How many SciFi/Fantasy books do you own?

[Leigh]

I finished cleaning up my home library-I've got books going back to High School! Just wondering if anybody else has a large collection of SciFi/Fantasy titles, or do you get them from the public library?

[Jim]

I guess I have a couple of thousand books, but I haven't really counted them. About 2/3 are SF/Fantasy. The rest are mostly nonfiction.

Some of the books were my father's. He had quite a few SF/Fantasy books, although quite a few were lost after he died. I know Mom gave away 3 big boxes that wouldn't fit on my Uncle's truck. It broke up quite a few sets like his collection of the Lancer edition of Conan. That had covers by Frazetta. Most of those paperbacks are in pretty poor shape as they're all at least 40 years old & have been read multiple times.

[Bradley]

I have lots and lots of books.. like 3 bookshelves full. Too many. =)

http://www.cardshark.com/content/view...

[Kevin]

I have about 20 8 foot shelves (i built them) most stacked 2-3 books deep I have read most of them and only keep good books I read. I estimate at about 7-10 thousand books mostly sci fi

[Bradley]

Wow, I am in awe. =)

www.myspace.com/dreamsbane

[Leigh]

Kevinalbee wrote: "I have about 20 8 foot shelves (i built them) most stacked 2-3 books deep I have read most of them and only keep good books I read. I estimate at about 7-10 thousand books mostly sci fi"

We used to have bookshelves made with cinder blocks and planks of wood. Now we have real bookshelves and they are stuffed to the rafters with books. Mostly non-fiction but lots and lots of Sci/Fi. I'm guessing about 1,000.

www.myspace.com/dreamsbane"

[Bill]

I have about 2-3000, primarily hardbacks. Many are packed away awaiting a new house we are building ourselves. These I Have not added here, yet. That will be fun, esp since I have slow dialup at home. And, many dont have ISBN numbers.

[Jon]

I own a few hundred, concentrated in fantasy. I tend to keep/collect a few signed hard cover first editions (or trade paperbacks if the book wasn't published first as a hard cover). I used to own many, many more. I've become very selective in my old(er) age and decided a few months ago to give away or trade probably 75% of what I owned via BookMooch or my local used book store. I'm down to one tall bookcase in my great room displaying the select collection and three smaller bookcases in other rooms for my in transit books (just mooched, just bought, not read, ready to mooch, etc.)

My life-long dream is to retire and build a house with a library at the top of a two or three story tower with a balcony for a telescope so I can also become an amateur astronomer.

[Jensownzoo]

Oooh. I like that idea, Jon! I myself was wanting a barn-like library with high shelves and rolling ladders, but I may have to throw it all over for a tower of books!

For SciFi/fantasy I estimate I have about 600-700 unread books and probably about 2x that read that I have kept. Maybe more. I'm slowly working on my GR bookshelves to help me keep track.

[David]

I no longer keep fiction. I donate them to various charity book sales. I have a hard enough time just keeping my reference books down to under a few hundred. I do that by limiting myself to two book shelves.

[Jim]

Jon, it's funny you should mention a great room with books. It's what I've always wanted, too. I always though a small church would make a great house with a little remodeling. I could put bookshelves up between windows & use them to create semi partitions in the room.

[Mary JL]

I have a one bedroom apartment and I have SIX bookcases doubled shelved please about 15 box in the walk in closet. Mostly sf and mystery---maybe 2/3 sf and 1/3 mystery.

I used to have a lot more--but I am starting to realzie I CAN"T keep everything! I swapped some at the used bookstore and donated some to the library book sale. Have a couple of really nice early Heinlein Hardcovers! Probably about 2,00 total.

[Damon]

I just gave away or sold about 2000 books. Those are the books I've retained since two(separate) house fire destroyed previous collections.

I spent some time torrenting to recover copies of previously read books. Ebooks are great and you can read em on your ipod in the dark!

[Cliff]

I have two bookcases with all sorts of genres, I would have more if I had more room in my house. Luckily, I work for a library, so I read a lot, I just can't buy more books. I have mostly paperbacks on my shelves, so I have somewhere around 100 books. I'm not of those people who can get rid of my books, I'm a pack rat! lol

[James]

I keep cleaning mine out as I keep running out of space. I tend to keep only those I really liked and that I possibly will read again. That's why I only have 400 or so.

I have a similar problem with comics. My loft is filled with boxes full of them!

[Amy]

In the last year we found LibraryThing.com online and posted our library to share with our friends. Our collection has listed about 420 science fiction/fantasy books, but we haven't managed to keep up with adding recently, so we definitely have more now! We're bookworms, and that is one of our favorite genres - aside from kids books for our children. Some of ours are still in boxes that we just couldn't give up and we don't have shelf space for them right now.

[Kevin]

I used to haunt a used book store in Manhattan KS. When I was in school. I would look for the oldest eddition of some of my favorite books. The owner quickly learned my tastes and would have a crate of these authors set aside for me to look through before placing on sale.

When I left Manhattan we would bump into eachother at the friends of the library sales across the state.

If you like rare books there is no better place to look and they are often in great condition

[Jon]

I love haunting used book stores. The owner of the Book Barn in downtown Leavenworth lets me dig through her back room/attic and I often find treasures there. It's a lot of work and dusty, but rewarding.

[Mary JL]

Jon: If you every visist Omaha, the three best used book stores are: Pageturners: Backshelf Books and Freindly used Books.

All three in the same area of town--the latter two are on the same street!

[Elizabeth]

I've never tried to count, but we've got about six bookshelves filled (some double packed) and several large rubbermaid containers filled with books in the basement (no shelf space - yet). And only plans to get more.

[Carolyn]

When we finished our basement a couple of years ago we created a room to be the office/library - something I've always wanted. It is lined with bookshelves (which are all full = ). Adding in the bookshelves in the master and guest bedrooms, we probably have upwards of 3,000 books - I'd say at least half of them are fantasy or science fiction, since they are my favorite genres.

[Nathaniel]

I got up to 100 and then sort of lost my place. I'm guessitmating 140. A large majority of those are media tie in (Star Trek/Wars).

And really doesn't account for the books I have on loan to friends.

[Stefan]

I have about 1000 books right now. I had many more, but I've recently donated and sold a lot of them. Right now I'm only keeping those books that I may want to re-read in the future. I basically decided to go for quality over quantity. Very liberating! Right now, any book I buy and don't absolutely love gets sold or donated to the library.

[Robin]

We used to have hundreds (if not a thousand books) but after a few moves we started getting rid of most of them and now only have about 200 "well picked" volumes across multiple genres

-- Robin The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha | Nyphron Rising (Oct 2009)