Books

[budgie348]

SWMBO is wanting to know how she is going to get enought reading material whilst we are continuosly cruising?

[Keeping Up]

There are a LOT of places where you can swap books you have read for books you haven't, for a purely nominal fee. We've swapped books at all sorts of places, from pubs (the Swan at Fradley) to churches (Cropredy) and marinas (Crick). They're all over the place if you keep your eyes open.

 

Besides, if you keep her busy enough she'll be too tired to read

Edited January 23, 2008 by Keeping Up
typo

[sueb]

If you stay in one area for awhile you can join a library.

Sue

[Bones]

give her jobs so she doesn't read so much! Or get her books in foreig languages!

 

There are plenty of towns along the waterways where you can stock up in charity shops or bookshops. You can get books posted to post offices from online if you know where you will be heading.

 

You will also meet LOADS of people and you may be able to swap books with them?

 

Alternatively - write your own.

[saltysplash]

Ive been in quitie a few pubs waterside that have rows of books in a hallway which can be taken for a nominal fee....alternativly there is always the local charity shops in places that you pass through.

 

I persaonally have held onto a few of my favorites which i am not prepared to get rid of, in spite of space shortage coz i read em again and again as you would re watch DVD's

 

such titles as

 

Rise and fall of the third riech

Fall of the roman empire

Flying Fury......by ww1 pilot James McCudden

Winston Churchills history of WW2

All of Patrick Obriens books

Mutiny on the bounty

All quiet on the western front

The cruel sea

The magic faraway tree

Lord of the rings

Every book by James Herriott

and finally the works of Sir arther conan doyle

[Chris J W]

Charity shops. For preference for me, Local Charity shops such as the Iain Rennie shop in Tring. And you can drop your old books off and know they'll just go around again.

[Sue1946]

Agree with Bones re charity shops. I get more there these days than from the library (am land based) and then just return them in so the charity can re-sell and make a few pennies more. My best local place actually keeps back my fav authors to see if I want first choice!!

[CampinGazz]

Not boaty related, but dont see why it can't be,

 

when we used to take our motorhome abroad, almost every time we pulled into a campsite/motorhome rest area, there'd be an english motorhome with a box of books outside the van,

 

you went over, had a look through them, any you liked you either paid something like a pound to take it away outright or 50p if you swapped another book, these were bog standard paperbacks, any hardbacks/special interest (no, not that kind of special interest, and they are usually magazines anyway) would be a little more.

 

the little fee for swapping a book was fine, as the person had to lug them about with them, taking up space and reducing fuel consumption a little etc.

 

dvd's were just begining to be swapped the same way,

 

on some sites there'd be 5 or 6 english motorhomes doing the book swap thing,

 

apparantly some who travel to the south of spain take hundereds of books with them, one even took a trailer full of them, and the swap fee kept them in plonk whilst they were out there.

 

something like that could so easily be done on the canal side? ok when abroad it was english people with english books, a comodity that was hard to find out there, but even so, in england a canal boaters book swap thing could be a very handy thing,

 

some people abroad did the book thing on trust, i.e. leave em out in box with a lid and bag over them, and a little can to put the dosh in, maybe that wouldent work so well in england, thinking youb setting light to them, or throwing them in the water, as we all know that type wouldent want a book for it's intended purpous

[budgie348]

There are a LOT of places where you can swap books you have read for books you haven't, for a purely nominal fee. We've swapped books at all sorts of places, from pubs (the Swan at Fradley) to churches (Cropredy) and marinas (Crick). They're all over the place if you keep your eyes open.

 

Besides, if you keep her busy enough she'll be too tired to read

 

Cheers Allan, but she suffers from a terribly bad back

[DHutch]

Yeah, there a book swaping going on at the bw faciltys at anderton as well.

[Dylan]

Read all the books on board, then put a sign in the boat window to the effect that you have books available for swaps.

[carlt]

Book swapping thread, anyone?

[budgie348]

Thank you all, she has been placated my earache has gone.

[Chris J W]

Book swapping thread, anyone?

 

Plus DVD's, CD's, magazines etc etc

[carlt]

The magic faraway tree

The only worthy Blyton books.

 

Angry Pixie was my childhood role model.

[saltysplash]

The only worthy Blyton books.

 

Angry Pixie was my childhood role model.

 

 

pmsl

 

defo Moonface and saucepan man

[CampinGazz]

now to contradict myself totaly,

 

an alternative to physical books... e-books, if yer eyesight is still fairly good, you can pick up a palm or windowz based pocket pc for nex to nowt on fleabay,

loads of free e-book reader software packages, tho most ppc's come with one built in anyways,

 

then you can download a few books when ever you get access to a net cafe/wifi spot or use a mobile net connection, dunno if you can order e-books on disc or not if you dont have t'internet,

 

of course it's one more gadget you need to keep charged, but for purely e-book reading, an old mono screen palm pilot would be fine, lasts ages on batteries, where as my pocket pc with a full colour screen lasts about 2 hours on a battery, it is a 2002 model tho, and that's ancient in the technology world,

 

but a library of e-books would take up aCD or 2, much easier to lug around if you dont have the space.

[boatbot]

Seeing we are talking about books-I am trying to track someone down who has historic wooden boat who had a book written about it-I met Garry mainly at Stretton Stop but also spotted his boat at Hawkesbury junction around August last year. I dont know the name of the boat unfortunately-any helpers here? If I could get the name of the book it wil reveal the name of the boat!

[BlueStringPudding]

SWMBO is wanting to know how she is going to get enought reading material whilst we are continuosly cruising?

 

Own lots of them... ... that's what we do.

 

Just buy a new book each time you pass through a town or a village with a bookshop / charity shop / bookcrossing place.

 

Kev and I especially like Bookcrossing. Check out the link above to see which pubs/cafes/shops/community centres etc on your Cc routes partake in bookcrossing. And it's free!

[Chickadee]

some people abroad did the book thing on trust, i.e. leave em out in box with a lid and bag over them, and a little can to put the dosh in, maybe that wouldent work so well in england, thinking youb setting light to them, or throwing them in the water, as we all know that type wouldent want a book for it's intended purpous

 

This sounds like a great idea. It works with fruit and veg on the road side in some places. I guess you would have to pick the area carefully. (although someone had left free cake out in Camden last sat!)

 

You could use it to sell other nick nacks to and avoid the fleabay fees!

 

I havent used the Bookcrossing thing yet but it always makes me smile to see novels in plastic bags on park benches etc.

[BlueStringPudding]

I havent used the Bookcrossing thing yet but it always makes me smile to see novels in plastic bags on park benches etc.

 

Can't say I've seen that! Only been to pubs that do Bookcrossing...

[Tim Lewis]

Seeing we are talking about books-I am trying to track someone down who has historic wooden boat who had a book written about it-I met Garry mainly at Stretton Stop but also spotted his boat at Hawkesbury junction around August last year. I dont know the name of the boat unfortunately-any helpers here? If I could get the name of the book it wil reveal the name of the boat!

 

My favourite book about a wooden boat is 'Adelina' by David Horsfall. It has been published on line at:

 

http://www.basingstoke-canal.org.uk/bkltarc9-1.htm#fore

 

and is a jolly good read.

 

Unfortunately the boat eventually rotted away and was eventually broken up when the Basingstoke Canal was restored past its mooring.

 

Tim

[starman]

Have you come across this: www.bookcrossing.com (sorry, don't know how to do this 'clicky' stuff). It's "the world's largest free book club". You join up, leave your finished books in places with a label in to identify them as 'book crossing' and can even track their progress on the internet if the person who finds them registers them. You can also look up the site and find regular book crossing spots.

One of my kids does it and some of her books have ended up all over the world!

[Chickadee]

Can't say I've seen that! Only been to pubs that do Bookcrossing...

 

Yep they seem to leave them in a few places round here. Saw one on a letter box by the bus stop last.

[cotswoldsman]

Must say I have found lots of book swap places on my travels.

Also a lot of county libaries such as Cheshire, Shropshire and Lancs allow you to borrow from 1 libary and return to another in the same county have used the Cheshire one quite a lot for both books and DVD's cost nothing to join just take in your driving licence as identity. then you can also use the internet while there.