Getting Rid of All My Books

My bookshelf, roughly 6 months ago.

We're moving back to America, which means that it's time to get rid of all my books.

A few of my friends and colleagues have reacted with surprise when I told them I was getting rid  of all my books.  "Can't you take them with you?" they asked.

No. No, you can not.

I had thought that it was common knowledge that it's difficult to transport vast quantities of books across the ocean, but maybe it's not.  To be fair, I myself didn't realize this until I learned it through experience.

Back when I lived in Japan, I was frustrated with the lack of English books available, and so when I was back in America on vacation, I hit the bookstores, and loaded up my suitcases with English books.  And then, when I got to check-in, I was told I was over the weight limit.

It turns out that books are actually deceptively heavy.  You wouldn't think they are, because when you hold a paperback in your hand, it feels light enough.  But books are actually quite dense for their size, and while one individual book may not weigh that much, if you throw a bunch of them into a bag, your bag is soon over the weight limit.  (If you've not had the experience of packing a lot of books in a suitcase, then maybe you can get the same idea by thinking back to your school days, and how heavy your backpack felt when you had to bring a lot of books home with you.)

If you distribute your books across a couple suitcases, and put some in your carry-on, then you can get away with maybe bringing about 5 books with you.  But that's it.

In my case, I've decided that I'm going to bring: A Place of Greater Safety, Circe and The Jerusalem Bible (*1).  Everything else on my shelves had to go.

During my travels, I've actually been in this position a few times before: when I left Japan, when I left Australia, and when I left Cambodia (*2).  Each time I had to purge my library.  And each time I had a number of books on my shelves that I had been meaning to read, but never got around to.  And each time, I lament what a waste it is.  "I bought all these books intending to read them," I lament to myself, "and now I have to just give them away unread." (*3)

I didn't write blog posts about it in the past.  Although looking back now, I kind of wish I had.  In each case, I had some really interesting books on my shelves--books that would have been really great reads, and would have been interesting to review and discuss if I hadn't had to discard them.  It would have been nice to just keep a list of what those books were.  Partly just to share some interesting titles, and partly to remind myself so that I could remember to track those books down again someday.

So, this time around, I'm making that blog post.  Or at least a version of it. 

I'm lucky this time around in that I'm working at a decent size university, so I have a lot of colleagues to give my books away to (*4).  So it was easy to find good homes for all my books.

I made up a Google Document in which I listed all the books I was giving away, and then let my colleagues put their names down next to the books that they wanted. (*5)

I thought I would duplicate that Google Document here for the purposes of this blog.  With a couple adjustments.

On the left hand side of the document, I've added in a link to whenever I last talked about this book on my blog.  On the right hand side, I've added in some commentary about how important this book was to me.

The books generally fall into three categories: Books I've already read, and am perfectly happy to get rid of.  Books I've already read, but am giving up with some reluctance, and books I never even got around to reading.

The books I never even got around to reading can be further subdivided into: 

(1) books I picked up for free at a book exchange and am not terribly bothered about

(2) books I paid good money for at the bookstore and am kind of bummed I never got to read them

In fact, if you take a close look at this list, it will quickly become apparent that I've wasted a lot of money buying books that I never got around to reading.

I will try to be more restrained in my book buying in the future.

Although in my defense, the fact that books disappear so quickly from the bookstores in Ho Chi Minh City encourages the mindset of scarcity shopping.  Even in the new bookstores, the availability of books is constantly changing--a book will be all over the bookstores one month, and then suddenly unavailable the next month.  And in the used bookstores, forget it!  If you see a book you might like, and you don't snap it up immediately, it won't be there again the next day.

That, plus (also in my defense), we didn't find out we were leaving until August.  Before August, we anticipated we might still be in Vietnam another year getting the visa sorted out.  So up until August, I was still buying books under the assumption that I would be here another year.

A couple more notes about this list:

* In 2019, I was working in the teacher training center at my school.  They got shut down rather abruptly, and everything had to be cleared out of their offices.  They had a whole library of books on teaching English--most of them photocopied (as is common in Southeast Asia.)  These books were all headed to the trash, but I actually saved a lot of them, thinking that I would read them for my own professional development.  Although in the end, I didn't end up reading any of them.  (My professional development reading has really slowed down in the past 5 years.  For a variety of reasons, the biggest one being that I became a parent.  There are other reasons as well, but I won't get into all of that right now.  That's another subject for another time.)

* This actually isn't the complete list of all the books I got rid of.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I actually started getting rid of some of these books back in August.

Also, I decided that any books where the cover had fallen apart was best just put straight into the garbage, rather than trying to give it away. (*6)  

Also, during the 9 years I've been living in Vietnam, I've actually gotten rid of a lot of books before this point.  Mostly prompted by moving apartments.  Whenever we moved apartments, my wife said to me, "Any books that you are done with, I want you to get rid of before we move to the new apartment."  So, for example, if you look at this old 2018 vlog I did on all the books on my shelf that I've already read--almost all of those books I got rid of when I moved apartments a few months later. (*7)

As for the various graphic novels that - I - had - purchased - in -Vietnam, I donated all of them to the university library in order to encourage extensive reading among our students.

Notes

(*1) I know it's been a few months since I last completed a book of The Bible, but that's mostly because since I found out we were leaving the country, I've been prioritizing finishing off other books on my shelves.  But I haven't given up on my read-through of the Bible.  And I want to keep The Jerusalem Bible because  it has the extra books that aren't in the Protestant Bible.

[I got the news I would be leaving in August, and since then have been prioritizing the important books on my bookshelf--the books I really wanted to finish before I left the country.  Those books were: The Jungle Book, Reading the Old Testament, The Song of Achilles, Tyrant, The Last Unicorn, Race of a Lifetime and The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology was actually a library book, but I really wanted to read it before I left the country and lost access to my university library.

(*2) I actually came to Vietnam directly from Cambodia, and because Saigon is only 6 hours away from Phnom Penh on the bus, I was initially hoping that I'd be able to just ship all my books over by bus.  But I was informed by the bus ticket salesman that bringing in a lot of books to Vietnam was going to raise red-flags at customs.  "Books are one of the things they're especially worried about," she said.  I did manage to bring a few books with me to from Cambodia to Vietnam (some of which are on my list below).  But the majority of my books I had to give away.

Oh, I should also note that after being warned by the bus ticket salesman, I subsequently never attempted to transport boxes full of books to Vietnam.  So I can't say whether or not her warning was accurate.

(*3) I perhaps am particularly prone to accumulating books I never get around to reading.  For various reasons.  But one reason is I always imagine myself as being a faster reader than I actually am.  (I don't know why I never seem to learn my lesson.)  So I'll go to the bookstore and pick out a handful of books, and think to myself, "I'll knock these out in a couple of months," but then it will take me 2 years to get around to them.

(*4) In contrast, when it was time to leave the small town I was living in in Japan many years ago, I had a bunch of history books on the Paris Commune and 19th century radicalism that no one in the Japanese countryside wanted.  I ended up having to actually just throw many of them in the garbage when I left.  [Under normal circumstances, I would have been quite upset at the waste of good books.  But if memory serves, at the time I was so stressed out about everything with the big move that in the end what happened to the books just wasn't a priority.]  

They were all books that I had gone through some trouble to track down (placing special orders in my local bookstore during vacations back to the U.S., ordering off of Amazon).  I brought them over to Japan with the intention of reading them all, but, typical me, I had overestimated my reading speed.  I thought I would be able to get through them all quickly in a year, but when it was time to leave Japan, I had barely touched them.

Now I can't remember the names of most of them, which is a pity.  I'd like to remember what they were.  I remember them looking interesting, but I don't remember there names, which makes it hard to track them down again. And that's a large part of the reason I'm making this post--to help me remember the books I got rid of, in case I ever want to track them down again.

(*5) And, good news, almost all of these books found good homes.  There were maybe 10 books that no one wanted, so I just left those on the book exchange table at my work.  Everything else found interested readers.

(*6) My copy of Age of Myth and Harriet the Spy both had bindings and covers that completely fell apart on me.  I'm not sure why.  I wasn't particularly rough with either of these books.  Maybe some books are just printed cheaply?

(*7) The one exception was Twenty Years After, and that only because it had been a gift from my wife. (She had bought it for me, not realizing that I had already read it.)

Anyway, here is the complete list: docs, pub

Fiction

Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Simple Rules of Love by Amanda Brookfield	This was my wife’s book.  I have no interest in it.
The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander	Not read.  Largely because I didn’t want to start in the second book of the series.  I hope to someday track down the whole The Chronicles of Prydain series and read them in order.
Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James	This was my wife’s book.  I have minimal interest in it.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell	Not read.  I bought this new, so I wasted my money.  I probably would have worked my way around to this eventually, if we had stayed longer in Vietnam.
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier	Not read. I picked this one up for free at a book exchange on a whim, so I’m not particularly bothered about it.
The Glasswright’s Test by Mindy L. Klasky	Not read. I picked this one up for free at a book exchange on a whim, so I’m not particularly bothered about it.
Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon	Not read. I would have liked to read this if I had time, just for nostalgia’s sake.  But I should be able to easily track it down again when I’m in America.  I picked this book up cheap at a used bookstore.
A Dawn of Dragons by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman	Not read.  This was book 6 of a YA adaptation of the Dragonlance series.  I’m interested in the Dragonlance series, but I hope to start from book 1 of the original when I get back to the US.  I picked this book up cheap at a used bookstore, so I’m not particularly bothered by the fact that I didn’t read it..
The Sable Queen by Brian Jacques	Not read.  I bought this book new at a bookstore, so I wasted my money.   It’s part of the Redwall series, which I would like to read one day, but maybe once I get back to America, I’ll just start at the beginning.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury	Not read.  I picked this book up for free at a book exchange at work.  It’s a classic that I’m long overdue to read, but I guess I’ll pick it up again when I’m back in America.
The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams	Not read.  Although it would have been a reread, since I did read this book back in high school. But I figured I was due for a reread of it.  But I can easily track it down again when I’m back in America.  I bought this book new at a bookstore, so I wasted my money.
Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas	This would have been a reread, as I originally read it in 2013.  This book was a gift from my wife when we first started dating, and thus had some sentimental value, but it was a bit of a white elephant even at the time, since I had already read it in 2013, and had no intentions of rereading it anytime soon.
Age of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan	I bought this book new at a bookstore, so I wasted my money.   It is a sequel to Age of Myth, which I gave a mixed review to, but overall was intrigued enough that I wouldn’t mind reading the whole series, if I could find all 6 books all in one place.  (Vietnamese bookstores only had the first 2 books.)  Hopefully I’ll be able to track it down in America.
The Princess Bride by William Goldman	I’m disappointed that I never got the chance to read this.  It looked like it would be a fun book.  Hopefully I can track it down again.
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh	A friend passed this book on to me.  I probably should have read it, but it just looked so depressing.  Plus, since I review every book I read on the Internet, talking too much about Vietnamese politics may get me in trouble, so another reason to avoid this book.
The Complete Stories of Oz by L. Frank Baum	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Frozen: Heart of Dread by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Don Quixote by Cervantes	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Bambi by Felix Salten	Not read.  Although it would have been a reread, since I did read this book back in middle school. But I figured I was due for a reread of it.  But I can easily track it down again when I’m back in America.  I bought this book new at a bookstore, so I wasted my money.
The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks	This was one of my wife’s books.  (I’m not a big fan of Nicholas Sparks.)
Sweden by Matthew Turner	Even though I already read this book, I was reluctant to part with it, as it had been a gift from the author.  (Particularly as it is now a collector’s item.)  But what can you do?  I can’t take everything with me, so I’ve got to get rid of stuff.  The good news is that someone else at work picked it up, so hopefully I’m now giving someone else a chance to discover Matthew Turner.
Children’s Stories from Old British and Irish Legends by J Emmerson-Hicks	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Iliad by Homer	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away. I do plan on rereading this someday, but I think I’m due check out a new translation the next time I give it a try.
The Odyssey by Homer	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende	Not read.  I bought this book new at a bookstore, so I wasted my money. I bought this book because of childhood nostalgia for the movie, but I really know nothing about the book.  Is the book as good as the movie?  Would this be worth tracking down again.
Dune by Frank Herbert	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert	Not read.  I got mixed signals on whether or not it’s worth continuing on the Dune series.  (Steve Donoghue says yes, Whisky Prajer says no.)  I bought this book new at a bookstore, so I wasted my money.
Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Tides of War by Steven Pressfield	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, although it was such a nicely illustrated edition that I only gave it away with reluctance.  But what can you do?  You can’t take everything with you.
Tyrant by Valerio Massimo Manfredi	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Dracula by Bram Stoker	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Glenraven by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Holly Lisle	I picked this book up for Garbaugust, and would have read it for Garbaugust, except that right in the middle of August, we got the news that we would be moving to America, and I needed to prioritize which books on my shelves I would read before I left.  Garbaugust was not a priority.
Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler	I was given this book by a co-worker.  It looked mildly interesting, and had I stuck around another year I might have read it.  But at the same time, I wasn’t too upset to part with it.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass  by Lewis Carroll	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit	I picked this book up from a co-worker who was leaving a few months ago.  At the time, I didn’t know we would get approved to leave just a month later.  This is a classic children’s book, so I wanted to read it.   But I should be able to find it again in an American library (even though E. Nesbit is better known in England than in America.)
Personal Demon by Kelly Armstrong	I picked this book up for Garbaugust, and would have read it for Garbaugust, except that right in the middle of August, we got the news that we would be moving to America, and I needed to prioritize which books on my shelves I would read before I left.  Garbaugust was not a priority.

Nonfiction

Being Wagner by Simon Callow	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine	I bought this book new at a bookstore, so I wasted my money.   This is actually the second time I’ve had Paine’s book in my hand, and had to get rid of it.  (I had a collection of Thomas Paine’s writings when I lived in Cambodia, and ended up moving country without reading it.)  I guess I’ll try to track this book down again in America.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl	One of those important classics that I am long overdue to read.  I didn’t get around to it this time.  I guess I’ll have to track it down when I get to America.
Vo Thi Sau: A Legendary Heroine by Nguyen Dinh Thong	I got this from a coworker. I’m mildly interested in the history behind Vo Thi Sau, but, like I said above, for the purposes of reviewing what I read on the Internet, it might just be safer to stay away from this.
The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm	One of the few books that I managed to take with me across the border from Cambodia.  Despite struggling with The Age of Revolution, for many years I had ambitions to return to Hobsbawm and finish off his trilogy.  (All the smart kids read Hobsbawm).  But I think I’m past that now.  I’ve come to admit that I’m not one of the smart kids after all. I’l justl stick to the history books that are fun to read.
Race of a Lifetime by John Hielemann and Mark Halperin	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
Soldier Sahibs by Charles Allen	I picked this up on a whim when it was at the free book exchange at work, so I don’t have any big regrets about not getting around to it.
Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie	I read this, and enjoyed it.  I am parting with it with some reluctance since my blogging buddy Whisky Prajer personally went through the trouble of mailing it out to me from his own collection.  But what can you do?  You can’t take everything with you when you move?  And the good news is that I’ve found a good home for it, so now someone else will be able to enjoy it.
Alexander the Great by Peter Chrisp	A picture book for school children (ideal reader probably around 10).  I got it for free when the library at my old school was being dismantled.  My kids were too young for it, but they enjoyed looking at it.  I’ve succeeded it giving it away to another parent, so now other kids will get to enjoy it.
Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson	A co-worker gave this to me several years ago when she was leaving Vietnam. She thought I’d be interested in it.  And indeed, I am kind of vaguely interested in Hunter S. Thompson.  But I’m not especially interested in Hunter S. Thompson.  So for years it sat on my shelves under the heading of “books I’ll get around to someday, but not just yet.”  And now it’s time to go.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White	Written in 1858, it’s one of the foundational books of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.  A few years ago, I got into a discussion about the Seventh-day Adventism with a co-worker (as I described in this post here).  She asked me if I was interested in this book and I said, sure.  I’m not particularly sympathetic to the beliefs of Seventh-day Adventism, but I sometimes like to imagine myself as an omnivorous reader, devouring everything on religion and philosophy whether I agree with it or not. I’m not this kind of reader--I’m a very slow reader who only does a handful of books a year--but I like to imagine I’m this kind of reader.  She gave me this book, and after flipping through it, and having it sit on my shelves for several weeks, I realized I was never going to read it.  I tried several times to return it to her, but she kept telling me to keep it until I had finished reading it.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin	I got this book at a white elephant gift exchange at work several years ago, so I didn’t waste any money on it.  It’s a classic that I really should read some day, but the version that I was given didn’t have any notes or explanations, and looked like it may have even been abridged.  So I’ll try to track down a better edition someday.
The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it, and am ready to give it away.
The Intellectuals and the Masses by John Carey	I read this, and enjoyed it.  I am parting with it with some reluctance since my blogging buddy Whisky Prajer personally went through the trouble of mailing it out to me from his own collection.  But what can you do?  You can’t take everything with you when you move?  And the good news is that I’ve found a good home for it, so now someone else will be able to enjoy it.
The Histories by Herodotus	Already read.  I got my money’s worth out of it. I do plan on rereading Herodotus one day.  (There’s so much in this book, and I think only a little bit of it went into my longterm memory).  But I think it’ll be good to explore different translations if and when I do revisit this.  So I’m ready to give this away.
The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan	Already read it.  I was hoping to hang on to this book, since I think it will be a good companion for whenever I get around to reading Thucydides.  (I do plan to read Thucydides someday.)  But I can’t take everything with me, so I’ll just have to try to track this book down again later.
Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction by Lawrence Boadt	Already read it. Another book that I was hoping to hang on to, since I was planning on using this book as a companion to my ongoing read-through of the Old Testament.  (Even though I’ve already read it, I was planning on revisiting the relevant sections as I read through the books of the Bible.)  But I can’t take everything with me, so it has to go.   I may try to track it down again someday.  Or, maybe I’ll see if I can find another good scholarly commentary on the Bible.
Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson	This book was given to me by a coworker, so I didn’t waste any money on it.  I do like Bill Bryson, but I’m not particularly gutted about not getting around to this particular book.  Maybe I’ll track it down again someday.

Linguistics / Language Teaching

Linguistics by H.G. Widdowson	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
How to Teach Grammar by Scott Thornbury	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
Linking Teacher Evaluation and Student Learning by Pamela D. Tucker & James Stronge	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
English Phonetics and Phonology by Peter Roach	I already read it, and reviewed it, so I’m ready to get rid of it.  Some sentimental attachment to this book because I’ve been carrying it around with me since graduate school.  But you can’t take everything with you.
Focus on the Language Learner by Elaine Tarone and George Yule	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
Learning One-to-One by Ingrid Wisniewska	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled. I already read it and reviewed it, so I’m ready to move on.
A Course in Phonetics by Peter Ladefoged	As with the phonetics book by Peter Roach, I bought this for a graduate course I did on Phonetics.  I used sections of it for my weekly course readings, but never read it cover to cover.  I’ve been meaning to read it cover to cover, but  after finishing Peter Roach, I kind of felt like I had done my reading in phonetics.
Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking by I.S.P. Nation and Jonathan Newton	This is another book I brought with me from Cambodia.  It’s a companion book to Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing by I.S.P. Nation, which I read back in my Cambodia days.  I found that book to be useful, so I fully intended to read the listening and speaking part too, but just never got around to it.
Children Learning English by Jayne Moon	I started and then abandoned this book.  The past few years I haven’t been teaching children, so at the moment it’s not a priority for me.
Teaching English to Children by Wendy A. Scott and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg	This was a useful book for me on Delta Module 3, but I never really had any intention of reading it cover to cover.
Teaching Collocation edited by Michael Lewis	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
Applied Linguistics by Guy Cook	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
Teaching Vocabulary by I.S.P. Nation	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
Teaching Languages to Young Learners by Lynne Cameron	This was a useful book for me on Delta Module 3, but I never really had any intention of reading it cover to cover.
Once Upon a Time: Using Stories in the Language Classroom by John Morgan and Mario Rinvolucri	There was a time when I was intending to try to focus on Storytelling in ESL, during which time this might have been a useful book.  But I never got around to it, and now my focus has shifted anyway.
Assessing Young Language Learners by Penny McKay	Started and then abandoned. This was a useful book for me on Delta Module 3, but once I finished Module 3, there was no need for me to read it cover to cover.
Exploring Grammar in Context by Ronald Carter, Rebecca Hughes and Michael McCarthy	This book was recommended to me by my tutor for Delta Module 1.  I had a copy printed at a print shop in Cambodia, but never read it cover to cover at the time.  I brought it to Vietnam with the intention of reading it, but never got around to it.
Writing with Power by Peter Elbow	A colleague in Cambodia gave me this book.  He used it to teach writing to his ESL students, and thus he considered it a TESOL methodology book.  Although the book itself looked like it was a general writing advice book.  I’ve always been meaning to get around to it.  (Either to help me in my teaching of writing, or to improve my own writing.)  But, alas, I never got around to it.
Easy Guide to Grammar by Arianna Martinez	A colleague gave me this book when she was leaving Vietnam.  “You’re interested in grammar,” she said to me.  “You’ll find this book useful.”  I regret that I never got around to it.
The Linguistics Wars by Randy Allen Harris (first edition)	I read this book, got my money’s worth out of it, and am happy to give it away now.  (This is the first edition of this book.  The 2nd edition, which was a gift from the author himself, I donated to my university library after I finished it, which will hopefully allow other people to discover this book.)
The Power of Babel by John McWhorter	When my local bookstore accidentally overcharged me on my order of The Linguistic Wars, they gave me store credit to pick out one more book.  I thought I’d get another book on linguistics, but one that looked like light reading.  This looked like it fit the bill, but unfortunately, I never got around to reading it.
Second Language Acquisition by Susan M. Gass and Larry Selinker	This is now the second time I’ve had this book in my possession, and gotten rid of it.  I bought a copy of it when I was at the University of Melbourne, because it was on the syllabus as assigned reading before the professor changed his mind and assigned Lourdes Ortega instead.  But the Gass and Selinker book looked readable, and so I always meant to track it down and read it someday.  Surprisingly enough, I found a copy of this book one day on Book Street here in Vietnam, and bought it.  But then, unfortunately, never got around to actually reading it.
Chomsky’s Universal Grammar by V.J. Cook and Mark Newson	After many years, I did finally finish this book.  It was a hard slog, but I finally got there.  As I mentioned in this review, I’ve been carrying this book around with me since 2009, so I feel some sentimental attachment to it, but I am most definitely never going to revisit this book, so it is time to get rid of it.
Teaching Speaking by Christine C.M. Goh and Anne Burns	As I mentioned in my video on this book, I started it and stopped it multiple times over the years, and never could get all the way through it.  If I had remained in Vietnam, I might have returned to it someday, but now that I’m leaving, it’s time to let it go.
The Grammar Book by Mariane Celce Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman	Another book which I started and stopped several times over the years.  And as I mentioned in the last video I did on this book, I was still holding out the possibility that I might return to it someday.  But now that I’m leaving the country, it’s time to say goodbye to this book.  Looks like I’m not going to finish it after all.
English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy	These two books I never intended to read cover to cover.  They are exercise books for the students, but I’ve found them very useful in terms of finding controlled practice exercises for my students.
Advanced Grammar in Use by Martin Hewings
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language by David Crystal	I started and then abandoned this book.  I already went through all my reasons for abandoning it in the video, so I guess I don’t need to rehash them here.  As I said in the video, I was still thinking about returning to this book someday, but now that I’m leaving the country, it’s time to give it up.
Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom by Tricia Hedges	There’s a funny little irony behind my acquisition of this book.  Before I started Delta Module 2, the center in Chiang Mai sent out a list of recommended reading.   This book by Tricia Hedges was the one mandatory book on the list (everything else was optional.)   I searched my school library for this book, but couldn’t find it.  I searched my school’s electronic library for this book, but couldn’t find it.  I searched the Internet for this book, but couldn’t find it.  (Usually you can find these books somewhere on the Internet, but this one was impossible to find.)  My manager, who is somewhat better at tracking down books online, even tried to help me, but he couldn’t find it either. So, I never did read it.  (And managed to pass Delta  Module 2 anyway!)  But then, after I had already finished the Delta, I was transferred to the teacher training center at my school, and they had several copies on their shelves just sitting there! So, after the teacher training center got shut down, I grabbed a copy.  I no longer needed it for the Delta, but it still looked like it would be useful professional development, and besides it looked like it was very readable. But I never got around to it. I have, however, managed to pass this book off to a co-worker who is currently doing the Delta, so hopefully he’ll find it useful.
The Study of Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis	Another book I picked up when the teacher training center got shut down.  An absolutely massive book, it looked like it did a pretty good job of surveying the history of the research on second language acquisition.  I wanted to read it because I was sure I would learn a lot from it, but I never got around to it.
The Practice of English Language Teaching by Jeremy Harmer	I picked this up for free when the library at the old training center was being dismantled.  If I had had the time to read it, it probably would have helped in my professional development. But I don’t have a particular emotional attachment to it.
Linguistic Imperialism by Robert Phillipson	Another book I picked up from my old school.  I’m not sure how useful this would have been to my day to day teaching, but it’s a polemical book that I’m sure I could have gotten a lot of discussion out of on a review.  (Although I never got around to reading this book, I did read a book by Sandra Lee McKay which discussed this book.)
Practical English Usage by Michael Swan	This was another book I brought with me from Cambodia.  It’s meant to be a reference book, although at one point I did try to go through this book systematically using quizlet.
Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener	I’ve had a few different versions of this book over the years.  I bought my first copy in Australia, which I took with me to Cambodia, where I read it for the first time.  I had to leave that copy behind in Cambodia, but I picked up another copy here in Vietnam when I decided to reread it.

Learning Vietnamese

Tiếng Việt 123: Vietnamese for Beginner	Started and abandoned this book.  I’m not coming back to it anytime soon, so I'm happy to give it away.
Vietnamese Stories for Language Learners by Tri C. Tran and Tram Le	Started and abandoned this book.I ’m not coming back to it anytime soon, so I’m happy to give it away.

Learning Japanese

Kanji & Kana by Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn	I bought this book during my first year in Japan all the way back in 2001, so of all the books I’m getting rid of, this one has been with me the longest.  And consequently has a lot of nostalgia for me.  I used to use this as one of my core textbooks back when I was actively studying Japanese.  It’s actually meant to be more of a reference book, but I tried to go through systematically and memorize all the kanji page by page.  (I never made it through the whole book.)  It’s been a long time now since I left Japan, but for several years I tried to keep up my Japanese a little bit, and so kept this book with me.  But now it’s time to admit to myself that I’m probably not going to study Japanese again.  (Or if I do, I’ll probably study online with the duolingo course or something.)
Read Real Japanese edited by Janet Ashby	Another book from my Japanese days, although this one I picked up near the end of my time in Japan--around 2007 or 2008, I think.  As with above, now that I am admitting to myself that I am not coming back to Japanese anytime soon, it’s time to get rid of this one.
Bible Stories by Nina Wegner and Mayumi Ushibara	Bible stories in English and Japanese.  I’ve used Bible stories to practice Japanese in the past.  (In theory, the fact that I’m already familiar with the context of the stories should make it easier to read it in a foreign language).  But, like the two books above, I’m getting rid of this one, because I’m not returning to Japanese studies anytime soon.