# How many books are in your personal library? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2017, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538 "2017-08-13T14:04:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/21 "2017-08-13T18:13:27Z")
When I moved 9 years ago I had more than 5000. I have been culling, but I have also accumulated, so I’m guessing it’s still right around there. Some of them are counted and organized, and some are random. I could build a house out of books. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/22 "2017-08-13T18:15:25Z")
50-100. 20 years ago it would have been over 500 but the need for paper rapidly diminished. We could clear out half of what’s left without missing them. The need wasn’t that great 20 years ago either, there wasn’t much chance anyone would re-read most of the fiction. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/23 "2017-08-13T20:13:52Z")
About 200. I’ve done several book purges over the years due to moves. I’m also trying to just buy Kindle books unless it absolutely requires a hard copy. Art History doesn’t work well on kindle, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/24 "2017-08-13T20:21:55Z")
Right now my books are mostly in storage we’ve got maybe 100 in the house that are cookbooks, work books and what we’ve bought in the last year. In storage, I’ve got all my books boxed up and those boxes cover a 10’ wall 10’ high and I figure about 2 feet deep. I figure we’re in the 1000+ range but I’d be surprised if it was over 2,500. Getting back to a house where I can have a proper library room will be amazing but I’m not sure it’ll happen out in California. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/25 "2017-08-13T21:01:48Z")
A smidge below 1000, but well over if you include the magazines I’ve saved. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/26 "2017-08-13T21:10:22Z")
Purely guesstimating, but somewhere north of a thousand based on the number of boxes as well as what’s on shelves. I’ve pretty much converted totally to eBooks and would like to recover the space I’ve got dedicated to storage but I’m also loathe to just throw them away. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/27 "2017-08-13T21:19:26Z")
I guessed about 500. Did a purge a few years ago (had 3 complete sets of Encyclopedia Britannica), and I keep trying to downsize. Read on my iPad mostly now. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/28 "2017-08-13T21:32:06Z")
40+ books in Kindle, and perhaps only 6-7 actual physical books in my apartment. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/29 "2017-08-13T23:23:11Z")
I meant to add that, although we mainly buy e-books now, the e-publishers do a shoddy job if there is any serious graphical material. I read Steven Pinker’s recent book on the decline of violence and most of the graphs and charts were unreadable. Even if I read them on my computer instead of my Kobo, there is no way to enlarge them. So I will still be buying dead trees for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/30 "2017-08-13T23:52:40Z")
The last time i measured the length of my bookshelves, it was 600 lineal feet. I’ve made some sample measurements and arrived at an average book thickness of 1 inch, ergo, 7,200 volumes. I’ve been donating 2 to 4 packing/file boxes per weekend to my Friends of the Library and hope to finish before I get too old/senile to finish. I take a color photo of the spines in each box for a record purposes (I also have a MS Word table listing of most and could tag the list for items donated.) The FotL gives a standard receipt form with printed sign of an FotL “official”. For other posters who have donated to their FotLs, have you been able to claim them as tax deductible? If so, based on what value ?-price paid when you bought the book, an assumed average reduced value per book, hopefully not the price to be paid by a library book sale patron. If deductible, did you have to provide receipts of books bought by you or not? How did that work? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/31 "2017-08-14T00:14:23Z")
Not an exact count, but somewhere around 1500 or so, give or take a hundred either way. Mrs. Geek has a kindle, but I refuse to get one. I like paper books. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/32 "2017-08-14T00:19:00Z")
2500+ a lot, for a 1 br condo. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/33 "2017-08-14T00:24:47Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > 2500+ a lot, for a 1 br condo. Based on a average, from counting one shelf. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/34 "2017-08-14T00:27:29Z")
I’m too lazy to count, but my best guess is around 125. I read a lot, but don’t tend to keep books around after I finish them. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/35 "2017-08-14T03:30:23Z")
Zero, I recently relocated, and the entirety of my worldly possessions fits in a carryon bag in the overhead compartment. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/36 "2017-08-14T03:48:16Z")
Where is **Qadgop** , doesn’t he have multiple libraries in his home? I whittled my library down, I only have a couple hundred books now between paper books and ebooks (I know ebooks don’t count for this poll, but that is most of what I read now and I only get paper books when I can’t find an ebook anymore). I used to have over a thousand paper books but got rid of most of them. I moved to a city with a much better library in the last few years, so I haven’t needed to buy books like I used to. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/37 "2017-08-14T03:53:11Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I own around 3000 old fashioned tree books. > > 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. Aren’t you in a small apartment? How do you have room for all those books? Is one wall just bookshelves? ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/38 "2017-08-14T10:26:59Z")
I estimated, using a count of books/linear foot\*feet of shelves, and a rough estimate of those in boxes in the office. Easily over 500, but I don’t think a full grand are present. I didn’t count the boxes in the attic and garage (or Kindles, etc.) We all read constantly at casa-pullin. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/39 "2017-08-14T10:35:21Z")
By my estimate…410? Maybe 510? I never actually counted them, so I took a measuring tape to my occupied shelf space, and divide that by about the average width of one of my books. Especially difficult as they’re pretty far from uniformly thick, some of the shelves are multi-layered, and a notable chunk of them are in storage bins (I ran out of shelf space), making even that means of measuring difficult. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/40 "2017-08-14T11:02:16Z")
I’ve got about 1200 physical books and I own about 500 e-books. That last number is scary, as it took me 40 years to collect the first 1175, and maybe 5 years to get the last 500. Not having to worry about storing them means I’m much less discriminating about buying books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538.md?page=3)