Prosaic Paradise

Campaign for the Mundane

Purge Thursday: I hated your book.

Filed under Purge Thursday by at 1:47 pm on Feb 26 2009

This week I decided to hit the bookshelves. This is something that will undoubtedly happen again as the weeks wear on and I find myself desperate for things to get rid of. In this particular case, if you don’t know, I’ve been in a book club for 8 years now in which we read about ten books a year. Since I started the whole book club thing, I have felt obligated to maintain the physical artifacts of our legacy of reading.

Well, that ends now.

Some of the books I outright hated. Some of the books I just didn’t like enough to finish. I wasn’t able to bring myself to get rid of the ones that I liked but won’t ever read again… maybe later this year when I’m better at non-attachment. The infamous Patricia Cornwell “worst book we ever read” Portrait of a Killer goes! V.S. Naipaul, who I thought was a dick even before I read his shitty book, goes! The high-school lit classic The Catcher in the Rye? Hated it. Past that it gets less vitriolic, but their presence in my house does not stand up to scrutiny.

So if you see anything in that stack you want, let me know. I think I may try to become an amazon seller for the remaining books. Can anyone tell me about their experiences using amazon to sell books? Anyone have a better idea? Is it worth the hassle?

I also need advice on taking 360° photos of a room. I want to take before and after pictures of our office for a total overhaul, but it’s a really cramped space and I am not sure how to do it – do I need a fisheye lens filter? Do I simply need to use photo stitching?

8 Responses to “Purge Thursday: I hated your book.”

  1. 1 rdonoghueon 26 Feb 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Is that the Baltimore book with the Mike Mignola art? I would cheerfully take that one off your hands. Ditto Bobos in Paradise (though I hate that book too, but in a way that makes me want to replace my lost copy).

    -R

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    Kim Reply:

    Indeed – those are they. All yours!

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  2. 2 Genieon 26 Feb 2009 at 7:07 pm

    Heather Campbell of Flickr fame uses Photoshop and a lot of time to stack her photos on top of each other. But you could probably just use a wide angle lens and do it in 2 shots or so.

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    Kim Reply:

    My canon software actually has pretty good photo stitching, but I want to take this with the Nikon! I’ll probably have to do a few tries.

    In other news crossposting to LJ seems to have gone to crap. Grr.

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  3. 3 Stimeyon 26 Feb 2009 at 9:42 pm

    I think there are websites like paperbackswap and a couple more where you can trade books online. I have some of them listed on my Decluttering Resources page. Let me know if you hear from any Amazon sellers, or if you do it yourself. I’d love to hear your experiences.

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  4. 4 Kimon 27 Feb 2009 at 6:41 pm

    Thanks! I will check that out. I have talked to a few folks who do amazon sales but I am beginning to think that the whole operation would take more time than I have, and time = money etc. I did get a lead on local used book shops – places that I thought were all but dead!

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  5. 5 Melanieon 02 Mar 2009 at 3:47 pm

    Hi, Just found your site because of my interest in paper and pens. Thought I’d reply regarding your question about 360 degree photos. Some point and shoot digital cameras have “stitching” options. You take one picture and then choose “stitch” which somehow gives you a small view of the previous picture and allows you to line up your next picture. You keep doing this until you’ve got all the pictures you want in your “panorama”. I’d say just check your owners manual for something keyword like stitching or panorama or something like that and you may be able to do that thus avoiding the investment in a special lense. Melanie

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  6. 6 Kimon 02 Mar 2009 at 7:03 pm

    Thanks so much! My Canon point and shoot has really good photo stitching software, but I’m hoping there is something useful for my new Nikon as well. We shall see!

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