I am totally neurotic about my books. We live in a pretty small house and I’d estimate that my books alone take up at least 1/3 of the available space. I have a large bookshelf in the living room that is stacked 3 deep, I have stacks of books under my bed, in my closet, in the bathroom, under the couch and stragetically placed stacks of books scattered all over the house. I’ve learned that a tower of books makes a darn good nightstand table/lamp table.
I buy at least 2-3 books a week. I belong to ALL the bookclubs and I have to force myself to limit my visits to amazon.com, half.com and EBay. I can’t even walk through the grocery store without buying a paperback!
I have a huge list of favorites that I lend out to only a couple of fellow bookaholics. I have mulitple copies of some of my favorites because I can’t stand the thought of not having a copy of them available in case I get the sudden urge to read them.
I absolutely refuse to throw any books away. However, I will gladly get rid of really bad books by donating them but they must be REALLY bad to qualify for banishment from my library. At the very least, I will hide them under the bed or in the closet.
When I watch movies I always get a little thrill out of seeing a well-stocked library of books. The book seller guy’s apartment in Unfaithful just made me drool.
Geez…I sound nuts! Maybe there should be some sort of support group for bookaholics?
Geez… I love books and whenever I have extra money I buy some (in fact I plan to get some tomorrow with my first paycheck ) I like to keep my books in good condition and I do my best to. Sometimes they get a little mangled but that happens through wear and tear.
My Grandma hates the amount of books I have and wants me to get rid of some. I will, because some of the ones I have I don’t read/won’t read again. I don’t have half the books people here do though. When I have my bookshelves set up again I’ll have one bookcase full to the brim, double stacked assorted by author/genre. I’ll have another bookshelf with all my dolls and the bottom 2 shelves full of my hard covers. About 200 books max I’d say.
I love second hand bookstores… and if I worked in any bookstore I know my collection would grow. But I try to keep it to a manageable level. What I read over and over again. Usually my list is decided from what I can get at the library and I have read multiple times, so I may as well have my own copy. Or what I cannot find at the library/to be loaned to me and I have to buy because I really really really want to read it.
Books books everywhere, and they’re all mine! MINE! MINE!!!
I can’t bear to give up books unless they really, really suck. When I move to NY this summer I’ll probably (make that definitely) have to put some into storage, either in my folks’ home or MrsB’s parents’ house, but when we ever do get established permanently in one city, they’ll appear on my bookshelves.
Currently, in my one bedroom apartment, I’ve got 2 bookshelves and one massive wall unit covered in books. And a couple boxes in the storage locker. And another couple boxes back in Montreal.
I am a book donater, too - I don’t toss 'em, because… well, they’re BOOKS! The only time I have actually ever thrown a book in the garbage, it was a horrifyingly scary book that gave me a bad case of the williwams. Imagine my reaction when I later found this same book on my bed.
Turns out my mom doesn’t believe in throwing books away, either.
We acquire books faster than I can build shelves to house them. They’re two deep (front to back) on the shelves in our office and in the overflow shelving in the basement, with plastic bins full of “archive” books stacked hither and yon. I don’t measure our books by weight; I measure them by the yard.
DON’T FOLD THE CORNERS! USE A BOOKMARK! --pant pant
Oh, and my proudest recent acquisition is an 1830 edition of Shakespeare’s histories. Pretty good condition, too. All the picture plates (hand-drawn geneologies, mostly) are intact.
I don’t throw away books. Been really tempted once or twice, but no. I just stuck those books somewhere and forgot about them.
However unable I am to throw away books, it’s all made up for by my utter abuse of the books I do own. My hardback books are in fairly good condition (except for my Harry Potter books, but they are well-loved), but the paperbacks are fair game. Dog-eared, cracked and twisted spines, etc. If I like a book, I’ll read it obsessively and carry it with me everywhere. Backpacks are a dangerous world for paperbacks, I find.
I aspire to be my dad. He has a nice-sized collection of science fiction books dating back from his time in high school, plus tons of history, science, and other such nonfiction books. I can ask him about practically any subject and he probably has a book about it somewhere. A few weeks ago, it was Rasputin and a book on Nicholas II and another on royal families of Europe. Okay, okay, a remarkably space-consuming habit, but so cool.
I rarely get rid of books. If someone gives me one as a gift and it’s particularly embarrassing, I’ll get rid of it. For example, my parents gave me a book about O.J. Simpson and I threw it out. My ex-husband gave me a few books that I threw out. Everything else stays here forever.
p.s. I have to admit, I’ve been wondering what to do about the National Geographics. They weigh a ton and I never refer to them. But the photographs are so beautiful.
I’ve also got a pretty good collection of antique Geology books and maps, some of them autographed. Of course, you’d be amazed how seldom non-geology people are impressed by my autographed Ross Maxwell volume… but I am, and that’s all that counts, right, bibliophiles?
Why would anyone throw away a book? There are books my mother donated to the thrift store when I was 7 years old that I still find myself wanting to read. (Although I do agree that donation is a Very Good Thing.) I have no CDs because they would cut into my book money. I really abuse the ones that I own, but I’m very careful when people let me borrow them.
I think that books without broken bindings are kinda…hoity toity. A book to me is like a baseball mitt, you gotta break it in so next time it’s all comfortable when you go to open it.
but I have a really hard time throwing away books…or even giving them away. even books like the freaking babysitters club from second grade…don’t want to get rid of them. They represent pieces of my soul, and how could you give that away?? I lend books but I’m always really paranoid that the person is gonna lose it (someone lent my book to another person once, that was horrible).
And then, there was the HORRIBLE dust jacket incident with my younger brother. He has the first american editions of harry potter and the chamber of secrets and harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban. both have no dust jacket. the prisoner of azkaban has a big chunk of pages missing from it. I weep for those books.
Is there anywhere on-line where I can buy valuable books, like first-editions and stuff like that? I’ve heard of www.alibris.com, but I’m living in the UK at the moment, so it’s not much good to me. Any suggestions?
I have three giant bookcases that are mostly full in my bedroom, plus miscellaneous shelves in my living room and closets. I have sections for reference, classics, computer manuals, histories/biographies, science fiction, and so on.
I hate dust jackets. I think they’re an awful invention. They get in the way, they have a crappy texture, and the artwork is often gaudy, especially for old scifi classics. Whenever I buy a hardback book I immediately remove the dust jacket and throw it away. The Spartan title on the spine looks much more dignified on the shelf that way, anyway.
Neurotic? Not me. I have about 6,000 sf books (I’m doing a database too, but I’ve only entered 1100 so far, up to the Rs in my novels. Haven’t gotten to hardcovers, anthologies, reference books, or magazines yet.) I’m probably 1500 books behind in my reading, at least, but still I buy.
My mother grew up in the Depression when books were very valuable. She taught me to never throw any away. I just sold some duplicates to the used book store, and of course came away with more than I got rid of.
My last two moves were paid for by companies, thank goodness. The movers love us - books are heavy, and hard to break.
My will has a big section about what to do with them. If I go first, my wife sells them. If she goes first, they go to the MIT SF Society Library.
Ohhhh man. I love books. I don’t sell back my school books because I figure that another book can’t hurt anything. I spent money that was supposed to go to school books at a discount book store (brand-new paperbacks were three dollars, and if you bought 3, you got a 4th one free!). Put it this way, there was a scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Giles (mmmmmmmmmmGiles) and Jenny Calendar where it went:
JENNY: Oh! Thank you so much for loaning me the Forrester book. It’s wonderful!
GILES: Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
JENNY: Yeah, it was so romantic, so evocative.
GILES: That edition was my father’s. I, I, I must’ve read it… twenty times.
JENNY: Yeah, y’know how you have to, to dog-ear your favorite pages so you can go back to them?
GILES: Uh, uh, uh, what?
JENNY: Well, I mean, I-I practically had to fold back every single page. So finally I just, I just started underlining all the pages I really wanted to discuss.
GILES: U-u-underlined…?
JENNY: But then, of course, I spilled coffee all over it, I can’t even read it…
GILES: It’s a first edition!
JENNY: I’m lying, Rupert. The book’s fine. I just love to see you squirm.
And the first time I saw that, my heart was in my throat, thinking of poor Giles’ book!
