We’ve had a lot of suggestions on how to gracefully retire old church magazines, and today’s column rounds out the lot.  If you think you’ve heard everything, think again.  Today’s column has some helpful advice in several different areas, and there’s even a postscript from the Canadian reader whose letter started this thread.

First of all, we got a piece of good news from reader Linda from California.  As you may remember, Linda recycled her old church magazines by scanning the pictures and using them for program covers for her ward bulletin.

Being a professional writer (do not try this at home!) I was immediately concerned over whether using church magazine art on ward bulletins would violate copyright laws.  I called the church public communications number and was told that this sort of thing was “discouraged.”  That’s what I put in last week’s column.

Well, Linda was smarter than I was.  (Don’t pat yourself on the back too much, Linda!  Being smarter than I am isn’t hard to do!)  Instead of making long distance telephone calls, she looked right in the Ensign and got a better answer than the one I gave.  I’ll let her tell you herself:

In doing my sacrament program this week, I found on the first page of the Ensign (table of contents page) the following, "All materials may be copied for incidental, noncommercial church or home use unless otherwise indicated. Other uses require permission of the copyright owner." So I am fine with all of it unless otherwise stated, for my sacrament programs.

Now that, Linda, is mega cool.  All of you program editors out there can continue using the fine art that is found in the church magazines with impunity.  Take the advice I gave you last week with a large grain of salt!

Not only did Linda make our lives easier, but we’ve received two more technical letters in response to last week’s letter batch.  Here they are:

One of the writers responding with some suggestions on disposing of church magazines said you can't enlarge the church photos.  There is a way to do it, but I don't know if it will meet their needs.

Find the photo/picture you want.  (Or any screen to experiment with.)  Then do the following:

• Press Print Screen.
• Open a new Word file.
• Paste the picture into it.
• Right click the mouse with the cursor on the picture.
• Click on Format Picture.
• Click on Size at the top of the menu.
• In the middle, increase the Height to whatever will fit your needs or the screen.  The Width will change automatically.
• Click OK.
• Then print it.

Good luck.  And make it a good day!

California

Now how’s that for a helpful piece of information?  Thanks, California, for coming to the aid of one of our Circle readers.

And here’s the other juicy tidbit:

A couple of people have bemoaned the fact that there are no longer pictures in the online magazines. if you go to the .pdf version of them you will find the pictures exactly as they are in the magazine.

I do still like having the Ensign delivered, even though I have a computer. I just prefer to be able to hold the paper version and read.  Reading online just doesn't feel the same!

Meridian Reader

Thanks for writing in, Meridian Reader.  It never occurred to me that the .pdf versions would be more complete, but that’s the whole purpose of .pdf files!   Thanks for pointing out what should have been obvious to me.  I’m sure a lot of people will be glad you wrote in.

But now I hear that not all the church magazines are in .pdf format.  Here’s what Lynne Flake has to say on that:

I read your article about what to do with old Ensigns (and other Church magazines). My daughter has three small children, and she cuts out pictures of Jesus, the prophets, temples, children, and other interesting things and she puts them in folders for her children to look at during sacrament meeting. I think she updates them from time to time so that they remain fresh for the children. I have even gone through them during sacrament meeting, and they are very interesting even for adults. 

I wish the Church would put more of the magazine issues in .pdf format so we could see the original page, not just the text. As an example, the Friend is a resource for teaching Primary, and the stories are more valuable as a teaching tool when the original pages are reproduced. I enjoy the Ensign and the other magazines, and would like to keep the original art and photographs. I wouldn't feel guilty about clearing out my boxes of old issues if I could read them on the Internet in their original form. The text and the artwork together make reading the church magazines a pleasure. 

Lynne Flake
Jamestown, California

I looked at the online versions of the magazines, Lynne, and the one issue of the Friend I checked out did have the magazine in .pdf format.  If you choose your issue, it takes you to the table of contents page.  Right above the words “Table of Contents” is a little tab that says “view.”  If you click on that, you get the .pdf option. 

I’m not sure if all the issues have that feature; it would be spiffy if they did.

By the way, I liked your comment that your daughter updates her folders of interesting things for children to look at in sacrament meeting.  I think the natural inclination of most of us (okay — the natural inclination of Kathy, who is lazy) would be to make a “quiet book” and then think the job was done.  Updating these little folders could make the difference between success and failure!

As hard as it is for us who live outside the Intermountain West to find ways to recycle our old magazines, it’s infinitely harder for those who live in Utah.  One Utah resident had this to say:

In the past I have given magazines to Deseret Industries.  I doubt, however, that they would want hundreds of people giving them old church magazines.  The ward library doesn't really want them either.  Unless someone can come up with someone who wants them, the only thing I can think of is to recycle them.  That way they can save trees and be used in some beneficial way. 

I'll be interested to see what others come up with.

Margaret Dansie
Sandy, Utah  

I hope you’ve found lots of ideas during this thread, Margaret!  If you haven’t, read on.  There may yet be something that will be of help: 

On one occasion I walked the streets in our suburb as part of my exercise routine, (with a prayer in my heart) and a plastic bag filled with old Ensign magazines and deposited one magazine in each of my neighbours’ letterboxes. I don't know if it did any good, but it made me feel I was doing good.

Member from Greenmount, Western Australia

That’s one way to do it, Greenmount.  If even one person read a magazine and was touched by it, your prayers were answered.

Hi folks. We moved into an apartment and found that downsizing is really hard.  We have to part with many dear things — books, magazines, the lopsided giraffe our daughter made in second grade, the macaroni necklace our son made in third grade, and so on. What we have done with the books and magazines is give them to the library where they will either use them or sell them to buy the books they need. I figure someone might searching and just might pick up one of my old magazines and read it and feel the need to find out more about us LDS folks.

Joan Olgers Pierce
Universal City, Texas

Joan, it never occurred to me to give magazines to the library to use in its book sales.  Maybe they’d end up in the hands of someone who could find the good in them.

(And I hope you’re proud of me because I didn’t shriek, “You parted with your daughter’s lopsided giraffe?  Oh, the humanity!” Shrieking was my first inclination, and I only resisted it through great strength of will.)

Sometimes I give them out to non-member friends by doing the following: 
   
Whenever you see an article in the Ensign (or other church magazines) that you think a friend would be interested in reading, give it to them.  There might be an article that a friend needs to
see, kindly ask them if they would like to read it, than give them the whole magazine.   Whenever there is an article on a particular country, and you know someone from that country, give it to them.

Leave a magazine at the doctor's office, beauty shop, dentist's office, or other public place.  Donate them to the public library.  You never know if someone will become interested in the church and join it.  At least they will have a better understanding of our church.

Rita from Hamilton, Missouri

Thanks for your suggestions, Rita.  There are so many articles about different countries in church magazines (including Meridian!) that passing them along to friends who come from those countries is an excellent idea.

Here’s a letter from a guiltless recycler:

I feel no guilt whatsoever.  I only keep three months of the Church magazines (maybe up to a year of Conference issues of the Ensign).  Every month when my new issues arrive, I pull the oldest issues out (from three months back) and toss them in my recycle bin.  No guilt, no pressure.  My mother-in-law has Ensigns and New Eras from the 1970's!  Someday one or more of her children will have to deal with them!  Talk about guilt. 

Let them go.  Most likely they aren't doing anyone any good sitting on a shelf.  If you do want to reference something, you can find it much quicker online than searching through every magazine you have!

Free from magazine clutter — in Utah

You’re a brave recycler, Free.  I’ll bet your refrigerator is clean, too.  I wish I had the fortitude you do.  I have a zillion magazines, and my refrigerator is a mess!

And as long as we’re hearing from recyclers, here’s a letter from the primo recycling state, good old Oregon:

Here in Oregon we recycle like crazy, so recycling is a good option.  However, if even that creates guilt, ask the chaplain at local hospitals if they may like a few issues to share.  Or ask any senior facility such as care centers, assisted living communities, adult foster homes, or rehab centers if they would like a few issues. 

Children’s wards in hospitals may like a few issues Friend or the New Era.  Even if all patrons are not LDS, the pictures are beautiful and the stories can be inspiring or comforting.  I don't know if medical waiting rooms would want a few issues, but one can always ask.  It is a good idea to remove your address label before passing them on — especially if you have your full name on the label. 

S.L. Krouth
Gaston, Oregon

Thanks for your suggestions, S.L.  There are certainly articles in all the church magazines that could provide comfort for people in desperate situations.  Thanks for trying to find a home for the used ones.

And speaking of recycling, two readers have sent a new way to do it:

This one brother in my branch gets the Ensign and “Church News,” reads them, and then gives them to me.  After I read them, I pass them on to another sister. 

Kimberly

My husband is branch president of the young single adult ward in the Bremerton Washington Stake.   We have been giving them to our members who do not receive the magazines. 

Phylis

Thanks for writing, Kimberly and Phylis!  There are bound to be lots of people in many wards or branches who would like to read the church magazines, but who don’t have the financial resources to do so.  A little detective work could find a need right in your home congregation.

I also take them as I go Home Teaching to give to my people who don't have a subscription.

Tom in Tucson

Talk about being shown how to do detective work!  Clark and I home teach three families who don’t get the Ensign, but who could want it.  It’s nice to see that our readers have brains, Tom, seeing as how mine seems to be on permanent vacation!

I was glad to know someone felt the same dilemma I had about discarding my wonderful Church magazines.I had a married lifetime (53 years) of the Relief Society Magazine, The Instructor, Improvement Era, Ensign, Children's Friend and New Era. 

I had hoped Deseret Industries, ward libraries or nursing homes might want them so others could use them and I wouldn't have to mourn their loss so much. But they didn't.  I literally shed tears as I put them in the recycle bin and often dug them out of the bin and kept them a while longer before I could actually part with them! 

This wasn't necessarily a "productive" method, but it was one I could live with to manage my sentimental feelings about the magazines and still clear them out.  Before I could part with them, I saved articles that had been particularly inspirational or educational to me.  I also kept some of the artwork to use as visual aids, although I found I had to be more and more selective because the "art folder" soon became far too large! 

I kept certain issues such as the year my husband and I were married (June 1954); the birth month issues of my children (February 1965 and December 1961); the March issues honoring Relief Society and women in general; some Christmas issues, and some issues that commemorated the prophets or special events.  Then I had to go through again, and cull out even those. I now save issues from the current year and one past year.  I feel good about the process — and the results. 

I have four filing cabinets to clean out of folders with handouts, special articles and “Church News” clippings that were used for talks and lessons through the years.  It's wonderful to know I can go online and search a title for information I may need,  but honestly it isn't quite the same as seeing an article or a conference address underlined and with handwritten notes that bring instant recall of how I felt at the time it became part of my life. 

By the same token, there are files filled with outdated material that needs to be discarded. I have promised my daughter I will do it so she doesn't have to — and I will. 

Thanks for listening and sharing!

Joyce N. Draney
Mission Viejo, California

Thanks for your letter, Joyce.  I’m sure that now, thanks to you, there will be many who save the issues that were published in the month they got married or when their children were born.  What a lovely time capsule to remind yourself (and teach your children) how things were in the old days!

I know this awkward feeling very well, but one day when I looked at the huge pile of old church magazines I remembered that there is a copy of all church magazines in our ward library and that you can also look them up in the internet. So if I need an older issue I can still find it. It is not lost for me even if I don’t have my own copy anymore.

I usually keep church magazines about a year, then I look through them and cut out pictures, poems, and other things that I like and which I can use in church or FHE later. This way I don’t have huge piles but one box with all the pictures and information. But I don’t throw them all away — I keep the general conference addresses as well as special issues of the Ensign (for example the special issue about Jesus Christ). These are the ones that are most likely to be needed again in a few years.
This works for me quite well and I don’t feel guilty anymore because I’m not throwing them simply away but still have something of them that I use.

Livia Grossmann
Dresden, Germany

Those magazines can indeed become a “huge pile” as we get older, Livia.  Thanks for sharing the solution that works for you!

It was fun hearing from a Germany reader, and here’s input from another Australian reader:

I can remember when we used to cover our school books that I used to take the covers off the old Friends and cover my writing books and then cover with contact to protect them. 

Now that I am much older, I always have a couple in my church bag so that I can share them with restless children and they can do the activities in them during church. 

Donating them the children’s ward in the local hospital is also a great non-guilty feeling.  As for the Ensigns, they are a little harder to thin out.   But yes, you are right — there are others that feel this way too, as we don't toss out our old scriptures!

Jane
Sydney, Australia

What a great idea — to make book covers out of covers off the old magazines!  Some of the artwork on those magazines is so fine that it’s nice to be able to use it in a place where you can see it often.  Thanks for writing, Jane.

Here’s a story of a recycling effort that went wrong — or did it go just right?

I too had a hard time parting with my church magazines. I even had many old Instructor magazines from the 1960's from my mother. One day I had to make room in my junk room and decided to get rid of them. But I had a hard time throwing them away. I felt like I was throwing the Savior in the trash as most had his picture on the covers.

I put them in boxes with no tops and set them on the curb for the trash man. When he came I saw him looking through them and then put them in the cab of the truck. So then I felt so much better.

Somehow I still miss them but have been better about throwing them away. I just have to close my eyes and let go. I do like the idea of making a quiet book of photos from them for kids. Since I now have a little granddaughter, I think I'll make one for her for when she is old enough to enjoy it.

Davetta
Trona, California

That’s a good idea, Davetta — to put the magazines out in a way that they’ll be seen and perhaps taken away by someone who will read them.  In our neighborhood, things put out for the trash pickup are often purloined before the trash men actually make an appearance.  If the magazines are prominently displayed, people are likely to take them away for their own use.  You may even want to label them, “Free to a Good Home.”

I keep all church magazines up to 10 years because of the wonderful artwork they contain.  I guess I'm like a kid, still needing to learn from pictures at the age of 50!

As far as discarding the older magazines, our stake donates them and used scriptures to the local prisons.  They've been in need of reading material and seem to appreciate all we send.

Joanne Vorkink

That’s nice to know of a stake-wide recycling program for old church magazines, Joanne.  Wards could do the same thing.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for this topic.  I have just recently started a drive to cut apart old magazines to use for visual aids in Primary, specifically to help children with disabilities in our ward.  In the past, the Young Women and Activity Girls in our ward have used magazines to cut up for modest dress ideas and comparison.  We have also given them to friends as missionary tools, and to let them know what the leaders in the Church are telling us.
   
Also I know friends who have taken the wonderful paintings and artwork and put them in sheet protectors for quiet books for their young children at church, or art appreciation at home.
   
Susan, in Delaware

Now there’s an idea, Susan — to use them as teaching aids to show young girls what modest clothing looks like!  Girls are being bombarded with so many images from television and from their school friends that often they just don’t know what’s appropriate as far as clothing is concerned.  There are numerous pictures in the New Era and the Ensign that could answer a lot of questions for them.

I keep them until I take a trip or stay at a hotel.  I take the old copies of the “Church News”/Ensign with me (with the addresses removed).  I then leave them on the plane, in the rental car, at the
hotel, and so on.  Hopefully someone will read them before they're thrown out.

Nameless

People are always looking for reading material when they’re trapped on a plane or in an airport or even at the car rental place.  Perhaps you’ve had some takers — either from travelers or from people whose job it is to clean up the boarding areas or the plane.

By the way, I’d give you credit for your letter, but you thoughtfully cut off the name and address when you sent your suggestion to me. 

Thanks for this privilege!

Disposing of church magazines is one of the hardest things to do, because anything the Church puts out is always the best.  I just dislike throwing the wonderful material away.

I have been very fortunate a good part of the time as there is usually someone I have been able to pass them onto.  I am not having any luck now, doing that. It appears they can go to the library, or yard sales, or whatever.

So I am going to be watching as how others do. Our church library is not wanting them.

Rosalie

Thanks for writing, Rosalie.  I hope you’ve gotten many great ideas from our readers in the past few weeks.  They’ve sent in more ideas than you can shake an Ensign at.

By the way, did you know that Adam was apparently the first Ensign editor?  At least, that’s what our next reader would have us believe!

I have kept my Ensigns, New Eras and Friends clear back to Adam, or at least to the beginning of my marriage 36 years ago. I know I can get any article I want online, but just can't seem to make myself throw them away.

But I do have them organized. I bought boxes made for that purpose at the local Church bookstore, they come flat and you fold them out. They are the perfect size for one year’s worth of magazines, and I keep them all lined up according to date. The most recent I keep on a bookshelf and the older ones I keep on a shelf in a storage room.

Call me old-fashioned, but holding a magazine or a book in my hands is so much better than reading it off a computer screen. If I find an article that especially impresses me — one that I may go back to — I put a little sticky note on it so I can find it again.  You can't do that on a computer.

Throwing them away after I die will give my kids something uplifting to do.

Kathleen Rappleye
Mesa, Arizona

I totally agree with you that it’s easier to read a magazine in your hands than on a computer screen, Kathleen.  Computer screens tend to break your nose if you fall asleep when you’re reading from them in bed.

I also got a kick out of your ghoulishly plotting to give your children something to do by throwing them away after you die.  You put the “fun” right back in “funeral”!

Read on for another letter from a reader with a sense of humor:

This most certainly is a matter of life and death — or at least it has been a continual battle in our home for the past 45 years of our marriage.

Back in the days before lds.org and the availability of Church magazines online, we had a garage full of magazines that my husband just could not bear to have me dispose of.

Years later, when I was serving in the ward library and found out that the recommendation was to dispose of church magazines after 10 years — then I began my serious attempt at home to dispose of everything over 10 years old.  (I don't know what the recommendation is now, because it has been several years since my library time ended.) 

Of course I had to wait until my husband was out of town on garbage day so I could dump a few in the garbage pick-up container.  

When we moved from our home of 36 years, he agreed to let go of those that were older than 10 years.  But now our supply is down to three years — just enough to keep in a cabinet in the family room, where they are rarely looked at!

When your article appeared the other day, I printed it off and asked for his suggestions.  His reply was, "Somehow make the magazines available to people who do not have computers or can't afford a subscription to the magazines."
I guess after 45 years he has found out that he has not been struck with lightning and has not lost his temple recommend due to disposal of the magazines.

Virginia Braley
Spanish Fork, Utah 

Ah, Virginia, but it is not he who would lose his temple recommend over the disposal of the magazines!  It is you, the magazine disposer, whose temple recommend would be in jeopardy!

Thank goodness you’re still getting into the temple.  It must be because he’s such a stellar priesthood leader!

Lightning rod salesmen, please take note.  The Braley home in Spanish Fork, Utah, may be in need of your services.

On a sadder note, here’s what really can happen when you dispose of your old church magazines!

I always turn to an older sister in another ward for answers to difficult question such as this.  When she and her husband were getting ready for their first mission, they did a really big downsizing.  All her magazines were in magazine boxes, cataloged by date and on special shelves in the basement for easy retrieval when researching a topic.  This couple loaded all the magazines, intact in their boxes, to the thrift shop. 

I heard about the disposal the next day — I was gleaning magazines for my stash and desperately needed these cast-offs.  To my dismay, thrift shop had already sent these to Recycling! 

I was devastated.  My friend had Ensigns, New Eras, old Relief Society Magazines, old Children's Friend (with the priceless centerfold flannel board figures in them).

Now for the rest of the story:  when my husband and I downsized a few years later, I, too, wanted to get rid of my stash of these treasured magazines.  First I culled the pictures (Mormon Ads — I put on coordinating colored cardstock and laminated them and filed them); the games from the Friend and Children's Friend (put each game on file folders with instructions — then laminated them); music (put these into page protectors and then into binders); flannel board figures with stories I put into page protectors and then into binders (two 4" binders, to be precise).  Then I felt "safe" in recycling what was left.  I have used all my "saved" items over the years for FHE, RS and YW lessons, for teaching Seminary, and so on.

I am thankful the Church has given us so many varied choices for media — the printed page and digital.  I love reading the Ensign, New Era, and Friend.  I still subscribe to all three even though we have no children at home any more.  I store a year’s worth of magazines and then pull out what I want and recycle the rest.

Sister in Washington

Okay readers, there you have it.  If you have a priceless collection of ancient magazines that you’re thinking of getting rid of, you may want to send out an email asking if anyone wants them before you deep-six them.  Somebody could consider them to be a real treasure!

After reading this week's column and the many suggestions, I'm more conflicted than ever!  I'm our stake food storage specialist and in that capacity, sit on the stake emergency preparedness committee.  We often talk of contingency planning.  Well, because it's been my calling for such a long period of my life, I've tried to plan for living in the future without electricity, natural gas, or other conveniences we presently take for granted.

With this mindset, depending upon the internet as my only access for back issues of Church magazines gives me more than heartburn — it's literal pain!  What would I do if I could not research these older articles?  What if there was no power for my computer?  The Church archives of these materials aren't available for us ordinary members.

For many years I've been able to obtain hardbound copies of the Ensign from the Church Distribution Center, left over from the limited number they bind for GA's.  Those have not been available the past couple of years, and I really miss that resource, but at least I've got a neat row of nine volumes (representing nine years) lined up in the bookcase.  I wish it were a set of 37.

I am simply not comfortable with all my eggs in one internet basket.  So I'll keep on putting the individual issues on a wire and compiling binders for each year.  This keeps them neat and orderly, and I can find what I want when I need them.  And though I may research online for the article I want, to then be able to go to my bookcase saves wasting the paper to print out a copy to take to a lesson.

As an example, I was asked Friday to substitute for the RS lesson yesterday, on the Melchizedek priesthood.  I read the Joseph Smith manual and had a strong impression of a need to tie the priesthood to our women.  I remembered President Kimball speaking on this topic in the '70's.  I went to lds.org and found his talk and also one by Sister Holland referencing his talk.  I had copies of each in the bookcase, took out those issues, and they became an integral part of yesterday's lesson, that I think was much needed in our ward. 

And coincidentally, on the way to church, KBYU-FM was playing a talk from their Devotional Archive by Belle Spafford, where she talked about the difference between "power" and "influence," which I used in the lesson.  This lesson was greatly enriched for our sisters because of archived resources.

Now, what I really want is some way to access all those many years of old Improvement Era and Instructor articles.  There were such wonderful gems in them, and the research-minded part of my poor scholarly brain just aches to find some archive that's indexed and stored these! 

(Which sends me on another tangent — the scam of issuing searchable CD databases, then adding to them a little bit and changing the program slightly, but charging a whole new fee for the user, then putting them online and charging another whole new fee.  In my mind, these are the money-changers whom Christ whipped out of the temple.  I'm willing to pay for an original compilation, but to continually try to bleed me of more and more — that's not entrepreneurship, that's unconscionable!  But I digress.)

Anyway, I can recycle the Era and the Friend, but the Ensigns are basically scripture, and they're too much a part of my life's study habits to risk being without them.  So no throwing away here!

Kathie Shepherd
Stansbury Park, Utah

Wow, Kathie, you take organization to a whole new level!  You must give gonzo lessons and talks!  And to actually remember President Kimball speaking on a specific topic in the 70s?  I can remember the “all the little animals” talk because of the furor it caused, but I’d be hard-pressed to come up with something on a topic that didn’t inspire such a fuss.  Your memory is as impressive as your organizational skills! 

I take out the large picture and put them under categories for Primary — Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Church history, modern day.  I also keep an activity file, a game file and then a flannel board people cut-out file.   The games and flannel board people are great for FHE lessons. 

I also cut out small pictures because they are great to use in teaching the Junior Primary songs.    Our stake presidency has a beautiful collage of pictures of the Savior and large titles, quotes and such taken from magazines and it is framed; it's so beautiful.

Becky Rose from Bellevue Washington

I do like your idea of the collage of pictures of the Savior, Becky.  Something like that really would be suitable for framing, and for displaying in a prominent place.  Thanks for the idea.

Okay, people, we’ve come to the end.  And finally we hear again from Pene Horton, whose letter started this whole energetic topic. She tells us of a recent traumatic experience that I knew you’d enjoy as much as I did:

I've been reading all the suggestions, still cringing at the thought of tossing the Ensigns out, mind-boggling over the effect of flooding our almost entirely non-member community by leaving them around in doctors' offices and other public places.

We are surrounded by people who are extremely suspicious of Mormons, if not actively hostile, due to the media coverage of the Texas polygamist people and a polygamous bishop in our own province, so I thought I'd just leave one random copy of the Ensign downstairs in our apartment building lobby, and see if anyone shredded it or read it. 

Well, I randomly pulled out August 2002, did a quick check of the contents to find if it was suited for non-member reading.  First I saw a beautiful portrait of Brigham Young on the inside cover.  Next I saw the First Presidency message by President Hinckley, “What This Work is All About” — so I had to read that wonderful article.  Then there was Mei Hsiang Moyer's article with a picture showing her father tearing up her Bible; then a marvellous article on “Prayer, The Soul's Sincere Desire.”

Sorry, apartment dwellers, you can't have this copy!

I'm afraid it's going to take me years to find one I can bear to part with as I read them again.  But I am enjoying seeing how others dispose of them!