Exactly!!! I'm feeling good about the process, though. There was a point where I was casually grabbing multiple different copies of the same book in different liveries, all very nice but where does that end!? no space for it anyway. Thanks for watching 👀!
Love this as an idea for a series mate. I try and keep an equal balance of read/unread books too, and while owning far fewer than you, am doing a pretty good job at getting through them.
I'm now eyeing my shelves and seeing what can go😄 you have a duplicate of end of eternity at the beginning of the second shelf. You can live a full and happy life without reading any of the Rama follow-ups with Gentry Lee
You are so brave - I find it very difficult as a dealer to decide what to keep and what to sell. Cover art is often the factor that sways my decision if I have more than one copy. Loved this tour!
@mrbook451 hi Bob! Yeah, tough to ditch books. But needs must, only so much shelf space available. I'll do a full library tour in late October. I'd love to have a rummage in your secret warehouse at some point! Thanks for watching 👀.
If I were you Jon, I'd start by reading the blurb/synopsis of each individual book and seeing which ones peak your interest and which ones don't. Maybe keep a few that many people recommend or maybe the authors most popular or best known book. I know you have a lot to go through but I think it's the best solution. Keep books on your shelves that interest you. If they don't, throw them out. I'm always reading the synopsis of my Westerns cause I want to pick the best and most interesting western that takes my fancy at the time when choosing one to read. I don't care whether it's popular or not which most are unknown nowadays to be fair. I haven't read Lonesome Dove yet and I don't know when I will cause I'm not overly fussed and in a rush to read it even though it seems to be the only one of two westerns, the other being Blood Meridian, that anyone ever reads. I read what I'm interested in, not what people say I should read.
@@SciFiScavenger they are, but I get big book fear honestly hahhaa. For you though, you can go through an author at a time to make it easier and keep the ones that interest you and throw the ones that don't. Maybe go through 5 authors a day
You really should read Stranger in a Strange Land or they take away your scifi fan certification, lol. It's not my favourite tbh but you don't seem to have many of his more space opera-ish stuff which is also his older stuff so paperbacks would have either fallen apart or people aren't parting with them. Space Cadet was good enough to spawn a neologism (well REALLY matron) of its own.
Hi Niki..In ep 4, i literally have an audible battle with myself before wrenching a duplicate book off the shelves. It was close...thanks for watching 👀!
From my experience I expect you may find much in the Moorcock, Anderson, and Cherryh stacks that you can safely part with. And frankly some Bradbury, who's a bit of a sacred cow. Toss Something Wicked right in the bin. I disliked Anthony's first Cluster book enough to forswear the rest. Your collection needs T.J. Bass's The Godwhale. (And I assume your Barrington J Bailey is on another shelf?) Keep the Brunner and the Bujold or I will punch you.
I have wonderful memories of reading Moorcock in my youth, his fantasies are awesome. Just avoid the Dancers at the End of Time, they cause brain damage...🫠 His Runestaff, Elric (though you may not appreciate the brooding tones), and Erekose are the best. Recommended. Agreed on Bradbury. I've been avoiding his novels, after tackling Something Wicked, which I agree was bad. And here I thought I was immune to pedantic authors...🙄🙄😂 And Anthony is just bad. Agreed.😖
I always wanted to read some Heinlein, and after watching a review from Mr. Durfee, I decided to start with FRIDAY. It seemed to be some kind of BladeRunner-esque female cyborg smuggler crime story, but as it turned out, it was basically Barbarella without the SciFi elements. His writing style is excellent, and my hardcover edition is beautiful, but the story itself was disappointing to say at least. So if you want to get rid of some Heinleins, this might be a candidate.
i may have made a mistake by starting with his widely recognised classic Starship Troopers - i might be downhill from there for me and Heinlein. We'll see. I need to read 2 or 3 more before deciding to ditch him. thanks for watching 👀!
You're keeping Heinlein's Cat Who Walks Through Walls? Frankly, I think that book's not worth it, like much of Heinlein's later novels. Takes up a lot of space, too. Glad to see you get rid of that Rama monstrosity, though! Only Clarke's original novel is any good, imo. Not crazy about David Brin's stuff. I have Sundiver but couldn't make myself read it. I also found McCaffrey's Pern novels surprisingly good. I think the last one I read was The White Dragon. Otherwise, I think you have a lot of stuff that's worth reading: Harrison, Anderson, Dickson are all writers that I enjoyed quite a bit. They're probably better than most of the contemporary serialized doorstops you keep reading(ok, I'm a bit biased against these newfangled writers...) Anyway, as someone who has books that are 50 years old or more, I'm probably not the best one to advise you on what to get rid of...😊
I haven't read enough Heinlein yet to know either way if he floats my boat. I hear Sundiver is poor but the 2nd book is pretty good. Thanks for watching 👀!
Agreed on Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Heinlein's later works are not...good (I feel like I'm betraying an old friend...😭😭 ) Do read Startide Rising before tackling Sundiver again. (if you're of a mind to). Sundiver follows Startide chronologically, and Startide is...Astonishing.😉 You should like Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. Her juveniles, but I've owned copies of both books my entire life. 🥰😍 Recommended!
@@User_Un_Friendly I'll have to check If I have Startide Rising, but thanks for the tip! I'm aware of Dragonsinger and Dragonsong but I never read them. I think she was a pretty talented writer but most of her books were too female-oriented for my taste. I just became aware that Clarke "co-authored" with Stephen Baxter a trilogy called The Time Odyssey that starts with Time's Eye. Have you read any of them? From what I could gather, only the first one seems to bear any relation to Clarke's work, even though the basic premise seems a bit too fantastic for him. The books came out in the last years of his life, the last one in 2008, so I guess his input must've been minimal...
Tbh, I´m short of to tell you that a lot of them are not worth reading and you should sell them to me.... ;) XD Seriously, I´m glad I don´t have to make that decision. It´s always hard for me to part with some of my books.
Nice collection! Asimov's The End of Eternity is well worth reading, IMO. I didn't see The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury, a must-read, and I also liked The Illustrated Man. The others: meh. The only Brin I've read that I liked were Startide Rising and the Uplift War (both won a Nebula and a Hugo). Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar is excellent. The only Bujold I really liked was Barrayar. A lot of Clarke was surprisingly average, but not The City and the Stars, Childhood's End, and Rendezvous With Rama. 2001: A Space Odyssey was an unnecessary book IMO. I didn;t care for the Rama sequels, but 2010: Odyssey Two was good. American Gods was excellent. IMO you can part with all the Heinleins except The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The other Herberts were disappointing, Le Guin is one of the best SF writers of all time. I'm not a McCaffrey fan. Moorcock's Behold the Man is excellent. IMO Niven's entire output is dominated by two books, The Mote in God's Eye and Ringworld, and many of the others are unreadable for me.
There's another 3 or 4 of these videos to come. I do have Martian Chronicles, two copies in fact, one under it's variant title The Silver Locusts. I feel like i need to read a bit more Heinlein before evicting him, but I definitely won't buy any more for now. Thanks for watching 👀!
How's this for a mad idea. Get rid of 75% of the contemporary stuff and keep all of the vintage books. Then live a long and fruitful life reading the established classics. Problem solved. Sorted. Whaddaya say ?
my experience of vintage so far has often been....mixed, let's say, so I'm in no hurry to ditch my newfangled stuff, some of which you might actually enjoy if you can hold your nose for long enough!! 😆cheers Kenny, thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger Seriously though, I really enjoyed Redshirts by John Scalzi and Greg Bear's Blood Music. Sad to report that I macheted my way to page 170 of Consider Phlebas and then chucked it in the bin - metaphorically speaking. At the end of the day it's what you were brought up with that wins the day. Original vid by the way. "Unbook haul" . . .love it.
Luckily, despite being mostly blind, I can read ebooks on my IPad just fine, or when I started tossing my paperback and hardback collection, I too would have been traumatized. 🫣🫣 As someone else said, Piers Anthony is not good. I've read some of his fantasy, and his Tyrant series, and frankly, they're rubbish. The first three Startide series should be kept. Discard the pedantic Uplift Storm trilogy. 😴 Do read Startide Rising before Sundiver. 😉 Sundiver is really more of a backstory filler to the main action. Good Job, Jon.🙂🫣. Hopefully you'll stay strong for the rest of your shelves...😳😵
@@SciFiScavenger I just got rid of a bunch of Laser Disks and DVDs. Surprisingly profitable. 🙂. Btw, I saw a copy of Asimov's Mysteries on your shelf. Surprisingly good, with mostly science fictional mysteries. Recommended. 😉
@@rickcantrell5302 Same here, the only book of his I even REMOTELY liked was Rides a Pale Horse. He seems to put out mostly low grade novels, with a few gems. 🙄
Do yourself a favour Jon read some moorcock ! Maybe the black corridor or the corum books you will enjoy his work I’m certain only short books you’ll probably read one in a day . Behold the man is another good starting point . 🫡
I recommend instead the Runestaff, and the three John Daker novels. Corum was rather meh to me, I loved the Hawkmoon (the Runestaff) books. Behold the Man is interesting, and disturbing if you're religious. But well written, Moorcock at his very best. 😉🙂
Read all 4 of the tripod books last year for the first time and absolutely loved them, especially the 2nd book.
I remember enjoying them back in the day, i should give them another go. Thanks for watching 👀!
It's always the same dilemma. There's a 1,000 reasons to keep a book and only 1 to get rid. You have my sympathy.
Exactly!!! I'm feeling good about the process, though. There was a point where I was casually grabbing multiple different copies of the same book in different liveries, all very nice but where does that end!? no space for it anyway. Thanks for watching 👀!
Love this as an idea for a series mate. I try and keep an equal balance of read/unread books too, and while owning far fewer than you, am doing a pretty good job at getting through them.
My TBR ratio is appalling! Thanks for watching 👀.
I'm now eyeing my shelves and seeing what can go😄 you have a duplicate of end of eternity at the beginning of the second shelf. You can live a full and happy life without reading any of the Rama follow-ups with Gentry Lee
Yeah i hear they're bad. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger They are VERY bad. Horrible, actually. Dump 'em!
And the Gentry Lee + Arthur C. Clarke collaboration for Cradle. It's awful. 😖
I went back and found extra copies of stars like dust, 2x martian way and 3x the naked sun. I was over-asimoved. 🤖
@@SciFiScavenger lol. I think that unless your going to be a Serious Collector, 1 copy of a book is enough.
Jon you have a problem many people dream of having! I like the format/concept here. Cheers!
Cheers Rick, thanks for watching 👀!
I love the video . I can't wait for the next episodes
There will be more, once I've had a chance to list the spares on ebay. Thanks for watching 👀!
I've been looking forward to this. I have less space than you, and should really do a cleanout.
I dream of having a room for a library.
Enjoy! Thanks for watching 👀!
Love your library ❤❤❤❤❤. A home isnt really a home without a library!!! Emily from Missouri ❤❤❤
Plenty more where that came from, stay tuned. Thanks for watching 👀!
Yayaya im kinda excited about this for you!! Room for more books!!!
I just spent the whole evening listing the bastards on ebay. Took ages! Thanks for watching 👀!
You need to bump Permutation City waaay up that TBR. Oh, and American Gods.
Hi John. I'm sure i started American Gods once and gave up, although that might have been the tv show. Noted re the Egan. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger I loved American Gods, but I'm a big Gaiman fan. The TV series was...less good. It's certainly more fantasy than sci-fi I guess.
You are so brave - I find it very difficult as a dealer to decide what to keep and what to sell. Cover art is often the factor that sways my decision if I have more than one copy. Loved this tour!
@mrbook451 hi Bob! Yeah, tough to ditch books. But needs must, only so much shelf space available. I'll do a full library tour in late October. I'd love to have a rummage in your secret warehouse at some point! Thanks for watching 👀.
If I were you Jon, I'd start by reading the blurb/synopsis of each individual book and seeing which ones peak your interest and which ones don't. Maybe keep a few that many people recommend or maybe the authors most popular or best known book. I know you have a lot to go through but I think it's the best solution. Keep books on your shelves that interest you. If they don't, throw them out. I'm always reading the synopsis of my Westerns cause I want to pick the best and most interesting western that takes my fancy at the time when choosing one to read. I don't care whether it's popular or not which most are unknown nowadays to be fair. I haven't read Lonesome Dove yet and I don't know when I will cause I'm not overly fussed and in a rush to read it even though it seems to be the only one of two westerns, the other being Blood Meridian, that anyone ever reads. I read what I'm interested in, not what people say I should read.
Very true. Lonesome Dove and the sequels are meant to be excellent, mind. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger they are, but I get big book fear honestly hahhaa. For you though, you can go through an author at a time to make it easier and keep the ones that interest you and throw the ones that don't. Maybe go through 5 authors a day
You really should read Stranger in a Strange Land or they take away your scifi fan certification, lol. It's not my favourite tbh but you don't seem to have many of his more space opera-ish stuff which is also his older stuff so paperbacks would have either fallen apart or people aren't parting with them. Space Cadet was good enough to spawn a neologism (well REALLY matron) of its own.
I have a bunch of his so-called juveniles, i think. I note your concern for my sci fi credentials, I'll get to it eventually! Thanks for watching 👀.
Very satisfying audit! I also have a hard time letting go of my more special paperbacks even after having acquired the hardcovers.
Hi Niki..In ep 4, i literally have an audible battle with myself before wrenching a duplicate book off the shelves. It was close...thanks for watching 👀!
lol!
From my experience I expect you may find much in the Moorcock, Anderson, and Cherryh stacks that you can safely part with. And frankly some Bradbury, who's a bit of a sacred cow. Toss Something Wicked right in the bin. I disliked Anthony's first Cluster book enough to forswear the rest. Your collection needs T.J. Bass's The Godwhale. (And I assume your Barrington J Bailey is on another shelf?) Keep the Brunner and the Bujold or I will punch you.
Duly noted re Bujold!! I'd put her in the same basic category as cherryh so we shall see. Thanks for watching 👀!
I have wonderful memories of reading Moorcock in my youth, his fantasies are awesome. Just avoid the Dancers at the End of Time, they cause brain damage...🫠
His Runestaff, Elric (though you may not appreciate the brooding tones), and Erekose are the best. Recommended.
Agreed on Bradbury. I've been avoiding his novels, after tackling Something Wicked, which I agree was bad. And here I thought I was immune to pedantic authors...🙄🙄😂
And Anthony is just bad. Agreed.😖
I always wanted to read some Heinlein, and after watching a review from Mr. Durfee, I decided to start with FRIDAY. It seemed to be some kind of BladeRunner-esque female cyborg smuggler crime story, but as it turned out, it was basically Barbarella without the SciFi elements. His writing style is excellent, and my hardcover edition is beautiful, but the story itself was disappointing to say at least. So if you want to get rid of some Heinleins, this might be a candidate.
i may have made a mistake by starting with his widely recognised classic Starship Troopers - i might be downhill from there for me and Heinlein. We'll see. I need to read 2 or 3 more before deciding to ditch him. thanks for watching 👀!
You're keeping Heinlein's Cat Who Walks Through Walls? Frankly, I think that book's not worth it, like much of Heinlein's later novels. Takes up a lot of space, too. Glad to see you get rid of that Rama monstrosity, though! Only Clarke's original novel is any good, imo.
Not crazy about David Brin's stuff. I have Sundiver but couldn't make myself read it. I also found McCaffrey's Pern novels surprisingly good. I think the last one I read was The White Dragon.
Otherwise, I think you have a lot of stuff that's worth reading: Harrison, Anderson, Dickson are all writers that I enjoyed quite a bit. They're probably better than most of the contemporary serialized doorstops you keep reading(ok, I'm a bit biased against these newfangled writers...) Anyway, as someone who has books that are 50 years old or more, I'm probably not the best one to advise you on what to get rid of...😊
I haven't read enough Heinlein yet to know either way if he floats my boat. I hear Sundiver is poor but the 2nd book is pretty good. Thanks for watching 👀!
Agreed on Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Heinlein's later works are not...good (I feel like I'm betraying an old friend...😭😭 )
Do read Startide Rising before tackling Sundiver again. (if you're of a mind to). Sundiver follows Startide chronologically, and Startide is...Astonishing.😉
You should like Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. Her juveniles, but I've owned copies of both books my entire life. 🥰😍 Recommended!
@@User_Un_Friendly I'll have to check If I have Startide Rising, but thanks for the tip! I'm aware of Dragonsinger and Dragonsong but I never read them. I think she was a pretty talented writer but most of her books were too female-oriented for my taste.
I just became aware that Clarke "co-authored" with Stephen Baxter a trilogy called The Time Odyssey that starts with Time's Eye. Have you read any of them? From what I could gather, only the first one seems to bear any relation to Clarke's work, even though the basic premise seems a bit too fantastic for him. The books came out in the last years of his life, the last one in 2008, so I guess his input must've been minimal...
@@SciFiScavenger He's pretty controversial, especially for modern readers. But I guess It would be better to focus on his earlier novels.
@@luiznogueira1579 i haven't read the Time Odyssey, nor have I heard anything about them. Sorry...😉🙂
Tbh, I´m short of to tell you that a lot of them are not worth reading and you should sell them to me.... ;) XD
Seriously, I´m glad I don´t have to make that decision. It´s always hard for me to part with some of my books.
Yes. Duplicates is easier, but books i haven't even read yet is tough. Thanks for watching 👀!
Nice collection! Asimov's The End of Eternity is well worth reading, IMO. I didn't see The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury, a must-read, and I also liked The Illustrated Man. The others: meh. The only Brin I've read that I liked were Startide Rising and the Uplift War (both won a Nebula and a Hugo). Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar is excellent. The only Bujold I really liked was Barrayar. A lot of Clarke was surprisingly average, but not The City and the Stars, Childhood's End, and Rendezvous With Rama. 2001: A Space Odyssey was an unnecessary book IMO. I didn;t care for the Rama sequels, but 2010: Odyssey Two was good. American Gods was excellent. IMO you can part with all the Heinleins except The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The other Herberts were disappointing, Le Guin is one of the best SF writers of all time. I'm not a McCaffrey fan. Moorcock's Behold the Man is excellent. IMO Niven's entire output is dominated by two books, The Mote in God's Eye and Ringworld, and many of the others are unreadable for me.
There's another 3 or 4 of these videos to come. I do have Martian Chronicles, two copies in fact, one under it's variant title The Silver Locusts. I feel like i need to read a bit more Heinlein before evicting him, but I definitely won't buy any more for now. Thanks for watching 👀!
Can’t watch…..this is too traumatic 😭
Ahahah. Be brave! Be brave!
How's this for a mad idea. Get rid of 75% of the contemporary stuff and keep all of the vintage books. Then live a long and fruitful life reading the established classics. Problem solved. Sorted. Whaddaya say ?
my experience of vintage so far has often been....mixed, let's say, so I'm in no hurry to ditch my newfangled stuff, some of which you might actually enjoy if you can hold your nose for long enough!! 😆cheers Kenny, thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger Seriously though, I really enjoyed Redshirts by John Scalzi and Greg Bear's Blood Music. Sad to report that I macheted my way to page 170 of Consider Phlebas and then chucked it in the bin - metaphorically speaking. At the end of the day it's what you were brought up with that wins the day. Original vid by the way. "Unbook haul" . . .love it.
@@kennyrh9269 Greg Bear is awesome. Agreed. Do check out his fantasy novels, Songs of Earth and Power, and the Serpent Mage. It's good. 😉
Luckily, despite being mostly blind, I can read ebooks on my IPad just fine, or when I started tossing my paperback and hardback collection, I too would have been traumatized. 🫣🫣
As someone else said, Piers Anthony is not good. I've read some of his fantasy, and his Tyrant series, and frankly, they're rubbish.
The first three Startide series should be kept. Discard the pedantic Uplift Storm trilogy. 😴 Do read Startide Rising before Sundiver. 😉 Sundiver is really more of a backstory filler to the main action.
Good Job, Jon.🙂🫣. Hopefully you'll stay strong for the rest of your shelves...😳😵
i've been busy this evening listing all the spares/discards on eBay. millionnaire by next weekend I expect. maybe. thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger I just got rid of a bunch of Laser Disks and DVDs. Surprisingly profitable. 🙂.
Btw, I saw a copy of Asimov's Mysteries on your shelf. Surprisingly good, with mostly science fictional mysteries. Recommended. 😉
Yeah. I read Tyrant as a teen and even then there were parts I knew were just wrong.
I really liked Microscope by Anthony, then read many more of his books and nothing even came close.
@@rickcantrell5302 Same here, the only book of his I even REMOTELY liked was Rides a Pale Horse. He seems to put out mostly low grade novels, with a few gems. 🙄
Do yourself a favour Jon read some moorcock ! Maybe the black corridor or the corum books you will enjoy his work I’m certain only short books you’ll probably read one in a day . Behold the man is another good starting point . 🫡
I recommend instead the Runestaff, and the three John Daker novels. Corum was rather meh to me, I loved the Hawkmoon (the Runestaff) books. Behold the Man is interesting, and disturbing if you're religious. But well written, Moorcock at his very best. 😉🙂