How many books do you own?

[IrishEyes]

I have a little under 300 right now. I donated 120 to charity and bought 20 over the course of the year. When I buy books, I almost always get them at thirft stores for $1 or $2. I usually read a book a week. Once a month or so, I have been taking my old books to the charity shop so they can resell them.

[Downtown Hound]

1. I would guess somewhere around 100.

[kennetha]

2. several thousand. I have a huge library at home. I need more shelf space.

[csziggy]

71. I also have thousands - and we have a library in our house

That is far too full. In fact, with inheriting books and genealogical material from my husband's mother, and inheriting my mother's genealogical stuff, plus furniture and other stuff, we're going to have to add onto our house.<sigh>

[dameatball]

3. After the ones I sent to my kids, probably about 60ish. Want any???

[rzemanfl]

4. In this climate owning a lot of books is not a good idea. Maybe 100 or so.

We have an excellent library system.

[Xipe Totec]

5. In the hundreds. Far less than I have donated

What's left ranges from the history of the Soviet Manned Space Program, to the history of Mexico though the centuries, to structural stability of dynamical systems, to the evolution of the nightshade family.

The books I have not donated still hold an emotional attachment for me.

They are my touchstones.

[dhol82]

6. Geeze, I will be selling my house soon. The books will be a problem

I have a room I call the ‘library’ just because it’s full of books.
I love books and have bought them all my life.
This will be the toughest part of the dismantling of my life.
I hope the local library will be able to take them. Not really sure.
Now I have started the accumulation in the cloud. It’s really pathetic.

[csziggy]

70. Libraries will generally take any books donated

The trick is they may not put them into their collection. Any books that they cannot use in their collection will go to the "Friends of the Library" (if there is such an organization) and are sold. The profits from the FOL go into the library's funds.

My sister volunteers at the FOL at her local library. They get a lot, such as Harlequin romances, that cannot be sold. She arranged for a recycling company to take the really bad books and they are recycled to make paper bags. The FOL gets a few cents a hundred pounds for the paper.

I often visit the FOL shop here locally, but my husband does more often. He found some great guide books for Britain that are helping us plan our trip there next year. Depending on your community, the FOL shop can be a great way to find books and support your local library.

[dhol82]

73. Good to know.

It doesn’t bother me if they go to wood pulp. At least they will be of some good for the globe.

[RockRaven]

7. I have no clue. I have boxes of books in storage. I can't bring myself to get rid of books.

Also, a lot of them are gifts, and so hold memories beyond just the content.

[NNadir]

8. I have no idea, particularly if I include electronic books.

I typically download 2 or 3 electronic books a week, sometimes many more, and I routinely download entire issues of several major scientific journals.

I also scan a few books a month in university libraries - including one of the best libraries in the world - depending on my interests at the time, as well as on occasions where my family needs books on particular subjects.

There was a time when I was really well off, and I'd go into used bookstores, usually technical bookstores of a type that are regrettably disappearing, and empty my wallet.

When I was traveling a lot and had read everything I'd carried with me, I'd buy stuff in airport bookstores.

I still have books from when I was a very young man, and I'm old. In fact I still have the first book I ever owned, one my mother read to me when I was a child, a book called "Little Bear."

I'm not big on throwing books away; I've donated a few here and there, and given some away; or had some "borrowed" and never returned, but against the objections of my wife, they're mostly all still here, old friends.

I have to read. If I'm stuck somewhere waiting for something and there's nothing to read, I get all fidgety and anxious.

[SeattleVet]

27. If you like old electronics magazines...

try https://www.americanradiohistory.com - they have a huge selection of .pdf files from a ton of consumer and industry publications, including complete press runs of some of the items, going way back.

Also, the Internet Archive (https://archive.org) has a massive number of older magazines, journaled publications, and books available for download. Their search feature can be a bit daunting, but the collections are stunning!

[NNadir]

35. Thank you, that's interesting. My neighbor, now deceased, had a large collection...

...of these, along with some of the first computer manuals ever listed. He donated them to a university shortly before he died, and they greatly appreciated it.

However, when I referred to "electronic books," I was not referring to books about electronics, but rather books in an electronic format.

Most of my library, electronic or otherwise, consists of technical books about chemistry, physics, math, energy technologies, environmental science and history.

I have only a few books devoted to electronics, mostly about chemical instrumentation.

Thanks.

[SeattleVet]

48. Oops...misread your original message...

the Archive also has a LOT of books and other publications and media in your specific areas of interest, and many are available in eBook or Kindle formats.

Another good resource for ebooks is Project Gutenberg, which has downloadable copies of public-access and out-of-copyright books. I recently downloaded and read 'The Worst Journey in the World' by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, his account of his work with the Scott expeditions in Antarctica.

[NNadir]

49. Love Gutenberg...

... I have full access to Princeton University's libraries, though, and there's almost nothing that I want to read that I can't read.

They have an enormous catalog, many publications in electronic format.

I live in reader's paradise.

[fierywoman]

9. Hundreds. Plus a floor to ceiling shelf (35" wide) of sheet music.

I suppose it's better than being addicted to opioids!

[Squinch]

10. Mostly I go through my fabulous public library. But some authors I just have to

own, and some books I just need to have and the library doesn't have them. So a 2 foot stack on my night table, and an 8 foot by 4 foot bookshelf. Paperbacks are doubled (two rows of books per shelf.) So however many that is.

[Croney]

11. We used to be booksellers on eBay and Amazon,

so we had thousands. When we stopped selling books, we donated until we got down to our current 200-300. We want to donate half of these. When we die, our kids won't want all these books.

[avebury]

12. Including kindle and audiibooks, I couldn't

even begin to hazard a guess.

[sarge43]

13. Hundreds

Cicero, "A room without books is like a body without soul."

[sakabatou]

14. Over 10, just in my bedroom.

[Ohiogal]

15. Probably a few hundred

Three large book shelves all full
One small one full
Boxes of them up in the attic

I have three unabridged dictionaries and two Thesauruses

My husband has about 5 of his old college textbooks

Assorted reference books, novels, etc. etc. I have a whole shelf of Art books. We kept all our kids' favorite children's books, they are all adults now.

I have a hard time getting rid of them.

[Laffy Kat]

16. I wish I could give more books away.

I usually keep non-fiction for reference and I always keep literature. That leaves the popular fiction which I do find much easier to give away or donate, EXCEPT if I loved it and may want to read it again. Sigh. Not only that, most of the books I love I like to keep near me, so that means in my bedroom. I need help.

[kimbutgar]

17. I have multiple bookcases filled with books in my home

My late parents would always buy me books and they were big readers also. I could open a library between my books and theirs. If they ever come to do a Fahrenheit 451 they’d have a massive bonfire for days.

[flotsam]

18. For all readers...

I'm gonna recommend a site for used books. Over 100k selections starting at $3.79 band free (sloooow) shipping on orders over $10. Really great when checking into any new hobbies...

https://www.thriftbooks.com/?&mkwid=sboTHVKtA|dc&pcrid=230560015175&pkw=thrift%20books&pmt=e&plc=&pgrid=8775931272&ptaid=kwd-2662590861&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0JO3lObN3gIVyJ6zCh3FbQryEAAYASAAEgJcY_D_BwE

[uriel1972]

19. I once had thousands...

Then I had to shift to a unit... 80 maybe now D:

[UTUSN]

20. At my age and this stage, probably around 200, at peak past 300+, a winnowing process

The first 30 yrs was an accumulating thing. After that it's been about three life points of culling and divesting/donating, then came the past decade of adjusting to e-things and further diminishing the paper.

[Leith]

21. Not Enough

Never enough books.

But I have to admit that some of them aren't worth anything any more. I have computer books from the late 1980s.

Counting both traditional and electronic books, I probably have 2,000 ~ 3,000.

[lastlib]

22. Between eight and nine hundred.

I'd buy that many more, but just don't have the shelf-space to accommodate any more.
Every subject from trigonometry, calculus and algebra to law to politics(!), history, philosophy and economics.
My long-term dream in life is to have a house that can accommodate an office for me, and bookshelves out the wazzooo!
On my wall is a little cartoon I drew in college--a little kid looks up at his dad and says, "When I grow up, I want to be a member of the liberal intellectual establishment!" Yeah. That's me.

[OilemFirchen]

23. Twelve.

I have twelve copies of The Catcher in the Rye.

Why do you want to know?

[greyl]

25. Have you read them all? nt

[OilemFirchen]

41. I've read parts of six.

And I've got my eye on another at a local thrift shop.

[IrishEyes]

54. Do you listen to The Beatles while reading it?

[OilemFirchen]

56. Only when I'm reading the ninth copy.

These questions are making me nervous.

[Duppers]

24. In the neighborhood of 650 to 700

Gotta get rid of most of them.

[Aristus]

26. Three or four thousand.

I have my own in-home library with three large bookcases, and a number of volumes stacked on the floor. (Don't worry, I'm not one of those book-hoarders who leave dusty, musty, untouched volumes in huge piles on the floor, never to be read). I'm just out of room in here.

There is a bookcase in my bedroom, the guest room, the TV room, and the living room. Even two bookcases (partially-filled) out in the garage. The top shelfs of most of the closets in the house hold rows of well-loved, well-cared-for books.

My books are my pride and joy.

[exboyfil]

28. Probably about that number

probably gave away a like number over the years. I just gave the bullk of my comic collection to my nephew. A lot were my dad's as well. I have a huge collection of engineering books, but I gave away most of MBA books. Have started to give away my engineering books as well. Several to my son in law who is also an engineer. Over the Holidays will give away a bunch of my science fiction books. I am waiting for one of nieces or nephews to decide to go into the ministry to give away my theology books. I am proud that I have not bought many physical books over the last couple of years.

[fNord]

29. 1.....

But my boyfriend owns a bookstore so........

[murielm99]

30. Thousands.

I have floor to ceiling bookshelves in one room of my house. There is another wall with bookshelves under the picture window.

There is one book case upstairs. I have gotten rid of a lot of books, too. I am restricting myself to these spaces only for book storage.

[shenmue]

31. My Mom keeps saying 500

[Historic NY]

32. Two thousand on shelves last inventory....

couple hundred on cross stacks.

[mnhtnbb]

33. Not as many as I had before the fire

that burned our house down 11 years ago.

I never got into replacing or buying books again the way I had before the fire. I now use the library a lot more. Occasionally I buy a book.

[TEB]

34. Boxes and boxes

Hardback and paperback

[Tobin S.]

36. I'd guess around 200, and that's just from the past 4 or 5 years.

If I'd saved every book I'd ever read I'd probably have over 1000. I go through stretches in my life where I read about a book a week, and then I'll go through stretches where I don't read much at all. I find that as I age I get more and more into reading.

[MissMillie]

37. Maybe about 70, and

most of them are cookbooks

[Harker]

38. Under 1000.

I left behind a couple thousand of them a year and a half ago when moving 1500 miles cross country.

I spend too much time in the DU lounge, and too little time reading books!

[IrishEyes]

50. I'm really hoping to move next year.

That is one of the reasons that I'm trying to read and donate my books. I want to have less stuff to move. I read a lot on my commute to work since I use public transportation.

[Harker]

52. The older I get, the fewer possessions I want to have.

I'm not at the "one robe, one bowl" stage, but getting closer.

Good luck on your relocation, when it happens.

[Phentex]

39. I'd say hundreds but could be more than that...

I have several bookcases here and there as well as boxed books waiting to go home with the kids one day. AND a kitchen stuffed with cookbooks that I really need to donate.

[The King of Prussia]

40. Haven't got a Scooby

Thousands, but certainly not as many as 10,000. We're both hoarders so the situation is only going to get worse. But... I feel safe surrounded by books.

[Generic Brad]

42. Two

I used to have hundreds, but after two interstate moves in the past three years I had to pare down.

Of the two - one I bought at a discount bin to read on a rainy day. The other is a work assignment.

I remain a prolific reader, but I prefer borrowing e-books from my local library. They have a great selection that never seems to end.

[eppur_se_muova]

43. Over 180 shelf feet, but a bunch more in storage.

Mostly nonfiction. Read SF is mostly in storage.

Ranges from cheap, thin Dover paperbacks to professional texts costing an arm and a leg.

If a book contains potentially useful info, I seldom get rid of it. Though at some point I'd like to scan out the bookmarked spots of a lot of them and keep just a page or two on file, then donate the book to the local library.

[Luciferous]

44. Most of my books are on my Kindle. I think I have about 1300 at this point.

[Codeine]

66. I've got 230 on mine.

I purged a bunch a few months back because it was just ridiculous.

[Luciferous]

68. I was kind of mad when my husband bought me my first Kindle because I was

sure I wouldn't use it. I told him that real books were better but I was wrong, I love it!

[Paladin]

45. Not all that many, I use the library a lot.

I'd say I own somewhere around 80 to 90 books. It has to be something pretty special for me to buy a hard copy---I've got all of John Irving's novels, all of John Le Carre's, a set of Dickens books, a few Larry McMurtry westerns, all of Molly Ivins' commentary collections, some early Tom Wolfe works, a good-sized dictionary and thesaurus, and a the rest are odds and ends.

[Mendocino]

46. I'm like

you in this respect. I have about 500. I have given away about three hundred over the years. I also go to the library very often.

I also have about 400 LPs.

[rsdsharp]

47. I'd guess about 2000.

At one time about 12 years ago I had a data base of all the books, by author, title, genre, whether hard cover, soft cover, or paperback, shelf location, and other information. At that point there were about 1200. Unfortunately when we updated Outlook, I couldn't get it to transfer, nor was the new version as easy to develop a template. I couldn't face staring over.

Five years ago we had built-in bookcases installed in the family room (five floor-to-ceiling cases each with seven shelves, all tied together with a face frame and crown molding). That doesn't count numerous other bookcases and shelves around the house. At the time we got the built-ins we donated 5 bankers boxes of books to Planned Parenthood's book sale. I now have another 2 boxes in my car that I haven't gotten around to delivering yet.

In the last five years or so, most of the books I've purchased have been Kindle editions, so shelf space hasn't been as much of an issue.

[Doreen]

51. To many and not enough.

To many to fit in my small apartment ( even with a large newly built book case. ) Not enough because I love reading and I had to go over to a tablet because of the bad arthritis in my hands. There are some books that I will still get in hard back to add to some of my loved collections but that will not happen often.

[sfwriter]

53. 13 bookcases and about 20 odd bankers boxes - It's a lot

I have two book cases of art and oversized books of maps, an ESA stellar catalog that is huge, academic books on history, two shelves of literary books on science fiction, one shelf of books on SETI and one of books on manned spaceflight, two shelves of history of science, one shelf of history of technology, two shelves of local history for Ohio, one shelf and three boxes of cookbooks, one shelf of music and books on musicals, four boxes of RPG gaming books, 15 banker boxes, five long boxes, and six shelves of comics, science fiction, graphic novels, and old Sci Fi magazines, two shelves of reference material, plus assorted other history and fiction.

Additionally, we have about 15 boxes of books we sell at science fiction conventions.

[JHan]

55. about 3,000 on kindle.

lost count of hardcovers I own ,,, maybe 200

[Marthe48]

57. close to a 1000

I collected for a long time. I have my parents and grandparents, even great-grandparents' books. I bought 11 boxes at an auction for $3. Bought 16 more boxes at a yard sale for $5. That was years ago. People give me books. I give books away, have sold some. I have 2 sets of 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, the full size and the smaller size. I used to be able to say I had read all the books I owned, but haven't been able to say that for a long time.

Gotta love the books

[hibbing]

58. As few as possible

When my father died we had to get rid of hundreds and hundreds of books. It is not a fun thing to do, so whoever cleans up when I croak won't have that burden.

Peace

[LeftInTX]

59. I'm with you!

I used to have a bunch, but we started running out of space. So I got rid of lots of them.


I used to read more books too. Now I'm reading less. Ever since I got a smartphone, I spend my doctor appointments watching Netflix and since I can download from Netflix I watch movies on planes.

I've also gotten involved with local politics, which is itself very messy. (Campaign signs, push cards...every week, it was something different, so I would print new labels or get push cards from other candidates...Sounds easy, but a bunch of work, Much more work than blockwalking in 100 degree weather was the prep)

Activism means always making a poster.

The last book I read was I Am Malala

I know my kids aren't going to want campaign signs and push cards!!!!

[Brother Buzz]

60. These days, the library is my friend

I stopped acquiring books a decade ago, and have gotten rid of most. Tops was maybe 600, but a quick count looks like a healthy 200 or so, and every one of them is special in some way.

[ProfessorGAC]

61. One

The Bible. Oh wait, i guess that makes it zero!

Kidding of course. I really have no idea, but i'm sure that i have 20 or so less. Long story, but because of office moves several years ago, i lost all my grad school textbooks in chemistry and mathematics in a car break in. The MBA stuff they didn't take.

Worst part of it, is that i know they didn't know what they were taking and those books ended up as kindling for someone's bonfire.

[IrishEyes]

63. I have a copy of the Bible.

It was given to me a few years ago by a former friend who is happily not in my life anymore. I'm not a christian and I think she was trying to convert me. I don't know whether to keep it or not.

[ProfessorGAC]

64. If I Had A Copy. . .

. . .it would probably be the first choice to use as a doorstep or to put under the leg of a wobbly deck chair.

[DiverDave]

62. I live in my truck

(Big rig) I used to have so many, no room to store other stuff. Now I have Kindle. About 1300 or so...

[Codeine]

65. Thousands.

Most have been boxed up for years in the garage because I went from a house to a small apartment after a separation. It’s a truly ridiculous number that I’ve brought under control by transitioning mostly to digital.

[hunter]

67. Thousands... it's bad.

We have an entire room set up as a library but the rest of the house is still littered with books and bookshelves.

Electronic books came along just in time, we were running out of space. I don't feel bad about hoarding ebooks.

We do give books away, it's just that more books come into the house than leave. My wife and I both read a lot; it's what we do while most people seem to be watching television. Reading a couple of books a week for more than thirty years really adds up. We were both already hauling around a large number of books when we met, back in the 'eighties.

Then there's our DVD collection... hundreds of them. I think I have more fun browsing through the DVDs in thrift stores than looking for movies on Netflix.

I did convert all our Compact Disc music to computer files a few years ago. They CDs are in boxes in the garage. My wife and I still buy CDs direct from artists we meet in local venues or while traveling, but no big label artists. We can listen to them on the internet.

[Codeine]

69. Discovering AbeBooks online was a disaster

for me. Suddenly mounds of books were everywhere — when they’re around four or five bucks a piece it’s hard to say no. I finally had to set a hard and fast rule of no more print books outside of RPG books, and even then I’m trying to go 100% ebooks.

All my comics are digital now too. It’s surprising how fast a pull list of forty or fifty monthly titles turns into a mess when you’re buying in paper.

[VOX]

72. My library numbers in the thousands. It must be a sickness.

I glom onto books like an alcoholic grabs a bottle of booze. Signed editions, first editions, antiquarian, 20th Century authors, political books, art books, oddball one-offs, etc.

We had a cabinet maker build shelves in our den, covering three walls -- filled. Three cases in the living room-- filled. A case in the home office --filled. A case in the guest bedroom-- filled. A stack in the master bedroom about three feet high and teetering.

At least most of the books are squared away. But it's finally reached the point where more books means more shelves, so there's been some merciful stasis. For now.

[IrishEyes]

75. That sounds like my dad's house.

There are tons of bookcases in his house in the living room and bedrooms. There are even bookcase in the dining room. Everything is neat and in order. Dad knows where to find any book he wants. His small office also has bookcases. He is a professor who has been in the same office for decades.

[Iggo]

74. Physical books with paper pages? I got rid of them all.

I've got about a dozen large paperback thingies with chords and licks and scales and such.

But actual books with stories? No mas.

I've got about 50 books on my phone and another couple dozen I think on my tablet.

That's it.

[chillfactor]

76. at least two thousand.

I am retired so I read constantly.

[liberal N proud]

77. About 1000 lbs worth

We moved last year and the books killed us.

Never counted them.

[highplainsdem]

78. Over a thousand, but relatively few bought in recent years. Ran out of space for bookshelves,

and I don't like just storing books in boxes.

Plus I read so much online these days I have less time for reading books.

[klook]

79. Hundreds.

I couldn't begin to count them. I've cut back on buying new ones -- no more than 10 or so a year.

[underpants]

80. 1. That's all I need.

It's a dictionary. It has all the other books in it.

[Bayard]

81. I feel much better!

Thank you to the people who have thousands! I think I only have hundreds. Hardbacks. We are still putting up interior walls in our log cabin. One wall will be floor to ceiling book shelves. I probably only have about a hundred here now that I've bought in the past few years, but I have tons of boxes still in storage.

There is a small local book store where you can get 6 or 7 used books in good condition for under $20. I also get the same from Amazon. I inherited a bunch from my sister when she died, and a ton from friends.

Can't wait to get them here. I love my books! Wrapped in a blanket in front of the fire with a cup of hot tea and a good book......one of the joys of life.

[IrishEyes]

83. I agree. Add some cookies, a sleeping cat or dog nearby and I'm in heaven.

I buy used books for a $1 or $2 at the local charity thrift stores. I also donate books to them as well.

[braddy]

82. Roughly 10,000, I used to read a lot.