Children's Books discussion
Conversations: books & readers
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How many books do you own?
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I couldn't say how many I own. I just love to read. Better than what's on TV usually. I know I have at least 1000-1500 books.
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My goal for buying books is to buy books that I want to keep forever, such as favorite picture books and favorite series. Not all of the books I acquire I buy; some I do get for free.
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My favourite description of a bibliophile's library in children's literature is Vicky Austin's grandfather's library in Meet the Austins). He converted (I think) an old barn into one huge library and while his living space is miniscule, his thousands of books basically fill the barn like library shelves.
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I've read that book and own it actually. I like Madeleine L'Engle. Talk about barns. There is a used book store up in Niantic, CT that I've been to once--it's an old barn with several (and I mean several) outbuildings full of books of all kinds. A book lover's dream. All used and some new and very reasonably priced.
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Sounds lovely, but my own dream is to travel one day to Hay-on-Wye in Great Britain, which supposedly has the most used book stores in the world.
I've given away hundreds, I still have hundreds. I just know that, I've never counted.
Sounds interesting. Would love to see the British Isles, Ireland and Scotland.
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I buy way too many used books - piles and piles from thrift stores when I go on vacation, everything that looks interesting.
I do have on my wishlist a few that just look wonderful but aren't in my library system, and gradually I buy them from half.com. And I do have a few that I want to reread over and over again that I'm looking to buy.
I almost never buy newly published books, or books that are new. Sometimes I feel bad that I'm not supporting authors, but I just can't let it bother me too much.
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These days, I usually only buy books I have read about in advance (usually on GoodReads) and I tend to buy used though in rare cases I will buy new if I really want to support an author but most of the time I can't afford that. I will also buy a book if it's one I borrowed from the library and really loved, enough to want to re-read it someday in the future. Our library sale is wonderful and we can "fill a (grocery) bag" for $5 so we get a lot of books there, especially the children's picture books.
I'm really in deep trouble with my collections. I have special bookshelves built all over the house and still don't have enough room. A couple thousand I would guess.
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This is actually in Wales, almost straddling the border between England and Wales (also close to Offa's Dyke).
I gave away about half of my collection of children's books to a school. It was 1,200 books. I still have the rest, plus my grownups books - mostly cartoons and comics (including some from around the world), science fiction, and education-related books.
I don't buy books anymore but from all the way back prior to my birth, even though I had to give up most of them at one point, I have at least 6,000, maybe as many as 10,000, but I don't think that many. I think within a few years I'll have to get rid of all but a few hundred, unfortunately.
I used to have well over a thousand, but I've given many to charity shops, because I want to eventually get to a point where I just have ebooks, because I find that so much simpler. I still have several hundred books left - my bookcases don't even look that different from before I gave away all those books!
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I hope you don't have to give up all of your books, Lisa. But with the amount of books you do have, I can certainly understand that you are not buying any more books. I'm always making myself this promise (or even this dictate), but going out with a person who is even more a bibliophile than I am (and his daughter is the same), if we pass by a used book store (which we do if we run across one, especially one selling rare and older books), the three of us simply often cannot just walk by and then if/when we enter, buy books; it's an addiction.
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I definitely am :-)
This is the reason I became a Children's Librarian, because then I wouldn't have to buy all the books, I could get them at the library. The pact I made with my husband, was that I wouldn't buy any books that I could get at the library and I only put the ones on my Amazon wish list that the system or neighboring one do not have. We got a classics collection from both parents when they downsized. I have 3 bookshelves in my bedroom of fantasy and mysteries, then there are the cases in my husbands office and the family room. One son has also bought all the Big Nate and Bone? Books, with his Amazon gift cards...
If I could count them I wouldn't have enough!
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I have too many to count. Let's just say that I have 4 shelves that have two layers of books that I haven't even read yet. They are really pretty to look at.
Since I have moved way too many times, I try to keep my library at about 150. I buy, read and donate excess to the local library's book sales. My core 150 are books I can read with delight again and again and again.
I also have way too many books to count and if I could get my books I owned shelf straighten out, I probably would see how many I actually have.
All I know is that I own so many books it makes me never want to rearrange my room because I'd have to move all those books! :-)My criteria for buying a book is that I know it'll get read more than one or two times.
I can relate, Gundula. I have a difficult time resisting a book sale. All the other members of my family are the same. The idea of a library in a barn is appealing!
It's a constant battle - books vs space (I think books are winning)! Between 500 and 600 I'd say. Can we include ebooks or is that a no-no (few space probs there).
Ebooks count if you want them to, although I personally don't care for them. :)
Raevyn wrote: "Ebooks count if you want them to, although I personally don't care for them. :)"I also don't care for ebooks that much. I rather have the real book in my hands!
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Um... thousands? Some are double-parked on bookshelves. I am slowly culling some of the adult books in order to have room for more children's books. I started cataloging my books on librarything, but that project has stalled out. I would rather read.I like my e-reader, but I find I only use it when I'm on vacation. I would much rather have a real book.
Love this question for booklovers. Thanks for asking!A couple thousand? Every room except the kitchen has at least one wall lined with books, even bedrooms. At one point there were stacks of books lining the hallways (in front of the bookshelves).
I still have my childhood favorites, college favorites (majored in English), young adult favorites, and so on. Lots of the books are kids' books, as I'm a reading specialist. Never know what grade level kid I might have to work with!
I guess there's hope with ebooks! I'm envious of people with built in bookshelves!
I have at least 600 (probably more, since the last time I counted was last year). A lot of them were free, but when I buy, the premise just has to sound good--and it shouldn't cost too much, because I hate spending money OR making people spend money on me, if that makes sense....just a moral thing.
Also, have you ever bought A WHOLE SET OF TERRIBLE BOOKS? I found the Heartland series on eBay a few years ago, and now I hate them, but I feel obligated to read them because they're there, lol.