Quite simple, really. How many books are in your personal library? Bonus points if you actually count them or otherwise keep track of them in a catalog of some form that provides you with the actual number. But “more or less” guesses are also welcome.
For the purposes of this poll, I refer only to physical books made of actual paper. Anybody can download thousands of books they’ll never read. Those of us who keep paper ones are a dying breed, or so they’ve been telling us.
I imagine people who hang out on the SDMB are more likely than the average person on the street to read a lot of books, own a lot of books and quite probably own a lot of physical books. So let’s find out whose libraries to envy!
I just did a count of my own as I was curious - 498, plus two on the way will make a nice even 500. The average non-reader will probably think that astoundingly large but it’s really quite small as I know a couple of people who have personal libraries somewhere around the 10,000 mark. :eek:
Ahh, your username suits you perfectly!
I used to have upwards of 400 books, but began paring them down and donating to the library. I needed room and I figured I can always check them out from the library to read again. I still have some books but maybe around 40 - 50 now, and of course the Nook which you aren’t counting.
250-500 range seems about right to me. That small because many books I have owned in the past have been sold or given away, and because my reading for the past 8 or 10 years has been almost exclusively ebooks.
Currently only 50-100, I think. I don’t have space for more, really, and I’ve been forced to cut down even more lately, as I’m moving house and my current bookshelf’s not going to fit. I’ve had to compromise, and go for ebooks where possible.
My Great Uncle’s in the 10,000+ range though; floor to ceiling bookshelves in every room bar the bathroom and kitchen, and about 3/4 of the collection is out on loan at any one time. I tend to borrow off him, rather than buy, unless I know I’ll want to reread a lot.
About twenty lineal feet on the shelves so I’m guessing 200-300, plus another 500 on my Kindle.
One of the reasons I got out of the navy was because the amount of stuff they will move for you depends on your rank and my collection was growing faster than I was being promoted.
I have 2,008 books catalogued on LibraryThing. About 10 or 15 of those are audio books or e-books or books I don’t actually own, bringing the total to just below 2,000. But I have probably 200-300 more books packed up in boxes in the attic that I have not yet catalogued.
I chose 1000-2500, but then did a calculation. We have about 300’ of bookshelf space filled with books (some are filled with CDs and DVDs) so that might mean 3000 books. Then there are piles by my bed and me wife’s that must total 100 (including what is on the bookshelf headboard). We have culling them too, taking to the local library and now to a recycling type store). Then I have at least another 100 in my office.
Mine is a total guess. We just moved, so everything is still boxed or was donated to the Friends of the Library. It was a great excuse to get rid of a lot of books that quite frankly were just collecting dust.
Between my phone, the laptop, the iPad, the three Kindles and the desktop I have plenty of other ways to read these days.
I’ve gotten nearly 2000 books out of my house in the last 5 years or I would have been in the 2500-5000 category. I hope to fall below 1000 before I move. No count or lists, though at one point I calculated that is was close to 4000. Since then almost 2000 donated and only about 100 came in. I’m getting better.
Just did a quick shelf average/guesstimate and it’s about 850, not including six boxes of paperbacks(cheap fiction) that are making their slow but inexorable way to Goodwill, and a shelf of cookbooks in the kitchen.
We actually have a spare bedroom that has bookshelves along two of the four wall, which we occasionally refer to as our ‘library’. There are have 511 books on the shelves in there right now. Adding in the 63 books on the shelf in the kitchen (cooking and other food-related books), the 123 books on the shelf in our son’s room, and the ones that are scattered about various rooms in the house, I come up with a total of 715.
I easily have 6000+ books now, but I gave away 4 pickup truckloads to the library book sale and the local schools 20 years ago, and have sold a few dozen on eBay. I don’t know how many that was, but my house has only finite space, and something had to give. Most of those I gave away had little relevance to me, and were from the family collection of the last 120 years.
It was hard to part with some. In sorting through the least-used stacks, I came across notes and clippings my parents had inserted, even some from grandparents, going back to the 1920’s - 1950’s. Very interesting to read, and see what their intellectual interests and concerns were back then.
Funny you should ask; I’ve been thinning the herd over the past year or so. Not counting fiction I’m waiting to read and pass along and some histories and technical references in the to-be-read pile I’m down to maybe 1000-1250 or so. My target is to get under 1000 by the end of the year. This is from a high say 10 years back of maybe 5-7k.
Maybe not. I doubt that my local library is an exception, and their mandate and announced policy is NOT to store, indefinitely, books of any kind. If they aren’t checked out often enough, they are discarded. In the reference section, if they aren’t current, they are tossed.
I have rescued some volumes from that fate, and now have, in my personal collection, some historical, locally significant items that came from the library, but are not available there now. Some day, they may want them back, when they find out how valuable and irreplaceable they are, and I plan to charge for my smart storage.
Some of our local historical societies are stepping in where the libraries are deficient. Our local library discards all original video material after one year, so does the local TV channel, and the historical societies are appalled.
I am also starting to whittle down my collection. Honestly, if I haven’t re-read it in 30-40 years I really should consider removing it from my collection. I used to donate to libraries but the problems with that have been noted. I am currently selling my used volumes to re-sellers. It’s slower, and while getting a bit of change for them is nice for me the primary reason is that I’d prefer these book go to people who will read and value them rather than simply discard them.
And if anyone wants the Will and Arial Durant History of the World series I’ll gladly give it to you for just the cost of shipping them to you. My set is looking for a new home.
Passed 10,000 the past time we did this. I add a few hundred a year. I have two rooms with bookcases on all walls and two rows of them down the middle. Blows peoples’ minds when they see them.
