# How many books are in your personal library?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![AngryBlonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f475e1/32.png) [@AngryBlonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngryBlonde)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/61 "2017-08-21T05:49:09Z")

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I have about 700 books on my Kindle and another 500+ specialized physical books in related to my interests. I prefer to purchase for the Kindle whenever possible however there are still some reference type books that are not well suited as an ebook.

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**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/62 "2017-08-21T18:09:51Z")

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250-500. I used to have more, but I moved them all about 10 years ago and realized how dumb it is to hang onto a book I read and almost certainly will never read again; especially with Kindles and the like.

I have gradually winnowed down the number to a few hundred by taking them to a used bookstore and trading for new (used) books at about a 4:1 ratio. It’s gonna take a few more years to get to an amount that will fit on two bookshelves, which is my goal.

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**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-are-in-your-personal-library/793538/63 "2017-08-21T18:15:57Z")

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Mine’s a guess, but I’d say somewhere between 1,000 and 2,500. I have a lot of bookshelves, some of which have been relocated to the shed, the storage locker, and the garage. I really should go through and get rid of quite a few of them, at least the ones that don’t still have emotional significance.

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