What about books I own but have not read?

I use "to-read" for books I own that I haven't read but want to read. But, what about books I own but don't really plan to read. How should I categorize them?

>1 CarolynBurke7: However you want to. You could put them in a dedicated custom Collection (e.g. Won't Read), or you could give them all a tag. I'm sure there are other ways I'm not thinking of. The point is, do whatever works for you. When it comes to your catalog, there's hardly any wrong way to do anything.

Just put them in “Your library”?
Or create a new collection called something like “not to be read”? It’s your library, you get to decide!

You can customize your collections on the Add Books page.

Yes, make a special collection. For example, I use "on hiatus" and "officially unfinished" for some of my books, i.e. those I plan on finishing "someday" and those I disliked and stopped reading.

Edited to correct terminology.

Create a collection called "Unworthy of me."

>1 CarolynBurke7: I used to buy a lot of those when I was younger. Anything by the Greats; Tolstoy, Flaubert, Mann, the Nobel laurates, not because I was going to read them, but because I thought they belonged in a well-rounded library. I still have most of them, but I really should get rid of them since we're approaching 10,000 volumes and well, not enough wall space.

I don't tag them with anything special or have a collection of them, I don't really see the point. I guess I would make a "Not going to read" collection if I wanted to sort them somehow like you seem intent on.

I got rid of a lot of those once the boys were out of school. I don't think we had bought them, I think we 'inherited' them when our parents downsized. But we weren't reading them, and the kids never did either. Although I still have quite a few that they got as textbooks.

>6 paradoxosalpha: lol.

"Beneath Contempt"

"Meh"

"Window Dressing"

I have this great collection called "Books to Go."
As I determine an author just isn't for me, or I finish books too Meh to keep, they go into that collection. They then go out with the next donation run.

>9 MrAndrew:

"Ballast"

"Table stabiliser"

>12 MrAndrew: “Door stop”

I think "doorstop" is already a term of art for books with unreasonably high page counts.

>7 anglemark: Won't getting rid of some of the books be against the stated goal of your library?

I haven't gotten rid of some books even though I don't want to read them for a number of reasons. Some of them were gifts. Some of them belonged to one of my parents or grandparents, now deceased, and have their names written in them.

>16 CarolynBurke7: I know exactly how you feel. I also have a number of books that belonged to my parents or grandparents that I'm unlikely to read but that I'm reluctant to get rid of.

Yes. My father was only 15 when his father died. He hung on to his books all these years, some go back to the 1800's, so how could I possibly get rid of them now!

memorabilia?

>18 CarolynBurke7: My father was only 15 when his father died

Pretty much my story as well

I'm going to keep those books. But, I haven't decided yet how I will categorize them.

>7 anglemark:

I think the only well-rounded library is that of Babel.

While I don’t catalogue my books based on whether they are or will be read, I agree with everyone this sounds like job for a custom collection.

>15 bnielsen: Definitely. It would be part of our fighting back against it!

>22 AndreasJ: Touché! :)

I have a "not to read" tag for books that are never going to get "read" (mostly reference books like dictionaries and user manuals and books of knitting patterns) so I can take them out of my stats when I try to calculate how bad my unread situation is.

(it's still bad. but that does pull off almost 1/5 of the unreads.)

"not to read" ...I like that!

"Inherited Books"?

another good suggestion!