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:) (blushing) I don't think I can be the first one. I'm way too embarrassed.
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Sacramento
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Why embarrassed?
Even though I read 2-4 books a month, and bookstores are one of my favorite hangouts, I have maybe seven/eight books. These are largely ones that I haven't finished (or touched in a while).
With rare exceptions, once I finish reading a book I have no use for it anymore, so I give them away, mail them to someone whom I think would appreciate it at that moment, leave them on a bench etc etc. Then again I realize that the antipathy I've developed for anything that weighs me down is a bit extreme.
The real library, I believe, is in your head.
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Forgot to add that I understand the value of rare editions and the pleasure that some derive from owning such copies. I'm only interested in the content of the book.
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Well, between my garage and my office, I have 4000+ that I've gotten over the last 20 years--mainly history, some fiction, cultural studies and education books. I've read, sold, and purchased over those years. But in the last three years I've been buying a lot less and now I'm going start giving some away using the Book Crossing program: www.bookcrossing.com/
If I don't buy another book the rest of my life, I have enough to read and reread for a lifetime.
Okay, it's out there. I admitted it. Hope this stays in the confines of this Tribe. :)
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I have no idea--I have literally been on the road for 9 years--and of course I kept buying books--lots of books. I stopped once 2 years ago--and had so many books--that I sold
15 boxes full of popoular, but not worth saving, fiction. I still have 25-30 boxes. Haven't bought any more books. I only have one with me now. A signed 1st edition of Carl Sandburg's Collected Works--date 1950 (I was born in 51). That was a present from my daughter.
kate
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including trashy novels????? (grin, blink blink.)
a whole LIBRARY!!!
its my dream to one day have a whole wall (or two, or three) dedicated to BooKs.
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one very full bookcase (4 shelves, 3 feet wide, 1 foot deep)
I also like to give books away..but every time I get paid, my money seems to find its way to a used bookstore.
I like keeping books that I really enjoyed, because chances are I will read them again. Some just have sentimental value, and some I keep on the shelf because they look REALLY cool.
I have a bunch of dr. seuss books. They make me very happy.
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O.k., taking in consideration that I do borrow a couple of tomes from the library at the rate of 3 per month AND that I try to buy only those books that really interest me...I've managed to pare it all down to one and a half bookcases filled with books...and a couple of "by the bed" piles. Haven't gotten around counting, but it can easily be some 200 books.
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I used to have 2,351 books. I had two or in some cases four different translations for certain books (ie. Demons by Dostoevsky, four trans.) I would also buy editions for a particular introduction, depending on who wrote it. (A.S. Byatt
wrote a wonderful intro to Middlemarch) Even if I already own another edtion of the book. I have as of late had the chance to get rid of a third of my library. I suppose now that I am in my thirties I have been feeling a bit more minimalistic. I fight hard against the urge to buy books. Its my gift & my curse....I always wanted to say that!
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No way I'm going to count. I have 6 bookcases, each 6-7 feet tall. They're full. The shelves that have "pocketbook"-sized paperbacks are stacked two deep, with the books stacked on their sides to reach the next shelf. Not all my books fit on my shelves.
I live in an apartment, and move (on average) every two years. In a typical move, I'll get rid of about 6 boxes of books.
I no longer keep novels, unless the book itself has nostalgic value. I try not to keep any book that I know I can always find at the library.
That said, I find it hard to get rid of books. "I might get to it, someday."
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I'll get back to you in a few months when I'm done counting them...hee hee
Seriously, I've been wanting to catalogue them...maybe I should just do it already...I'm guessing around a thousand or so? And just getting started... -
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For cataloguing your books:
www.librarything.com
See my collection: www.librarything.com/catalog/mizbooks
Free up to 200 books, then pay a one-time $10 lifetime membership fee to add unlimited books (over 200). :o)
It's awesome!
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Unsu...
I need to catalogue; I have two very full bookshelves in my apartment and several boxes of books in storage. -
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Hopeless
10/12I unfortunately need to catalog which will NOT happen till I move into the new house (better be soon grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)
But from the rubbermaid totes filled & too farging heavy to budge I'd say ummmmmmmmmmmm a few ;}
Love, Light & Laughter to all
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Re: Hopeless
10/28I moved recently and my husband and I had 85 boxes of books. I knew we should have hired professionals to help us. -
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Unsu...
Re: Hopeless
12/156 bookcases, but in all fairness, I have given away a ton of books during moves. Yeah, I know sacriledge, but it was a necessity at the time.
+SW->
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Right at the moment I think I own barely more than 30 books but I have had the great misfortune of having to leave fairly large libraries behind during a move twice in my life. The first time, when I was 18, I left my collection of 2200 books in my grandfather's care when I moved to the capital, Metro Manila in the Philippines. That collection was lost to mildew and flooding. The second time just a year and a half ago, I had to give away and/or sell but mostly give away my collection of 1800 books and 3000 comics. Since moving to Sf though I've been hitting the library hard and average about 2 to 4 books a week. I wish I had the time I did back in school when I averaged about 6 to 8 a week.
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Okay, I've got nine bookcases in my house, several volumes stacked on tables and in closets...
[mental calculation]
Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of about two thousand.
And yes, I've read most of them!
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I have no idea, I gave up after thousands.
I used to try and keep track of their resale value, based on Amazon. I thought it was around $3,000, mainly in about only 250 of them. But I don't trust Amazon's pricing anymore.
Mostly these are comparative religion and history (some 100+ years old) and quite a few first edition fiction.
I have a weakness for vintage science fiction pulp, too.
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Hi! Wow, I found my heaven-site, lol, I thought I was like weird or something. :) Glad I'm not the only book addict.
Have about 2,000 plus books (guessing, probably more) and one posted that they should have hired help to move their books, oh do I know That feeling. It took us a big truck to move ours. And I still purchase books, and read daily.
I prefer to find books in used bookstores and thrift shops however, new books are somewhat costly. Also found that many of the stores just don't carry books I'm needing so by the time I pay extra for shipping it just pays to find them in used bookstores.
Own everything from classics, to very old books (hard to find classics and non-fiction/political/philosophy/sciences), fiction (not pop fiction though, well have a few but mostly I tend to stick to multi-cultural and foreign writing, journals and biographies, etc., tons of non-fiction in political theory, Russian and European politics, American politics, labor, gender, race, ethnicity, war, you name it.
Also geography, anthropology, tons of poetry, drama, theatre, plays, art and art theory, philosophy, Russian lit, religious and spiritual, etc etc etc. Love Granta journals, and all other types of journals and
especially love finding books given away for free or that are thrown away. Seriously, found five boxes one day in dumpster, couldn't believe it, and they were like new, history (oh I forgot to mention history) and political/international. Some people are like crazy you know, lol...throwing away books.
I even like the smell of them, the paper, the feel of the ink on the page (esp older books)...
if there is a heaven, I hope its a huge library with good coffee and fluffy pillows, lol. And of course, eternity to spend talking to all the authors and artists and poets. Hows that for addiction, lol. :) One word of caution however, don't marry anyone with the same passion for books, if you ever divorce, it could be one nasty ass custody battle.
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I now own over 1020 books, and counting!
Most of my collection is fiction. I've got a lot of Christian nonfiction, memoirs, tons of Classics (I'm collecting them for when my kids are older), some fantasy/sci fi, and other nonfiction.
If you wanna browse through my personal collection, check out my LibraryThing.com "catalog": www.librarything.com/catalog/mizbooks
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PS.... I love this discussion, btw! Great to know I'm not crazy -- that there are others out there just as obsessed as myself!
I dread the day when I'll have to move -- last time we moved (2 years ago) I had about 20 boxes of books. That's when my collection totalled somewhere in the 400s. Being over 1000 books now, I fear I'll have to do as others have mentioned, and hire someone else to help me move my precious babies. ;-P LOL
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Just found Tribe tonight and have been searching for tribes I might fit into and man does this one fit!! No embarrassment here, I will read almost anything, will buy books anywhere, and never get rid of them. We moved to a bigger house this past Jan. and I don't even know how many boxes of books were carried into it, let alone how many books were in those boxes. My son and some of his friends helped us move and I was told that one of the friends said he was gonna ask me for a library card. Last count was in the neighborhood of 4300 but that was a little over five years ago.
For the past five years we had been living in a tiny 850 sq.ft. place and most of my books were in storage. Prior to that we lived in a big 3500 sq.ft. Victorian where I had one entire room of floor to ceiling books. Of course I didn't stop buying books just because I had nowhere to put them, I just added more boxes to the storage unit. So since we moved into the new house I've been in 7th heaven. Every box has been just like Christmas, partly because my two sons learned many years ago that the best Christmas present for Mom is......... yep,books.
After several weeks of unpacking I've decided to, for the first time in all my ?? years, get rid of some books. It's been pure torture, deciding which ones to keep and which ones to let go. It has nothing to do with the perceived/actual monetary value, that's never been how I set a value on my books. I've never valued anything except the content. If I can admit that I'll probably never read a book again it goes in the get-rid-of box. Haven't decided yet just how I'm going to dispose of them. Some of them might actually be worth some money but I've been thinking about donating them to someone. Maybe a childrens center or a battered women's shelter. People with problems sometimes need to escape into a good book for a few hours.
Thanks for letting me bend your ears for a while
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Unsu...
Books, books, books,
Our downstairs neighbor used to comment on the possibility of the floor collapsing as we lugged boxes of books up into our tiny apartment. We have book shelves in every room, maybe 400 books here now. The other half of my books are in storage, and my partner only has about half of his here as well.
And this is after getting rid of just about every book that wasn't some kind of reference.
I love books!!!
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I've never counted them, suprisingly, but easily hundreds. When I move, I always have substantially more boxes of books than I do of everything else combined. I used to think my perfect dream was to one day to have enough shelf space for all my books, but I've kind of gotten to like having them in big drifts and stacks all over the place.
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Unsu...
LibraryThing says I haev 775. But I've just bought four more, and I have probably at least 25 which don't have ISBNs which I need to add manually to LT. Then I've got several boxes worth of paperbacks in storage, which haven't been entered into LT, so I'm probably about 1000.
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No idea -I have two 7’ by 4’ book shelves with anything novel size sacked two deep to the top of the shelf. Other bigger ones I have lying on their side to the top of the shelve and smaller books packed around them. I also have two smaller shelves (full). My shelves are all like a Chinese puzzle.- but all these are in storage. :(
Even my bed has shelves in the bed head – I can count these – 33 there ! God ! Using them as a guide I must have well over 2,000- 3,000 thousand, nah surely not. That’s almost 1 a day a decade… I’m 34….. easily one a week, lots of reading at Uni … yeah, well I’ve got lots. The most important thing is I have read every one with the exception of 5 waiting on by bed end…
Why would you catalogue them????? I just stack them around each other according to topic “Chinese History”, “Religion”, “Bonsai”, “Fiction” ect ect ect Think of all the time spent cataloguing when you could be reading!
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I'd estimate that I have around 500 books. But I just got divorced, and he kept the majority of the books, so I'm working on rebuilding my collection. It should take me no time at all, the way I collect. I think out of all the books I have, there are maybe 10 that I haven't gotten around to reading yet.
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What's embarasing is that I only own about one hundred books. Once a year I sell every book that can be sold and donate the rest. I'm a poor english major, planning on remaining poor my entire life, so I can't really afford to have books hanging around, even if I can only get like $50 for it.
There are only a couple of books I hold on to, about half a boxes worth. Pretty much all fiction with some plant encylopedias and garden design books. -
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<<What's embarasing is that I only own about one hundred books. Once a year I sell every book that can be sold and donate the rest. I'm a poor english major, planning on remaining poor my entire life, so I can't really afford to have books hanging around, even if I can only get like $50 for it. >>
Don’t be embarrassed !!!
I like this idea… It's like the sports fishermen who “catch and release” allowing others to opportunity to read your books rather than have them selfishly sitting on a shelf..
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Thousands. And I've given away many, many (does a quick cross check: that means a minimum of 40 books acquired a year... yeah, easily feasible).
They pile up, I think they breed in the dark.
I'm at the point where I have piles of unread books of favorite authors beckoning me, competing for attention with re-reads, and with all those books out there that I haven't discovered yet.
But catalog them? What ever for? I mean, the worst that can happen is that you buy a book you already have again (guilty as charged); so give it away, then, and infect another innocent mind ; )
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Unsu...
Man, who knows.. I have 12 bookcases full (or so) and most of my paperbacks in boxes. Of course, they aren' t all mine.. the ones that actually contain useful information belong to my wife and my daughter has her novels and manga :)
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I have over a 1000 books, it could be worse, at least I sell, trade or give away most of my pulp paperbacks after I'm done with them else I'd have thousands. =S
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Alright, I counted 2 shelves at 62, I have 14 shelves times that number, figuring it's about average and got 952. When I was homeless I only had 300. I could barely fit in my Honda Aspire to sleep. I have a thing for hard covers.
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yep. moved and moved and moved...sometimes east coast to west coast and back ... planned to move to england last year, really pared down to the bare minimum, the move fell thru..but the very next weekend was the library booksale.. first day $2 hard, $ 1 soft, 2nd day, $1 or 50 centes, 3rd day $ for a big bag, 4th day free....[this year i only went the first day-free day was killing me-my taste doesnt run to the popular] so i'm at about 900 now. most involving history, used as reference, cross ref...if i had all the books i ever bought... 30,000? libraries that hold fund raising booksales are a great place to recycle your books, by the way. some i bought last year that i didnt keep, i donated back this year..win win situation. i have the book to read for a year, they get my money and then sell it again..
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I don't have a clue but, I do know that I can't stop buying them. I had to purchase software for my computer to catalog them all because I can't keep up with them. I am hoping to get started on it this weekend. It is in the hundreds. I have bought about 50 of them just this week.
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Wow, I thought I was bad and I've only bought six this week. I'm impressed.
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My problem is that when I find an author that I like, I buy every book they have written, all at once. It is like I am afraid I won't be able to find the rest of the books at a later time. Last week I bought all of Sue Grafton and all of John Saul. I read just about everything.
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I put software on my computer to keep up with my books and so far, I have 453 of them.
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I have never counted, but we have bookshelves in almost every room in our house including the garage and dining room. None in the bathrooms surprisingly! Not even magazines!
My husband and I have had to get rid of hundreds of books once we got married. There simply was not enough room for them all. We both love books. I realized not too long ago that in order to read a book, I could just go to the library and borrow it instead of buying it.
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I generally sell/trade/give away most paperbacks once I'm done with them, being that I read a book or 2 a week that adds up, but collections by certain authors, a lot of hardcovers, older editions, leather bounds, etc. I usually hang on to. Currently I have a couple thousand books in my home office.
