Quantity of books

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Started 8 months ago by Charity
Latest reply from MTNgirl
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Charity
Member

I just did a quick count, out of curiosity, and I personally seem to have over 700 books. I hadn't realised it added up to quite so many! DH has about 10, he doesn't read although has recently got into audiobooks. The kids must have another couple of hundred between them both.

How many do your households have?

I've been working hard to reduce mine, honestly I have! But at a rate of 2 or 3 a week it's not making much of a dent. I think I will try to be more ruthless. If I can free up a whole Billy bookcase, then it could go into DD's bedroom to stop us double-rowing her books on her little cubey Ikea unit thingy. then I could use the cubes for toys and move a toy unit into DS's room. Then I could use his current toy shelves for books and get rid of his bookshelf, which is one that leans against the walls and displays books covers out. He recognises his favourites by the spines now (he is 3.5) and it is a very inefficient way to store books.

SO, please hold me to it and nag me on ATAD if you don't see many books :)

PS I suspect my late father's books may come to me fairly soon as we had the same taste. That must be 500 or so.

Posted 8 months ago #
MTNgirl
Member

I have about 100 including reference and cookbooks and not including my husbands. Last year I probably had closer to 350 to 400, I have been ruthless getting rid of books I know I won't read and ones I want to read then get rid of. A couple of weeks ago, my daughter decluttered a whole bookcase of books! She now has one small bookcase of books and part of a shelf in my bookcase.

I repurpose empty bookcases to other uses too! I love re-organizing!

Good luck!

Posted 8 months ago #
Charity
Member

ooh I forgot to count cookbooks, knitting books and books for work, as they are stored elsewhere.

Posted 8 months ago #
lucy1965
Member

Charity, I've just ducked into the other room and counted; it's under 200, which I would never have believed possible a year ago. (The books stored on various Nooks around the house, however --)

Posted 8 months ago #
Charity
Member

I think I will get a kindle, maybe for Xmas.

Posted 8 months ago #
Zora
Member

Um, 2000 or so? That's dead tree books. I must have twice as many on my computer.

Posted 8 months ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

It's liberating to get rid of books. That's all I'm sayin' :)

Posted 8 months ago #
MTNgirl
Member

I did not count my kindle books, but I have around 50 I will keep. The others I bought for free, will read and delete, unless it is really good.

Posted 8 months ago #
Zora
Member

Um, 2000 or so? That's dead tree books. I must have twice as many on my computer.

Posted 8 months ago #
lottielot
Member

I'd guesstimate 1000 or 1500 or so, but less than 200 of those would be mine including textbooks/cookbooks/arty books. Dh is the real problem, I chuck out anything I won't reread or think ds1 will read in the future, dh NEVER chucks them out. Occasionally I sneak some out I think he won't miss, but he gets cross if he finds out. This is despite him never rereading a single book in the 20 years I've known him. We are drowning in books with no built in bookshelves, just ones squeezed into spare corners in our very small rooms. Luckily dh buys Kindle books mostly now...
Oh, just realised ds1 and ds2 count as well, they probably have 200 each. Maybe we have 2000? At least they actually use and reread theirs constantly though, and you can't read picture books electronically! There are also lots not available on the Kindle, we just started Pippi Longstocking and I bought it secondhand.

Posted 8 months ago #
ojorojo
Member

Over 20 years ago I sent over 200 paperbacks to a prison as a donation. In the past year and a half I've mailed out that many to folks requesting books from me though paperbackswap!
In other words I'm not going to harangue you to get rid of your books but I would advise to go through then and see if you have duplicates and outdated reference books which would probably not be any good to you nowadays.
I don't think the problem is in the quantity but rather in just being used to having regardless of whether the books still matter or
If you're just keeping some due to "someday I'll read it" guilt.
As for kids I think you need to encourage them to become lifelong readers and their own books may do that.
I havent counted but I'm guessing over 500? Lately I've been trying to keep them confined to 1 large and 2 slim bookscases which is where paperbackswap comes in handy

Posted 8 months ago #
luxcat
Member

I have not counted but I would say around 400 or so at least, perhaps more. I have three large full bookcases (organized by author and no duplicates) and one half of a closet full. That does include reference books for work, which make up maybe 20. I have a moratorium on incoming books right now, ebooks and library only, at least until we move and I can see what sort of storage space I have for books. I am a bit of a book hoarder but I don't keep anything that I do not re-read or reference.

Posted 8 months ago #
Rosa
Member

Too many. I'm not going to count. We have 10 linear feet of bookshelf on the ground floor, full, and a paperback shelf that holds about 120 books, plus 4 banker boxes of kids books - two of picture books, two of chapter books. I rotate so there's only one of each available at a time, and weed when we rotate.

In fact we went and bought a "level 3" I Can Read book today, because my son is feeling like he's mastered the level 2s. Getting to buy more books is his reward for reading what he has, just like me.

I am pretty proud of reducing my tbr pile from about 30 to about 12, over the last year; i haven't quite achieved "no buying books until you read what you have" but I'm making progress.

Posted 8 months ago #
lottielot
Member

I read a lot more now I have my Kindle, no more guilt on taking up space! I've been trying hard to borrow and return library books too, but half the time the books I borrow are so SMELLY! What do people do with these books? They're usually quite new, but I get ones which stink of smoke, one stank of mothballs, one smelt of perfume, another smelt of kitchen cleaner, yuck. Honestly, I cannot enjoy a book if I have to hold it so far from my nose I can't read it! In future I am going to open up library books and give em a good sniff before borrowing!

Posted 8 months ago #
Ella
Member

I have nine bookcases full of beloved books, five of them in my hallway:

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1916/july24hall.jpg

I'm a semi-retired designer of art books and editor of cookbooks and literature, and a lifelong bibliophile. After my master's, I did an extra year of graduate study in the book arts (fine printing, binding, typography). I'm naturally attracted to friends and colleagues who are also book lovers, and we enjoy perusing one another's personal libraries. I even have books about the pleasures of book collecting.

That being said though, I can certainly sympathize with your uneasiness about owning too many books, Charity... and I will cheer you on as you rid yourself of the unwanted volumes. Until joining this forum, I wouldn't have been able to understand that not everyone adores books as my friends and I do. But reading here has been an education, and now I understand that many people may feel oppressed by the numbers of books cluttering and crowding their homes. If a book no longer serves you and enriches your life, by all means pass it on to someone else or recycle it. Books should bring us pleasure, not suffering! :)

Posted 8 months ago #
herisff
Member

I have around 200 or so. Since I'm a bookworm who used to have 5 bookcases with each row double-stacked, I have obviously changed my criteria for keeping them. Nowadays I only keep books that I *know* I re-read, or are reference (cookbooks, health, etc.). Nowadays I'm converting re-readable books over to Nook format and either donating the hard copies to the library or swapping on PaperBackSwap (I have so much credit, though, that I'm going back to donating). Of course, I've probably got about 50 in my TBR pile right now, since I've been researching life on the road and have been ignoring the piles around the house. It's getting to the point where I can't take the mess any more, though, so it's back to decluttering again.

And as for how many are on my Nook now - of purchased books probably around 100 or so, with many many many library books either currently reading, to be read, or been read and will be deleted. I love the Nook's ability to borrow from the library ;-)

Posted 8 months ago #
jbeany
Member

Huh - just counted everything, including text and reference books. 350 on the nose, oddly enough. At least 105 of those are ones I haven't read yet, so they may or may not stay, but most of them will likely go. I pass them on to friends and family, or put them on bookswap. (I didn't count the box of books I have already posted on the swap site. When it gets full, I take out the 10 that have been posted the longest and donate them anyhow, so those are already gone as far as I'm concerned, one way or the other.)
Over 100 unread! Geez, I need to stay out of the book sections at the thrift stores - I clearly don't need anymore reading material. Maybe knowing that number will help me resist temptation.

Posted 8 months ago #
susanintexas
Member

I'm beyond counting -- we have 40+ shelves of books, and this is considerably pared down from what it once was. One of my more immediate goals is to eliminate the need for one of the shelves in my home office, which I should be able to achieve next month if not sooner.

What I know I need to do is complete some projects and make some decisions.

In the project arena, I have a shelf of books -- about 30, I would guess -- that are references for a book I am writing. Get the book done and the books can leave my home. In the "make a decision" arena -- I have about 15 books of quotations. I suspect they can go, although they have been with me a long time. And a lot of the cookbooks. Most of the grammar and style guides.

I do re-read fiction and a lot of it isn't available electronically yet. None of the Angela Thirkells, only two of EF Benson's "Lucia" books, only one of the elegant Peter Dickinson mysteries, not all of the Dorothy L. Sayers -- they will clearly stay on the shelves.

I think my fear is that I will reluctantly get rid of most of my books and the shelves will still be filled with DH's trashy thrillers :)

Posted 8 months ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

Ella, I think your bookcases and how they are arranged looks gorgeous.

Posted 8 months ago #
Emilie
Member

I think I have around 200. Although I have a bunch of things on my shelves that aren't actually books, like notebooks and zines. If they're in my book space though, they get counted. Like Ella (although my shelves don't look as good as hers!) I don't consider my books to be one of my clutter issues, seeing as they mostly stay on their shelves and I try to stick to one in/one out. I never know where to put library books, though. They usually end up sitting on my desk, where they're sort of in the way.

Posted 8 months ago #

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