The Next Best Book Club discussion
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How many unread books do you have at home?
Charity and Jeremy, you hit home for me.My sister and dad are always giving me new books to read, and I bump down the books high on my reading list (or the ones in my home) to fit in the borrowed books. Still, I don't feel I give them back in a timely manner.
If you include my borrowed books, I have another 7 books in my house. If you include books others own that I've already requested to borrow, you can probably add another 20 onto that list!
Ken, I lurrrve the way you describe bibliomania via osmosis - I too have a stockpile of unread books that number oooh, I don't know how many!!Here in Malaysia there's a company called PayLessBooks that have 'warehouse sales' every so often. Imagine 5 hardcovers going for RM30 (that's RM6 a book, works out to about just over US$1 per book!) and yes, trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks going for even less. So the lure to stockpile is very very real hahaha
My birthday is today, and my hubby bought me a Kindle so now I will be reading my regular books plus my ebooks - how will I ever get anything else done? The cool thing is that The Book of Lost Things is on Kindle. It will be my first purchase - wahoo!
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Happy Birthday Sera!!!I'm at work and have 3 sitting beside me. How sad. Okay so they are at least started and I need variety. It is a 14 hour shift after all!! Think I will sign off and try to work on one of them. I don't want to think anymore about the bending shelves at home.
Yah right who am I kidding!!
Thank you all very much! It was an awesome day (and weekend).
You got a Kindle! That is cool. I only found out about those about 3 months ago and I was so excited I sent a link to a few friends and took my laptop home just to show my wife the demo video. She stopped watching after about 5 seconds. I love real books and never want to see them go away, but I could see myself with a Kindle sooner than later.
Let us know how you like it!
Let us know how you like it!
I have 31 physical books but I have another 29 audiobooks saved on my iPod that I'm needing to get to. It's a sickness really. But I wouldn't cure it for the world.
Happy Birthday, Sara! What a cool gift.
I had 75 yesterday but then Borders called and Fallen by David Maine was there for me to pick up, so I guess now I have 76. However, I was a good boy and ONLY picked up Fallen .
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Scott,are you going to be reading your copy of Fallen any time soon?I'd love to read at the same time.Are you interested?
I like Bree's idea - buy a book as a treat each week she loses weight. I never thought of that but it's a great reason/excuse. I must have about 10 novels (and 3-4 non-fiction) sitting on my shelf to read. No, I don't have great restraint - my husband complains about the clutter if I let too many pile up...If it weren't for my husband, the house would probably littered with books. I see his point that I should finish one before I get another - but how can I resist when I see a book I really want to read?! (and there are so many of them!) If anyone figures out how to get lots of time to read and still manage to write, will you let me know?!Dianne Ascroft,
author, 'Hitler and Mars Bars'
I travel throughout 5 counties for my job, and I go where my boss sends me---however, I volunteered to work a ten-hour day and take the far haul. Why? Because I have stumbled upon the cutest little bookstore you ever saw! It is about as big as my bathroom (which is big enough for a shower, toilet and sink- no linen closet, no counter) and houses about 2,000 books with new ones coming in 4 days a week. Mmmmm...Heaven. Totally worth it!
April, that sounds like the quaintest little bookstore ever. I had a similar experience when I was in Philadelphia this past January for a conference. In the Reading Terminal Market across the street was the cutest little stall selling various used books. The selection wasn't too impressive until I started talking to the lady working there and she showed me what she had stashed behind the counter. I needed to buy a spare bag to take home everything I scored.
Not sure how many exactly since i have 3 book boxes sitting in the garage I still haven't got to yet.But there at least 45 sitting on my book shelf.
You know what's funny I just told you all that I have 75 UNREAD BOOKS at my house, and no one even blinked, some of you have more than I do and it doesn't phase any of us in the least. I think thats F U N N Y .
Trip to the cutest little bookstore:Stephen King x2: $6
Harlen Coben: $1
A green leather-bound book that's totally written in Latin: $1
Spanish version Audiobook of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (Man of La Mancha): $3
Assorted fluff (romances to read while waiting on clients): $3
Herman Hesse: $1
J D Salinger: $1
Books to round my total to $20: $4
Leaving the store with an armful of treasures, none of which were on my TBR list: Priceless
Perfect, April! Especially the "Books to round my total to $20"
Scott, I know isn't it great? My husband was recently telling someone that I "must have at least 10 unread books on my shelves". Oh dear god, if only he knew!
My Goodness. I am a book fanatic so I am sure there is like 100. I have three huge bookshelves at home and currently got one for my new baby. I leave many of them at my office because I am running out of room at home. I tell my hubby that I read them so when I buy a new one he can't get mad!
But I have too manynow and I am considering this my addiction!
I'm headed to B&N today to get my fix for book buying - shhh - don't let my husband know :)
Well, I would say a good 30 at least. I really try not to count the ones on my bookshelf that are waiting for me.My problem is that once I start a series that I like, I need to have all the books to read in order and I will not read one unless I have read the one before it.
My husband is trying to persuade me to join his line of thought which is, " if the next book is not hinged on the book before then why must you read them in order". Does this man not understand?
So funny....I have two bookshelves, a bedside table top and a bedside table drawer of unread, "to-be-read" books. I am a member of paperbackswap.com, so I do exchange read books often, but I have a tendency to "order" too many once I get browsing. I also have a habit of just running into a bookstore, thrift store, garage sale, etc and coming out with my arms loaded with more "to-be-read books". Oh well... I know I will get to them all some day! I just joined this site in order to keep my lists - maybe that will help me stay organized about my reading.
I have at least 100 right now that I haven't gotten to yet...everyone needs a treat right??!! At least books don't have calories!
I just counted my home library and I have 577 books on my shelf...whew! But I have 34 I need to read, that is not counting the ones I picked up from this Saturday's garage sales. I better get on it! PLus I think I was good today because I went to Books A Million and only walked out with a book for my mom! I am soo happy! But was drawn by the new book, The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson...lol
On my shelf, I have 27. On my TBR list, I have 3,something. I guess I had better get cracking, huh? I got a lot of work to do.
Maddie you have self control! My son earned the Free book at B&N and $100 later I walked out. So much for a free book.
I have a ridiculous amount of books that sit on my book shelves unread. But then, I come from a place where the library holds semi-annual buy a bag/box of books for a dollar sale, where I come out with 50 books for oh, say 2$ and they aren't cast off rejects either, they are treasures!! Plus my dad works at a school, and at the end of the year when teachers are giving away old books, guess who winds up getting them. Also, I'm very in the library habit, and always check books out and never read what I own.
How many book have you bought that are still sat on your shelves at home? 109And out of those, how many do you not remember buying? 75%
And finally, how many duplicates do you have? None
None? No duplicates? (shock, horror!) How do you do it Andrew? I have a number of duplicates despite being methodical and carrying a printout of my books to a book sale...
Leppaluoto, you live in my ideal house.Well kind of, I guess my ideal house would contain a library like the one in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, ha ha.
Hahaha April, and so I am not alone in this aspect either! I watch a movie / tv, and always notice the house's library/study more than anything else!
Leppaluoto - I can relate, we have about that number of books here at our house. I think they breed, as well as sometimes mysteriously disappearing when wanted (as right now, I know we have Path Between the Seas, but can't find it).
That sounds lovely, ah furniture. I hate when people don't give books back as well, what bibliophile doesn't?
Kataklicik, LOL, I am exactly the same. If there is a bookshelf on TV I am always pressed up against the screen trying to see what's on the shelf. Ken, I am the same about lending books out. The only people I will lend to are my parents cos I know they will look after them, but I have had far too many not returned too and have stopped lending. I lent Life of Pi out 4 years ago (it's one of my favourite books) and I still haven't got it back and so recently I went and bought myself another copy but I am miserable about it becasue it is not THE ONE that I read and that matters to me. Does that make sense?
Speaking of checking out bookshelves, we went away this weekend and stayed in an old manor house (hotel) and there was a huge bookshelf in the hall with hundreds of old leatherbound books and as soon as we got though the door I was practically sprinting over to it. My poor husband just looked on in dispair and said "for god's sake, we haven't even checked in yet".
None? No duplicates? (shock, horror!) How do you do it Andrew....I don't know, but being in highschool and preparing to go to college have taught me eceptional orginazational skills. I am mad about going to college becuase my parents aren't going to let me majore in theatre or in Literature. So I ahve to double major so I can major in International buisness and theatre. It is kind of maddening, because my first choice is literature, but they won't even let me double major in it. Unethical parents.
Well after reading other people's numbers I don't feel so bad. Currently I have 31 books that I own. I've acquired most of them thanks to my co-workers who read and then give away their books. I happily snatch them. Others I've gotten because they were required reading from college. I've kept them because their classics or have touched me in some way.Out of the 31 I have 14 unread. This is only because I have a library addiction. Many of you can probably sympathize....you go to the library and want to check out every book they have to offer. I then only read the library books and never get to the ones I have at home. I am really trying to battle this addiction, but everytime I drop a pile of books off the sight and smell of books just draws me in. *sigh*
Oh, always the fiction and non-fiction separate! And history has its own (very large) section, of course.Don't have that many albums, but my father measures his collection in cubic feet at this point, I think!
You can add four more to my list, making the total 31 books that are unread on my shelves.
I will have to take a heck of a lot more foriegn language courses if I am doing international business. Hmm...that is a good idea. I will have to try that. thanks Leppaluoto
I couldn't even fathom a guess...in another post I mentioned that I just filled a 4-shelf bookshelf with books that I haven't read. I have far more than that though, but I left a lot of them boxed up for now (we don't have the room to unpack them yet)...we just moved into our new home in April and we have limited space until my husband can build us some bookshelves.
I find that one of my favorite movies is You Got Mail.I love the bookshelves in so many of the characters homes.I find myself glued to the screen trying to see if I can pick out any of the titles.
The Next Best Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (other topics)Presumed Innocent (other topics)
Where the Heart Is (other topics)
The Black Book (other topics)
Norwegian Wood (other topics)
I started reading consistently again when my son was born--at the beginning of his life I had lots of time to read while sitting around the house, or nursing and pumping. I must have read 40+ books during his first 10 months of life (compared with much less than that previously).
I got into the amazon.com clearance list, and joined the borders club, and started a little book-buying addiction. A few months ago, I forced myself to stop buying books (or getting them from the library, or borrowing from friends) to try and put a dent in my "to read" and "already owned" list. I'm now at 15 books bought to read. But, most of them are at my sister's house (she just had a baby, see previous paragraph).
I LOVE used book stores, but try to avoid them if I can. My husband doesn't share my book addiction, and I could spend hours in a used book store and come out with boxes of purchases. Same thing with the library.
BTW, my to-read lists tally 158 right now, and I'm deliberately not adding some books listed in this group right now!