How many books do you own?

[Crusader]

I know this question has come up in another thread, but I thought it might be a good idea to have a dedicated thread for it.

While ebooks are all fine and well for the purposes of this thread we are talking about physical books, since they come with the inherent storage problems.

I've finished doing a catalog of the books I consider part of my collection and at this stage I'm at 170. These are books in the genres I like and would keep indefinitely.

I do have a few other books laying around but they are mostly some odds and ends which were included in batches of other books I wanted.

So how many do you have?

[Lu]

Will have to count when i have a moment :)

So... to be posted!

[Sarah]

Right now Im at 210, and it seems like the piles just keep growing(from gifts or through ebay, not that I'm complaining) XD , I've had to get a new book shelf the other day just because a lot of my books are still in boxes out in the garage or storage shed.

[[deleted user]]

Mmmmm ok, so I have real books and then I've got ebooks, so which count?

I only own books that I'd like to collect, usually like series... I will buy books that I really want a copy of, but I dont like to buy books that are out of series... (like have a copy of say The girl with the dragon tattoo, but not the others)
And I love going to the library....

Currently I'm standing at 100 or round about there

[Lauren]

I've got about 271, according to the "own" tag on my Goodreads shelf.

I've got two bookshelves, and to fit everything in I pack my books horizontally, according to size. It's going to be my goal next year to read more of the books I already own, and fewer new/borrowed ones, so that if I don't like any of them I can clear out some space!

[[deleted user]]

The thing with me is when I purchase a new book I just have to read it as quick as I can get time to...
I have some ebooks that are marked "own" on Goodreads :)

[Lauren]

Oh shit, I might have marked some of my e-book 'own' too. On the other hand, I often find that I've forgotten to mark my owned books with that tag, so hopefully it balances.

[[deleted user]]

Hehe... I sometimes forget to mark my books as owned to...

[Crusader]

I have a seperate 'own' shelf, but haven't added all the books on Goodreads. Finding the ones I missed is too much of a chore, so I'll come across them when I finally read them.

[[deleted user]]

Thats what I do, when I've read them I mark them as owned...

[Crusader]

I also use a great app on my Android phone. myBookDroid allows you to add books using the barcodes and you can arrange them in shelves too. Best of all it integrates with Goodreads too.

[[deleted user]]

Sounds so cool!

[Crusader]

It is! Nifty little app.

[Lu]

Nice app Crusader!

Sigh i'm too lazy to count my books now :(
Forgive me :)

[Crusader]

Here's a link to the MyBookDroid blog:
http://mybookdroid.blogspot.com/

Has some screenshots to show how awesome it looks. :)

[Lu]

Will check it out :) Thanks!

[Anne]

I have been collecting books forever and I am a terrible hoarder - I seldom swap out a book unless I am sure I won't wamt to read it again. I love series and prefer to collect a whole series before I start reading it. Of course, as books have got so much more expensive over the years I find myself going more for 'known' authors and usually buy 'trials' at book sales. I must have about 2,000 books (about 90% paperbacks) and as I live in a granny cottage nevertheless space is tight!

I have about 200 in my unread cupboard as, like another poster, I tend to haunt the library and due to time constraints those have to be read first.

One would think that being retired I would have more time for reading but I have recently been bitten by the knitting bug and the reading has suffered!

[[deleted user]]

Anne! I'm just like you... I also love collecting series.

[Lu]

Wow that is one big collection of books Anne :)

You will definitely benefit from the Book Hoarders challenge :)

Knitting is fun tho, so its understandable :)

[[deleted user]]

I can croche? dont know if thats the right spelling (jekel) I dont like knitting, I just cant get the hang of it!

[Anne]

I also crochet and at one stage could tat (haven't tried that for years). I lost interest for a long time (once my son grew up) but now that I have grandchildren (3-1/2) the needles are out again! I taught myself to knit and crochet when I was in the WRNS and posted in Northern Ireland. Most of what I do is either Aran or Fairisle so requires a fair degree of concentration.

[Anne]

Where do I find the Book Hoarders Challenge? Sounds just up my street!

[[deleted user]]

Wow Anne, ok I'm jelous becuase you sound so tallented!
What is tat?

[Anne]

Tatting is done with thread and a shuttle as opposed to a hook or needles. Similar to lace making but I never progressed very far with it. I think the furthest I went with it was making a collar and cuffs.

[[deleted user]]

Wow that sounds very difficult
When I was small I use to "tolletjie brei" not sure what you call it in english

[Anne]

Is that with a cotton reel and a hook. I can't remember what the English word would be.

[[deleted user]]

You have this wooden thingy (looks like a mushroom with the 4 little pegs at the top, sometimes its plain nails) and then the wooden thingy has a hole in the middle. You thread the wool over and under the pegs and push them down and stuff with a hook and then you get this "worm" of wool coming out the other side :)

[Anne]

Same thing. By the way, these are not talents but skills and can be acquired by anyone who is interested (and has a little patiencce!). I guess one can learn a lot, given the time, even computer skills (at 50+).

[[deleted user]]

Oh ok, hehe, I'm not sure what they call it in English, all I know is that its great fun when your small. My cousin use to make the longest "worms" and form little mats for my grandmother :)

[Lauren]

Anne wrote: "Where do I find the Book Hoarders Challenge? Sounds just up my street!"

Hi Anne, the Book Hoarder's challenge hasn't started yet - we're still voting on some themed challenges that will most likely start in November. If you like, you can vote for Book Hoarders (and 4 other challenges) here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewf...

The descriptions of all the nominated challenges are on the voting form. You can see how the voting is going so far here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...

It looks like Book Hoarders might win though - hope to have you there!

[Kacey Rai]

I have roughly 365 books. Mainly becuase the books I tend to read, I have to buy them to read them and I don't like giving away my books.

[Lauren]

Welcome Kacey Rai :)
I tend to hang on to my books as well - I only give books away if I really didn't like it or I have another copy. Even then I sometimes think twice.

[Barbara]

I have around 2000 books. About 1200 are books I will always keep. The other 800 are books that eventually will have to go because of the room the occupy. I have gotten a lot of books over the years from people who know I like books and were going to through them away and they aren't always to my liking but I have kept them. But as I keep buying more and more books some will have to go. I already got rid of some of them last year. I have 13 bookcases and the books are stacked horizontal because then you can fit more on a shelve and also there is a double row of books on one shelve because otherwise it won't fit.

Niecole wrote: When I was small I use to "tolletjie brei" not sure what you call it in english
I use to do that too when I was younger. In Dutch it is called "punniken". I have saved my longest "worm" as you call it and it is tens of meters long. I wanted to see how long I could make it and it is still on the wooden mushroom, so if I wanted to I could make it even longer.

[Lu]

I have 4 bookshelves full and a few scattered about :)

[[deleted user]]

Hey Barbara! Thats so cool... I use to love doing it when I was small.

Lu... should we all start collecting money to send to poor Mark to buy you more and more and more shelves :)

[Lu]

I think he would appreciate it :)

[[deleted user]]

Ok so we'll call it the Lu's Bookcase Charity hehe

[Lu]

Sweet!