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View Full Version : Tell me what you think of this.....Book related



JLB
03-15-2005, 13:22
On another thread, a poster was asking what books should he bring on a hike. On my first hike, I brought "Atlas Shrugged" for myself, and "The Hobbit" for my kid. After the first three days out, we re-evaluated how much weight we were carrying, and pared 10 pounds of of my pack weight, and 4 pounds off of my son's. The books were one of the first things to go, as we found that we were too bushed when we got where we were going, and cooking, setting up sleeping, etc. was taking up what time we had. There were a few times where a book might have been nice.

What about leaving a collection of famous short stories in a shelter, in one of those PVC mouse proof containers, not to be removed from the shelter?

That way, if anyone wanted to kill some time reading, they could, and would not have to tote it everywhere they went, plus the stories could be finished in an hour or less?

Any section ever tried something similar to this? I know at Neel's Gap they have a small library. Why not one at each shelter?

Jack Tarlin
03-15-2005, 13:32
Mainly because it encourages folks to leave other stuff---unwanted gear, religious tracts, etc. One notorious shelter on the NY/CT line got so full of reading material that it took an entire day to remove it.

People that want to read carry their own stuff. Sometimes it's twenty pages of poetry, sometimes it's 1000 pages of Tom Clancy. It's up to the individual.

On occasion, people leave a completed book or magazine in a shelter for someone else to enjoy, and ON A SMALL SCALE, this is essentially harmless. Sooner or later, the stuff that was left gets taken away or burned.

But all too often, discarded stuff in shelters has to get hauled out by a volunteer, ridgerunner, or caretaker, and a "collection" of stuff at every shelter, even something innocuous like a lending library, would only serve to encourage people to leave yet more unwanted stuff.

200 "shelter libraries" might seem like a nice idea, but I'm not sure it's a good one.

bearbait2k4
03-15-2005, 15:01
I've picked up books, and have left books behind at shelters. Of course, thinking back, I don't know that leaving anything behind was a great idea. Books can eventually become nests for mice and other animals. They could become damp or wet, eventually molding, and could create an additional health problem for some. We really should concentrate more on the leave no trace policy.

Leaving behind containers at shelters, as Jack said, will definitely encourage other people to leave behind unwanted items. Just take a look at all the shelters with little mailboxes for the shelter registers, or even shelters with a few extra shelves on the inside. Or the bear boxes in NJ. People seem to think that extra storage space is built just for them and the items they want to discard. Hiking is simply best when you keep it simple.