# How bookish is your house? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 19, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bookish-is-your-house/419741 "2007-09-19T14:18:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bookish-is-your-house/419741/61 "2007-09-20T19:10:06Z")
Missed the edit window. _The New Yorker_ had a cartoon a few years ago with a real-estate agent showing a house with lots of built-in bookshelves to a couple who were just baffled. Books? Who reads books nowadays? :rolleyes: In my dream house, I’d have a library big enough to warrant one of those ladders on rollers, and a spiral staircase, and a blazing fireplace, and a few discreet statues and paintings, a state-of-the-art sound system, and big overstuffed green-leather chairs with adjustible lights. Mmmmmmmmmm. Books, books, books. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bookish-is-your-house/419741/62 "2007-09-20T19:32:38Z")
When I was listing our books, by the way, I was stopping at 50 only because that was the upper limit given in the OP. We probably have 500-1000 in the bedroom, over 500 in MilliCal’s room, 500 in the den, 200 or so in the living room. I don’t even want to try to estimate what’s in the front room downstairs. There are six floor-to-ceiling bookcases, two smaller cases, and a few piled on tables. Several shelves in those florr-to-ceilings are packed two rows deep, with others on top. The back room downstairs has two floor-to-ceilings and a smaller one. There are maybe 10,000 in the two rooms. And that’s not counting the attic. Yeah, we’re a bookish house. ---
**Author:** ![Most\_Creative\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Most\_Creative\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Most_Creative_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bookish-is-your-house/419741/63 "2007-09-20T20:05:58Z")
Not in every room in the house. I have a ton of books in the living and bedroom. Cookbooks in the kitchen. No books in the bathroom though. I dream of having a library of sorts someday. A room filled with all of my books. An oversided chair and ottoman to sit and read. In my dream house. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Point\_No\_Point](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@Point\_No\_Point](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Point_No_Point)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bookish-is-your-house/419741/64 "2007-09-20T21:43:04Z")
I used to have many hundreds of books, but one time I just decided to chuck all but the most memorable. Gave them to the local library, who wanted NONE for their own use, despite most having been read exactly once. This was an eye opener. When they are sold by the bag for so much a pound, you have to admit that they are not that impressive. So now I have maybe a few dozen total of the ones I actually refer back to, foreign dictionaries and atlases (which are becoming obsolete as I usually look things up online) and a dozen kept for sentimental reasons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bookish-is-your-house/419741.md?page=3)