# How many books do you own? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015 "2010-03-19T15:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/61 "2010-03-21T00:25:08Z")
I don’t have a particularly impressive number of books, only a couple of hundred I think, maybe a few more though a lot of my books are stored elsewhere, so it’s hard to judge. But a lot of the books I do have are impressive to look at, as they are coffee table format tomes with glorious photography of esoteric subject matter. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/62 "2010-03-21T00:43:02Z")
I’m guessing about 2500 on the basis of around 250 feet of linear bookshelf space. And I have given boxes and boxes of them to our local library. And that doesn’t even count the headboard of our bed that has a half dozen piles, each about 18" high. There used to be books under the bed, but I think they are all gone from there. Then there are shelves of old SF mags that I’m not counting. Plus a nearly complete run of Scientific American going back to about 1965. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Mood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@Blue\_Mood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Mood)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/63 "2010-03-23T14:39:36Z")
It’s interesting that the results are almost a bell curve. I guess it’s a bit off because people who own lots of books here REALLY have lots of books. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/64 "2010-03-23T15:17:04Z")
When two readers marry, that just increases the problem. I like to joke that we don’t need paint or wallpaper on the walls, we have books. I sometimes wonder if we even need insulation. I would love to move some of them out by trading them at a used bookstore, but the nearest used bookstore is 30 miles away and we seldom get there. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/65 "2010-03-23T15:56:30Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/66 "2010-03-23T19:45:19Z")
I put down 4k - 10k, but we might be over 10k. I have just over 2600 sf books, and I’m in the middle of indexing my sf magazines and am up to 1700, and only near the end of the run of Worlds of If. Haven’t gotten to my Isaac Asimov’s yet (complete run) or my F&SF - complete run minus about 6. My wife has 5 bookcases of her books (and those of mine I was able to sneak in) and my younger daughter has a full bookcase, and we have a bunch in the garage, especially kids books. Oh, and two bookcases in the bedroom, one of which is non-sf books. I’m limiting book purchases now because we’re out of wall space. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/67 "2010-03-24T03:46:47Z")
Over 2000, but I couldn’t tell you exactly. Many of them are boxed and in storage for now until we get a bigger house, maybe this year. At one time I know I had 15 six-foot book cases full, but even then I had boxes loaded with them. Currently in the living room, I have seven four-foot bookcases full, and naturally the tops of them are also heaped with books. Majority of them are non-fiction, mostly history, BTW. Guest: “Did you read all these books?” Me: “Hell no…why would someone want a room full of books they’ve already read?” ---
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/68 "2010-03-24T05:14:09Z")
I think I have some 700 to 800 books, maybe more. Ebooks I know I have more than 2000 easily. Now that I have a sony reader I can’t stop downloading them! It’s some sort of weird compulsion that I can’t resist; probably one half of the ebooks I’ve downloaded I won’t ever read. In my reader at last count I had 297 titles, of which I’ve read maybe 50 or 60. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Mood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@Blue\_Mood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Mood)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/69 "2010-03-24T15:56:03Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > … why would someone want a room full of books they’ve already read? If I (and I suspect many other dopers) could embrace this attitude we’d have lots more wall space. But it’s very hard to get rid of good books. Admittedly I have far fewer fiction than non-fiction, but most of those I don’t actually _need_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/70 "2010-03-24T20:50:07Z")
> [@](#): > > “Hell no…why would someone want a room full of books they’ve already read?” “Do you have a CD of _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_?” “No, I heard it when it came out in 1967. Why would I want a copy?” “So you could listen to it again?” “Why would I want to do that? I liked it when I heard it in 1967 but why hear the same album twice?” ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/71 "2010-03-24T21:29:56Z")
Once upon a time I had well over 10,000 books. I considered myself a “collector.” Then I took a course from an antiquarian bookseller and he said “you’re not a collector, you’re an accumulator.” And I realized he was right, there was no purpose or value to what I had. Shortly thereafter I had to move so took the opportunity to domate almost every single book I’ve owned. Since then I’m pretty harsh about whether a book is actually worth keeping (1. does it fit within a narrow band of topics, 2. does it have sentimental value, 3. does it have artifactual value) and if not back out the door it goes. I still _bought_ tons of books but have never really strayed above a few hundred again. Now I have a Kindle and have only bought maybe a half dozen paper books in the last two years. I’m an accumulator again but they don’t weigh anything so I figure it is ok. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/72 "2010-03-25T00:56:22Z")
I voted 1000-1999, but then I looked at my Book Collector software, which is horribly out of date. It says I have 463. So I am probably somewhere in the 4000 - 9999 range. The vast majority are paperbacks, and it would be even higher, but I have only bought a few the last couple of years due to lack of income. I also have around 100 ebooks on my PDA, although some of those are copies of physical books I own. When I bought this house, I made the dining room into a small library, with DIY shelves. My list of improvements includes ripping out the walls in that room, make sure the outer walls are well insulated, and put in floor to ceiling shelving so I can fit in more books. Unfortunately, that is well down on the list, a non-leaking roof and sturdier floor being more vital. And none of it will happen if the bank gets the place. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/73 "2010-03-25T01:07:27Z")
Under a hundred. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/74 "2010-03-25T15:51:24Z")
Somewhere between 500 and 600, I think. I used to have a lot more, but I donated them when I got divorced. I’ve since reacquired some. I’m trying not to, though; I have a library card, and, honestly, I need less _stuff_, not more. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Mood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@Blue\_Mood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Mood)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/75 "2010-03-26T17:52:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. Oops. Actually, I thought all polls were supposed to go in IMHO (especially because it’s not asking for recommendations, etc., but just about numbers). ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/76 "2010-03-26T18:05:34Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > \> 10,000. > > My home has two libraries, one with 10 foot high built-in bookshelves, and a rolling ladder that lets me get up to the upper shelves. The other library has 8 floor to ceiling bookcases, some of which are double-packed with paperbacks. The master bedroom has built-in bookshelves for those books I want to keep handy there. 😉 > > I really need to thin the collection. My renovation ambition is to build for myself a dedicated library room, with built-in bookshelves. Right now, I have a room I use for a library - it has 2 Ikea bookshelves and 2 larger bookshelves I built myself- both are double-packed. I also have an additional 2 Ikea bookshelves with kids books, and a glass-fronted bookshelf for those books which have some (slight) value. Plus piles here and there. As to how many books there are, I haven’t even the roughest idea. Obviously less than you, but more than I can comfortably store. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/77 "2010-03-28T16:51:34Z")
At the current moment I have exactly 1933 books…I keep a record on a spreadsheet. Nerdy I know but there is method to my madness, after tiring of being unable to decide what to read next I decided to leave it to fate, so now that all my books are neatly indexed in alphabetical order when I want to know what to read next I do a random number search at [www.random.org](http://www.random.org) on an alternately fiction/factual basis. You never know what you’re going to get next but because you’ve bought the books in the first place you know you’re going to enjoy it. 😃 Currently reading ‘Harry’s Game’ by Gerald Seymour, next on the list is ‘Diary of an On-call Girl’ by WPC E.E. Bloggs about a British policewomans day to day experiences in her job. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Mood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@Blue\_Mood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Mood)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/78 "2010-03-29T14:35:58Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Nerdy I know but there is method to my madness, after tiring of being unable to decide what to read next I decided to leave it to fate … So are you saying that most of the books you have you haven’t read yet? Or do you control for that somehow so that you only read the new ones? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/79 "2010-03-29T20:45:42Z")
Just did a count up at the office, and it came to 46 (mostly textbooks). That’s only things with a proper binding, so it doesn’t include lab manuals (I’ve got at least a dozen of those), binders of class notes, etc. It also doesn’t count the five books I currently have on my desk borrowed from others, or any of the books others are borrowing from me which are therefore not on my desk (because I don’t know precisely how many of those there are). I’ll have to get back to you on my home collection, though. ---
**Author:** ![SuperSmartAlex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@SuperSmartAlex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperSmartAlex)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015/80 "2014-08-27T20:45:58Z")
Probably about 200 now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-own/533015.md?page=5)