How many books do you have to your name?

Nagikami

^^^ Exactly as it says there. I was just wondering if the majority of people actually collect books, or just buy it, read it and send it to a charity shop or what?

Nagikami

Sorry I meant to post this in the Literature forum

gigawatt

I used to be a big collector of books and at one time had 100's of them. I've moved house several times over the last few years and they were nothing but a pain in the a**e to move so I gave the majority of them away to friends and charity shops. ive kept about 50 mostly unread novels and cookery books. i'd always hang on to the cookery books.

Nagikami

Would you have kept them if you had stayed in the same house?

the west wing

At the moment I would have about 300. I would have more but my family go crazy as I have books all over the house! Last summer I gave about 100 books away to a nearby charity shop as my sister told me that she was sick of my books and so for every book I bought I had to give one away. Needless to say I didn't stick to that rule for very long and in the last 3 months have bought about 30! (It's an addiction!)

Nagikami

I think I know that feeling My parents used to be like that because it's almost impossible to move in my room because of the books The problem is once you've had book for ages you don't want to get rid of it because you want to read it again and it has sentimental value Well that's the case for me anyways

the west wing

My major problem is that a lot of my books are about American history and politics and I don't want to give them away, because as a collection, I think they are important. Also I know as the years go on I'll keep adding to them (God bless American Presidential elections) so I want to build up an impressive collection.

Nagikami

It's hard to get rid of books you enjoy (also to intimidate any guests eho come into your house =D) My collection's mostly novels (science-fiction and fantasy mainly) but I do have a few books on Roman history and I find it hard to get rid of those because I always think "It's history! I should be treasuring these books"

donal_cam

I've about 170-180 books. Mostly politics (current affairs and political theory), history and social affairs (things like economics). Drives the family crazy. On a sidenote, I'm not too bad compared to an ex's father- he had so many books, they needed to put up shelves in the bloody toilet to make room for all of them. Strange bloke he was.

emeraldstar

Nagikami wrote: »

^^^ Exactly as it says there. I was just wondering if the majority of people actually collect books, or just buy it, read it and send it to a charity shop or what?

I'd say heading for a couple of thousand books

Paddy Samurai

About 450+ at the moment,about half of them are hardback/trade format ,so they take up alot of space .I did a big clearout about a year ago as I was running out of storage space.Gave most to charity and a few to work colleagues. The ones I was'nt sure about I gave to my son telling him "These will be well worth reading when your older".Then I bought him a new Ikea book unit for his room;).
I think my wife might be on to me,so lets keep this between ourselves.

Nagikami

emeraldstar wrote: »

I'd say heading for a couple of thousand books

A couple of thousand? I'm impressed Where do you find the find the space to put them?

Paddy Samurai wrote: »

About 450+ at the moment,about half of them are hardback/trade format ,so they take up alot of space .I did a big clearout about a year ago as I was running out of storage space.Gave most to charity and a few to work colleagues. The ones I was'nt sure about I gave to my son telling him "These will be well worth reading when your older".Then I bought him a new Ikea book unit for his room;).
I think my wife might be on to me,so lets keep this between ourselves.

Haha I might use this trick. I just need to find a small child somewhere

KnifeWRENCH

I keep buying them. Have a huge stockpile of books in my bedroom I haven't read yet, and I just know I'll have bought more by the time I get around to them. Don't know how many yet, but at least 50 anyway (which is quite a lot considering I only really started reading as a hobby about a year or two ago.)

Damn you 3 for 2 offer at Waterstones! :mad::p

username123

Ive maybe 3000 or more. My entire place is bookcased floor to ceiling, Ive actually got no space left for more bookcasing so may have to cull some one day.

emeraldstar

Nagikami wrote: »

A couple of thousand? I'm impressed Where do you find the find the space to put them?

My sitting room, bedroom, drawer under my bed, at least 50 piled around my desk in work; in my parents' house my old room, where they spill out into the hall into a couple more bookshelves, the spare room, sitting room, and usually a few in everyone else's bedroom. In a house share at the moment, but when I have my own house I intend to have a library so I can't throw any away (not that I want to). My parents probably hate me though!

sunshine rose

I have near 500, I'd say. Every so often I have a clear out and give some to charity but I only gave away books that I didn't really enjoy and know that I wouldn't read them again. I've a bookcase in my room and wardrobe but the rest are in the attic:( I rotate them all though:pac:

Nagikami

KnifeWRENCH wrote: »

Damn you 3 for 2 offer at Waterstones!

I think we've all fallen for that trap =D They just look so much more appealling when they're on sale

username123 wrote: »

Ive maybe 3000 or more. My entire place is bookcased floor to ceiling, Ive actually got no space left for more bookcasing so may have to cull some one day.

Or.... you could convert your bedroom into a library =D Just take out the bed and replace it with a couple more bookshelves

grocklecat

lightweights the lot of you!

a couple of years ago i did a major book cull and cut them down to under 4,000.
plenty more have passed through my hands since then, and some have stayed, but there's still room to squeeze a couple more in somewhere...

Autosport

A few thousand books i'd say and I add to it every week, and as my habit became so bad i went and bought myself a large garden shed and that has become my library. It has bookselves floor to ceiling and its just about full Everyone keeps telling me they're going to hold a booksale and sell my books but i'd kill anyone if they touched them. They're my babies i mean books

eskimocat

After a recent cull I would say I have about 700, but with plenty room on the shelves for more now where to find the cash to get them... all book tokens gratefully accepted... Birthday, Christmas, Mondays, Tuesdays... thankfully my family have the picture now... Ah the power to walk into a bookshop with a book token.... LOVE IT

Sergeant

The missus and I went travelling a few months ago, and packed up the books we had. Came to about 1200 between the two of us, all gathering dust in an attic in Galway.

Have a Kindle for travelling - amazing, much lighter to carry around - but not the same as having a physical copy of a book.

Monkeybonkers

I have thousands of books. Keep them in my local library so no need to take up any space in the house

Reekwind

I've built up a decant enough collection over the last 3-4 years. Nothing compared to some in this thread, but then I'm still in early days. Not counting fiction, which I don't keep track of, I've got at least 100 history books on my shelves. Plus probably another two dozen works on current affairs or political theory. I'm constantly referencing all these so most of the books are piled up in little stacks; you could probably use these to map my though processes for the past few months

whydoibother?

I only own about 20. They would be a combination of textbooks and language books. I'm a big fan of libraries. I never read fiction twice. For me the only reason to keep a book is if I want it for reference.

I interpreted the thread title as "how many books have you written?" initially. I thought boardsies must be a fairly high-brow bunch!:pac:

Caros

Used to have hundreds and hundreds but moving house 7 times in 8 years put paid to that and I gave away most to friends/charity shops. Had I stayed in my original house I would have kept them all as I did in the 12 years I lived there. Kept all my cookery books though, and a copy of Little Women by Louisa M Alcott I got when I was 11, (a long, long while ago now!) - 1973.

The Princess Bride

Have a few hundred between moi,OH and our babies,have a Kindle which is great but I will always buy my favourite author's books- nothing compares with the feel and smell of a new book being opened for the 1st time.:)

Nagikami

whydoibother? wrote: »

I interpreted the thread title as "how many books have you written?" initially. I thought boardsies must be a fairly high-brow bunch!:pac:

Oh well if we're talking about written... about 73 (Including the Bible) =D

msthe80s wrote: »

nothing compares with the feel and smell of a new book being opened for the 1st time.:)

Or the second... Or the third...

Manach

6403.

DazMarz

Between 400 and 500 I'd say. I can never bear to part with a book I own, cos I might someday wanna re-read it...

Monkeybonkers

Nagikami wrote: »

Oh well if we're talking about written... about 73 (Including the Bible) =D

You wrote the Bible?

Nagikami

Monkeybonkers wrote: »

You wrote the Bible?

Well I don't like to boast but yeah...

Cat Melodeon

Well over 3000, although it's a combined collection (me & hubby). We both love to read, love scouring markets and second hand shops for interesting buys. We've about 50 rare books or first editions, they are precious. The rest are a mix of hardbacks and paperbacks and I can't get rid of anything I buy when travelling as it always brings back a memory of where and when I read it. I love art/photography hardbacks and anything by Taschen - they'd be less about the read than the art of the book itself - and we both have heaps of books relating to our work, as well as the standard fiction & biographies. We go through them every year and evict the trashier stuff. Even our little boy (2) has a shelf with over 60 books on it (most 2nd-hand), hopefully he'll get the reading bug too! We've moved house twice with that lot, really looking forward to the day when we have a permanent home and they can all move from stacks and boxes onto lovely shelves!

x_Ellie_x

Right now, I have exactly 201 books in my home, 39 of which I haven't read yet. They are mostly all fiction. I had well over 800 at one point but a year ago I donated most of them to the local secondary school and threw away the ones that I'd re-read so many times that they were falling apart.

Toby Take a Bow

200? 300? Around 30 of them I haven't read yet. I stopped myself buying ANY books when I was made redundant earlier in the year (and have largely stuck to that) and I'm actually enjoying going through my to-read pile. I'll only give away a book if I'm fairly sure I'll never read it again or if I wasn't particularly mad about it. Have a few interesting first editions/proofs/signed books that I treasure.

Emiko

About 5.

I always give them to charity stores when I'm done.

I move around the world a bit, and couldn't be bothered horsing them around.

LenaClaire

I had over 1200 but then I moved internationally and sold probably 900 of them. I think I have a couple hundred now here and maybe 100 in my dad's basement and have recently bought a kindle and already have about 200 on that.

Kiva.D

My bookshelves overflow - 500 books would be a rough estimate.
Probably only read half, if that...

smilerxxx

I'm going on the 200 mark and getting very upset my shelves are being used as the local library. No return but no fines ARrghh. My father had a beautiful book case built for me which i will treasure for life. It's filled with fiction non-fiction crime and fantasy. Also my academic subject. Collection of 15 and only finished first year. .Mature student :-)

Denerick

I think its around 750. I inherited my grandfathers collection of books after his passing. There are some gems among them but they are quite eclectic, some really strange 19th century travel books, some old penny dreadfuls, and then in the middle of them all you'll find a collection of Kipling's verse or one of Macauly's great histories.

I'd say that around 550 are his and the rest are mine, acquired over the last 5 or 6 years.

Morlar

I'd say at this point less than 4 hundred physical books and another 150 or so .pdf research titles.

I had a major cull about 2 or 3 years ago and cut the numbers in half. Of this 90% went to charity shops and 10% were sold. Mostly these were old fiction titles.

I find it's easy to lose heaps of books moving house/country down through the years.

Currently I have about 10 titles I need to either finish or start and another 7 ordered from niche military publishers and booksellers in the states.

I have a list that I will buy whenever they are available at a good price as a lot of WW2 specialist research titles are obscure and almost instantly out of print due to the small print run. Other than that no plans to buy more for the moment.

the west wing

Well I just started using librarything.com, which is an online catalogue that anyone can use to keep track of books they own. I've just finished cataloguing the books that are in my bedroom and that comes to 195 books. I've more in other parts of the house that I'll catalogue soon. If anyone is interested here is the list: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/thewestwing

flyaway.

According to my Goodreads, I own 276 books but I know there are probably 50 or so that I haven't cataloged yet. My girlfriend has 1379.

Travel is good

the west wing wrote: »

Well I just started using librarything.com, which is an online catalogue that anyone can use to keep track of books they own. I've just finished cataloguing the books that are in my bedroom and that comes to 195 books. I've more in other parts of the house that I'll catalogue soon. If anyone is interested here is the list: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/thewestwing

Wow, what a collection! Well done! I really can't imagine what subject you are interested in...LOL.

I just recently joined Good Reads. I had a look at Library Thing & might join up. Some of the people there have the same eclectic range of books as me, so sounds good.

I thought I had about 400 books or so, but I've given a lot away through Book Crossing www.bookcrossing.com

Though I have purchased a lot of books over the last two months or so from The Book Depository. I keep telling myself I'm saving money because of all the wonderful discount codes!

I think I have a book buying addiction......

the west wing

What I found great about Librarything was that I was given a present of a bar code scanner, so I could scan in all my books without having to type them in individually. If you do decide to set up an account on Librarything, I can give you a lend of my scanner and that would make it easier for you!

Travel is good

Thanks, you are on the ball!

Don't worry too much about the scanner, I imagine it will take me ages to register the books. It took me a long time to register them on Book Crossing too, and I don't have them all done.

What a nice present for someone to give you, the scanner sounds useful.

the west wing

Travel is good wrote: »

Thanks, you are on the ball!

Don't worry too much about the scanner, I imagine it will take me ages to register the books. It took me a long time to register them on Book Crossing too, and I don't have them all done.

What a nice present for someone to give you, the scanner sounds useful.

That's why the scanner is so useful. Once you scan the barcode it automatically uploads the book into your library and you can move on and scan the next one. I managed to scan all my books in one night!

Travel is good

I might purchase one of those magical machines so...

You know how long it takes me to adapt to technology!

Have a happy summer's reading!

Censorsh!t

I think I have 200+, and growing like mad. I have to tear myself away from bookstores when in town. I'm still young so expect this number to get a lit bigger. I'm fierce sentimental about books and can't stand if someone doesn't return one or loses one.

Travel is good

Censorsh!t wrote: »

I'm fierce sentimental about books and can't stand if someone doesn't return one or loses one.

Do you feel you have to keep your books? I'm starting to come to the realisation that I may never get a chance to read all of the books I own. So I'm giving most of them away. I take a note of the ones I haven't read, and I can follow them up later, maybe by sourcing them in the library.

I still have a sizeable collection though.

gutenberg

Far far far too many... and yet not enough

I have one 6-shelf bookcase packed to bursting, and an old chest that is also full of them. I love history books, and as they can be expensive I'm loathe to part with them- plus I always manage to convince myself that it'll be useful for some future course/research...

I also have to hold onto novels I loved, which is a problem as I have so many favourites... I'm a hugely sentimental book hoarder

Censorsh!t

Travel is good wrote: »

Do you feel you have to keep your books? I'm starting to come to the realisation that I may never get a chance to read all of the books I own. So I'm giving most of them away. I take a note of the ones I haven't read, and I can follow them up later, maybe by sourcing them in the library.

I still have a sizeable collection though.

I keep those that I haven't read and those that I have read but may want to read again.
I love a room full of books, my room would be very empty without... I'd have a lot more space though!