its so alarming... One girl was drinking water and making it come out of her nose and back into her cup

H'mmm. That one will grow up to be a complete charmer, I'm sure.

On a much nicer note - thanks for the postcard. I found it tonight, at the end of a Very Long Day. I needed a cheer-up at that point. Thanks.

You re so welcome Ivan! I'm glad you liked it.

I completely understand about needing cheering up at the end of a day. I was pooped after yesterday at work. I had three crying children, one broken pair of glasses and a frantic phone calling for a child that didn't show up. The day just seemed to go on and on. I get today off though so I'm very happy. I'm thinking I might take myself out to breakfast at a cute new little diner that's opened up. I want to try it out. Its made to look very 50's ish.

So, how was breakfast?

I was exhausted by the end of the day yesterday, and I hadn't even been to the office. I was shopping for bookshelves... Because of the way Canberra's set up, to look pretty by hiding all useful things in remote locations, I had to trek to an outlying industrial suburb to look for shelves. (It's called Fyshwick - it's named after an early politician who helped establish the city. His name was actually Fysh, but people felt that having a place called Fysh would be absurd. Fyshwick sounds so much better. ) So anyway, that involved a couple of hours on buses and an extended spell of playing chicken with speeding trucks as I tried to cross the roads between bookshelf shops.

But at least I got what I wanted. The shelves will be delivered this morning. I'm irrationally excited.

~*~I'm thinking I might take myself out to breakfast at a cute new little diner that's opened up. I want to try it out. Its made to look very 50's ish.~*~

It's not In 'n Out Burger, is it? Food's terrible there.

Not an In 'n Out Burger. It's called "R n' Rn." It was a delightful experience. I had eggs benedict. It was wonderful! And the prices were really good. I'll certainly go there again.

Tell me all about your book shelves Ivan The bookshelves are almost as exciting as actual books.

The bookshelves are best described as Too Small. Plain timber, stained fairly dark, 3' high, 4' wide, and too small to take all of the overflow.

*shrug*

I'm going to start culling the library. There are some books I know aren't all that good; they're going to be the first to go.

Culling the library is very hard. My books never seem to make it farther than the general family repository in the garage. Of course if you take them to a used book store you can trade them in for some more used books... Do you do that there? That wouldn't really solve the space problem though

I have just enough book space I think, with my new book shelves, but I'm trying to keep them organized and it seems like there are just some books that defy my putting them into any category... so I have a random stack left over. Still, it's not as bad as it was Any improvement is good!

I have three options available for getting rid of these books. First, I could give them to charity - but these aren't good books, and I reckon the poor have suffered enough. Second, there's the book exchange option - swapping them for other books - as you point out, that doesn't really help. Third, there's a few bookshops who will just give me money and tell me to go away. That's what I have in mind.

If these books were any good I'd give them to friends. I have a few set aside to give to someone; they're good books, I just happen to have two copies for some bizarre reason. Lapses of memory on my part, mostly.

I think getting money for them is a great idea

I have the problem of more than one copy of books. It doesn't happen very often but I'm never very sure what to do with them once it's happened.
While organizing my books I discovered I have five copies of the Bible Now how did that happen!? I know how it happened... but it's still odd.... I don't even like the Bible that much.

I once got the same book 3 times over for a birthday present.

Books that don't go in any other category belong in "The Rest" category.

I hope you at least liked the book they gave you!! What book was it?

"The Rest" is what I usually do... but I have too many to fit them on my "The Rest" shelf... or any other place for that matter, except of course for several random piles.

Once you have enough books in your 'The Rest' pile, categories will start to emerge. At least that's how it happened for me.

"Alternamorphs". It's a Choose Your Own Adventure Animorphs book. I assume you have no idea what Animorphs is though.

I think you're right Ivan. I'll just have to wait for it to get bigger.

I have heard of them... I never read them but they seemed very popular when I was younger.

Personally I think they're very good. But, of course, you have to read the whole series for the full effect.

Right. I have 74 books to get rid of. I rang a lot of shops today; nobody wants to take the lot; they all want me to take the boxes into the shop one day so they can pick out the things they want and give me a percentage of their price.

As an alternative, a buyer is willing to come to my house and look through the boxes, but he'll only do this on particular weekday mornings. I suppose he can't want the books that badly, if he's not prepared to come when I'll be home. What a pain in the proverbial.

I've decided to call my pet charity tomorrow and get them to come and collect the lot. I'll get no money, but I will get a tremendous sense of virtue.

That sounds like a good idea Ivan It always feels good to me to do something that will boost my conscience. Besides, it sounds like you're going to avoid a lot of hassle this way. I wonder how much the percentage was... perhaps in the end you wouldn't have got that much for them anyway?

Considering the fact that I'm getting rid of these books because they're not especially good, and that there's only a few of them that might have broad appeal, and considering the cost of petrol which I'd need to meet if I'd recruited my friend to drive me around town trying to get rid of these books... It's probably more cost-effective just to give them all to charity in the first place. Now I just have to arrange collection. They can only do this on a Wednesday for some reason.

It's too bad you don't have a D.I.