So, Jenn wants to cut down on the number of books we own

[conuly]

and switch to having those books in digital format. Obviously a huge minus here is the cost, but she suggested offhand that it'd be nice if she could scan in the books we own, convert them to a txt file, and just upload them.

Some of those books are out of print, actually. If we're doing that for our own personal benefit, and not to share with others, is that actually illegal? (Not that we'd be caught at it, any more than if we simply typed up the contents, but that's a different question.)

Comments

[redbird]

I don't know about the legalities, but it may be a lot more work than it sounds like: scanning and converting to a text file may leave a lot of typos/misprints. Project Gutenberg has a large group of volunteer proofreaders, to go from scanned/OCR'd texts to something that is comfortable to read.

So far, we've only gotten rid of hardcopies of things that I was reasonably sure I could get from Project Gutenberg (things like Jane Austen novels). Well, that and some things I don't expect to ever want to reread, but I wouldn't keep those even if they'd be difficult to replace. Books are being written faster than I can read them, after all.

[conuly]

Well, she has a point. We've long since run out of shelf space, even with stacking the books. We'll have to start using the floor soon.

[beggargirl.livejournal.com]

You mean just upload them to your own device? I don't see why that would be an issue. Putting it online may be another thing though.

Did you know about Calibre?

http://calibre-ebook.com/

You can use it to format text into EPUB format so it's all pretty for your E-reader. I've used it to put a bunch of Ursula Vernon's short stories onto my Kobo that she posted on her Livejournal that aren't yet available to purchase.

Also, if the books you have are in the public domain (e.g. Alice in Wonderland, shakespear...etc) , you might be able to find a digital copy of it at the Guttenberg Project: https://www.gutenberg.org/

[conuly]

Yeah, I wouldn't pay for public domain kindle books :)

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Well it is in Australia. Does not stop us doing it however. Also a 2nd vote for calibur which is the software i used for managing my book and comic library for my kindle.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Don't get rid of the hard copies of anything out-of-print that you'll ever want to read again. Electronic devices fail; electronic storage systems become obsolete, or inaccessible, or vanish entirely for never-explained reasons.

"Three moves is as good as a fire", and I have moved 37 times in my life, so I've had to get rid of tons of stuff, including (literal) tons of books. I'm about to begin on yet another Great Winnowing and Lightening of the Load - not that I plan to move; I hope for another ten or fifteen years in this house, but my housemate is turning 81 this month, so it's well to be prepared. I've been here seven years now, which is the longest I've ever lived in the same house in my life, and stuff - especially books - has definitely accumulated.

You've been living in your house longer than that, and as I understand it, you intend to live there the rest of your life, so I'll bet you're drowning in a sea of books you read only once, or perhaps only intended to read but never got around to, and never will get around to now. Save the valuable first editions and the books inscribed with love from people you love; save the tattered-but-beloved books of your youth; save everything you realistically think someone in your house will read or refer to again, and ditch the rest - donate them somewhere, sell or consign them, whatever. You could pretend you're all moving to Seattle, and get rid of everything you wouldn't pack in the U-Haul truck. How big a U-Haul would it take for your book collection alone, including the bookcases needed to shelve them?

But still, don't trust digital to save books you might never find again in hard copy. If you have to scan a book in because it's not available in digital, and if you care about it enough to bother scanning it in, it's probably one you ought to keep.

[vanessagalore.livejournal.com]

Check out Bitlit (http://www.bitlit.com/).

[liannas-mom.livejournal.com]

Please tell me you are familiar with this...
http://www.mainlesson.com/ Mainly classics, it's my favorite online collection of books.
The issue I have with digital is I can't pass them down to my kids' kids, or anyone else...my kids read books that were my husbands and mine growing up.

[conuly]

All our books growing up got literally read to pieces or given away, so that's not a thing we could do anyway.