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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to like my obsolete books?

85 replies

Jezzifishie · 05/12/2018 22:01

DH put some shelves up so all of our books are in one place - it completely fills one wall of the lounge. My friend came over and spotted the wall, he asked why we'd bothered as books are obsolete now. AIBU to feel sad about this? To me, it's not a home unless it has books!

OP posts:
Seniorcitizen1 · 05/12/2018 22:04

I have hundreds and hundreds of books and continue to buy them. I have a kindle but only use that when I go on holiday for weight. Books are part of my treasure trove, the kindle isn’t, and I will never give them up

ikltownofboothlehem · 05/12/2018 22:05

You can't NOT have books!!

Lovingbenidorm · 05/12/2018 22:05

Woah! Books are not obsolete! Books are special, they have memories and meaning. I have loads of books, including special ones that were gifts from special people years ago.
I love my kindle for ease, but you can’t beat a ‘proper ‘ book!

InspectorIkmen · 05/12/2018 22:05

I agree with you OP but with the younger and upcoming generations (actually I have no idea how old you are 😂) it’s all about minimalism and Smart everything. I sound like an old gimmer now but I think books add so much to a home.

SoftSheen · 05/12/2018 22:06

YANBU. 'A home without books is like room without windows'.

NancyDonahue · 05/12/2018 22:06

YANBU. Books are wonderful. How can they be obsolete? Does your friend think the whole world has computers and phones?

KonaMum · 05/12/2018 22:07

I love books. We have random piles on shelves in no particular order all over our house and I’d happily have more!

DownTownAbbey · 05/12/2018 22:07

Come the zombie apocalypse you'll be fighting him off with a hardback DIY manual.

DramaAlpaca · 05/12/2018 22:08

I love my books, I have hundreds of them. I also have a Kindle but I much prefer a real book. I think a house without books is a bit soulless, so I'm with you OP.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 05/12/2018 22:11

Books aren't obsolete. I love my Kindle and I love books.
It's very silly to think whatever technology is newest must automatically make the old one irrelevant.
The queues in Waterstones would suggest books have not yet had their day...

Original poster
Jezzifishie · 05/12/2018 22:13

InspectorIkmen I'm a millennial Grin

So glad you all agree! I really didn't know what to say to him, I was so surprised.

OP posts:
MawkishTwaddle · 05/12/2018 22:15

Well, if books are obsolete I’d better go and tell all the customers that spent £700 on them in my little bookshop today...

Humans love books. It’s almost primal. People walk into my shop and inhale Smile

massistar · 05/12/2018 22:17

No no no no. My lovely bookshelves filled with books make me so happy!!

Petalflowers · 05/12/2018 22:18

I’ve discovered there are book people, and non-book people. I come from a book-family, and my parent have a bookshelves in every room.

My dh comes from a non-book family, and there is one book shelf in the whole house (office).

I think you either ‘get’ books, or don’t. I love em.

Winterfellismyhome · 05/12/2018 22:19

My fiance bought me a kindle in the hope that it would stop me buying actual books. Has not worked 😁

Bittermints · 05/12/2018 22:19

Does he mean books are obsolete because you can read the contents on a Kindle or similar, or that reading something long and complex is itself old hat? Not happy with either option, actually!

Petalflowers · 05/12/2018 22:20

Winter - I’ve stRted using a kindle, and must admit, find it better than I expected. Won’t stop me reading real books though.

Redinthefacegirl · 05/12/2018 22:23

I am desparately trying to embrace minimilism in all things. Except books. Books are special and bring me joy. They are most definitely not obsolete.

Original poster
Jezzifishie · 05/12/2018 22:23

Oh yes Petalflowers, I know what you mean. I loved going to my friend's house as a teenager, they had bookcases everywhere and books on every available surface (including going up the stairs). It felt cosy to me! My parents didn't have many books around when I was growing up, but I think my room probably made up for it Blush I could never resist the 20p book box at a jumble sale.

OP posts:
PavlovianLunge · 05/12/2018 22:24

What a silly thing for him to say; e-readers are popular, sure, but plenty of people still like to hold and read a physical book.

Still, opinions and arseholes... everybody’s got one.

Original poster
Jezzifishie · 05/12/2018 22:26

Bittermints The first one - he also queried the point of keeping them, as you're probably not going to read them again.

OP posts:
kaitlinktm · 05/12/2018 22:26

I got rid of a lot of my paperback books a few years ago when I got a Kindle. I like books, but I had loads which I'd read and probably wouldn't read again and I didn't have the room. Now, if a book wants to be on my bookshelf, it has to earn its place - has to be hardback or something special about it, or have sentimental value, like some of my old childhood books. I have cut the number down to three or four large shelves.

I have 3 Kindles of different sorts and I also have the Kindle app on my phone. I also have hundreds of free ebooks on them as well as free classics, like Dickens etc.

However, my real books are all upstairs, so a casual visitor would probably presume I didn't like books and wasn't much of a reader.

redsummershoes · 05/12/2018 22:28

yanbu
we haveabout 3000 books. from old textbooks (still used as reference occassionally) to supermerket novels.
part of the zombie plan so we have something to throw or burn

SheepyFun · 05/12/2018 22:34

Now we have properly obsolete books - ones that describe, for example, operating systems that are no longer used. But we haven't got rid of the books (I admit I tried!) - though if we run out of shelf space, we may have to think again!

DanielRicciardosSmile · 05/12/2018 22:37

I love my obsolete books. So much so that I refuse to entertain the idea of a Kindle or similar. The feel, the weight, even the smell are important to me.

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