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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We got a very large book set — dozens of volumes, on a topic that neither of us was interested in.  At the time we were both starting graduate school and in a life phase where we would be moving a lot and living in apartments.   It was many many boxes to move.  No one will take it for donation, and I can get rid of it on Craigslist.  I sprained my wrist when it was delivered trying to life if off our front stoop because it weighs so much.  The same set is available digitally in a searchable lightweight format, which is why literally no one wants it.  The kicker is that I know it was not a regift and it cost a lot of money.  It was such a waste.  We have paid to move it 3 times, still have it and use it for things like lifting up a computer monitor or weighting down items.  I just feel bad throwing it in the trash.  I think the gift giver is just the type that thinks everyone likes what he likes and didn’t realize this was really a niche present — he didn’t want to be boring and just get something off the registry and genuinely thought this was a great gift.  [/quote]

What was the topic ?[/quote]

I'm dying to know the topic! It must be something like military history to encompass so many books that a bulk pickup would be needed to take them all away![/quote]\

I was thinking like religious books of some sort.[/quote]

Okay, I will come clean.  It is the Oxford English Dictionarty.20 volume set.  It weights 177 pounds.  Periodically when I mention it to people they say “that’s so cool!  I’d love the OED!”  But when I offer it to them, they  do not in fact actually want it.  It basically needs its own bookcase.  If you want it, post your email address here.  Our version is many decades old so will not be updated like the digital version that is likely available through your public library.  [/quote]

I feel your pain.  My grandpa bought each of his grown daughters a bound set of the Encylopedia Britannica in the 1980s.[/quote]

I’m the OED PP and the World Book Encyclopedia that my family had was one of my favorite possessions in the 1980s.  I would just browse through it for interesting little tidbits. I now spend a time on Wikipedia.  I know some people love the OED but I just don’t get it.  You look up a word and it tells you a bunch d times that the word was used.  It doesn’t even explain the back story of the word, which might be more interesting (like why it’s beef in the plate but cow in the field, or why we call it a highway even when it’s at low elevation, or why we use Roman gods for weekday names even though most of our basic words are not Latinate—I would actually be into that sort of interesting linguistic trivia.). Although maybe not 177 pounds of it.  I guess it just goes to show that people have different tastes.[/quote]

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