How many unread books do you have at home?

[Cindy]

Know just what you mean Jessica! I need a vacation just to catch up on reading!! :)

[[deleted user]]

Kirsty said: (i created a shelf on here called 'own but not read yet' so that I could track them! That's a good idea, I think I'll steal it.

About 10, I think... now I'll have to go count, just to make sure I'm not lying to myself. I will include half-read ones... News at 10:00...

Edit: Not too bad - 14, some I didn't buy as they are bookcrossings, some I bought eons ago, and some are recent gifts and purchases.

Just remember, however, that the number is so low because I don't live where there are English second hand, thrift, etc. stores, otherwise I'd be in the same boat as everyone else. You can take the leopard out of the jungle, but you can't change its spots, or whatever that maxim is...

[Sonya]

Oh, gosh. They're all over the place, would be quite a project to count. And yes, there are the partially read ones. Lately I've been clustering them into small groups of 2-3 and plowing through them, though. And every time, I think to myself, what took me so long to get to this? I needed this! I've also taken to using the public library much more; I tend now to read a book first before deciding to acquire it.

I love that Mark Twain quote from several posts back. I have a running joke with a friend who, when I ask if he's seen a certain popular movie, always answers, "No, but I feel I have."

[Liz]

Terri wrote: "I ahve a couple thousand. But at least I always have something to read no matter what my mood. LOL"

Terri, I LOVE your response ... now I feel better about having so many unread books!

[Stephanie]

I have at least 201 plus some that I didn't bother to put on my OWN BUT HAVE NOT READ shelf...many of them were given to me so I don't feel to bad about having so many. Everyone knows I love books so all the used ones come my way=)

[Jody]

80. :( I counted them all the other day and was saddened when I had to tell myself no more, until I can get through at least 20 or more.

My boyfriend is not a reader and hates to see them all piled around the house. You should of seen his face when I told him how many there were ... LOL

[Lori, Super Mod]

Jessica, I have to agree with you.
It does get worse the longer you are on here.
I used to have a three book rule. Only three unread books at a time. No new ones till the third one is started.

Then I joined here.
And slowly and surely lost my hold on reality and all rules I had in place.

I have just about 100 unread books now. But in my defence, I have been hitting library sales since summer time and bringing home 20 or 30 books a pop for 20 bucks. So how can I not????!!!!

[Becky]

Soon, soon I will be out of triple digits!

I'm at 101 now, and I'm almost 1/2 done with "American Gods", and I think then I'm gonna read another quickie Grisham and then I'll be at 99! (Baby steps!)

[Alisha Marie]

I've got about 90 and two more on the way from paperbackswap. But in my defense, I don't pay full price for books. I do ebay, thrift stores, and library sales. And I only bought like three B&N books recently and that's because they were part of the 50% off holiday sale. So, as long as I'm not going bankrupt, I tend not to feel too guilty.

[Becky]

Fiona, you need to spend a weekend organizing and cataloging your books so you know exactly what you have!

[Jill]

Since I just found two more, evidently I have more than I thought.

[Linda]

If I respond to this question, then I will have to go into therapy for my OCD. Because...........I have too many books unread and still keep buying all the new ones that intrigue me from GR member recommendations. Remember the program Cheers? Oops, am I dating myself. Well, long story short, they know me by name at the discount book store, know how much credit I have when I walk in the door and know what I have been looking for lately. Sad, but true.

Oh, btw, my therapist thanks you all for driving me over the edge.

[Cindy]

Ha Ha, love your post Linda! I know exactly what you mean!

[Fallon]

Out of 360 approximate books, about 200 are unread.. i'm buying a lot faster than i read... on a book buying ban...until i catch up a bit!

[Cindy]

Woo Fallon, you make me feel better! Guess I can buy more and not feel so bad about it, till I catch up with you! ha :) Book bans never work for me, especially since goodreads! Well, it's my one indulgence and it could be worse. I could love to buy $300 purses or something like that! Me, I get excited when I find a book I've read about on here and only pay a dollar or two for it!

[Danielle]

I have literally over 200 books I have yet to read...most are mine but my grandmother just died a little over two years ago and left me all of her books (I have yet to make a visible dent in the bookcase). I also have this obnoxious drive to buy a new book as a kind of reward for finishing a book, so my stacks never decrease...

[Mosca]

It seems that what many of us have in common is a boatload of unread books lying about at home.

That seems to me to be much better arrangement than not having enough books to read. :)

[Fallon]

Well, i'm at least glad to see i'm not alone, it makes me feel somewhat better, not that i felt bad, i love looking at my nice full bookshelves! It's my one indulgence, i don't buy expensive clothes or shoes.. i just get my books! and i've always been happy with that!

[[deleted user]]

Go, Becky! Go! Defense! Block that Kick... *oops* wrong sport...

Soon, soon I will be out of triple digits!

[Becky]

Thanks for the encouragement, Hayes! "American Gods" is taking longer than I had hoped (I wanted to be done with it in 3 days, max- but that didn't happen thanks to my GR addiction!)

Oh well, hopefully I can finish it tomorrow and make up some time on my next book. :)

[[deleted user]]

I have now reached 25 on the owned and unread list. My box just arrived from Amazon (3 of those were the 3 volumes of the Divine Comedy, so that doesn't count really, does it?!) and I've got a bunch of half read scientific things... I'm trying to make myself feel better here! Well, I have enough raw material now, along with my library card, to last me for the rest of the year I think. Now I'm on hold... (yea, sure, I believe you, lady, when there's millions wouldn't...)

[Sara ♥]

I'm not supposed to consider my husband's books as "unread", right? Unless I intend to read them? And what about our shared copy of Eragon and Eldest? They're technically read. I haven't read them, but he has.... :)

[Gabby]

I actually have no un-read books, unless you are counting the ones my sister bought.

[rebecca j]

OK, this weekend I got totally OCD and sorted my books on new shelves, and counted books in my house that I haven't read. (Not including any that my daughters own!) I have 258 owned, not-read books sitting in my house! And that doesn't include any on the front porch shelves, a few non-fiction books, teaching books, children's books, or books in the shed! Guess I'm as obsessed by books as anyone else around here! At least now I have them organized in one area so I know what I haven't read!

[Jensownzoo]

Wow. Way to go Rebecca! Sounds like an ideal weekend to me. Maybe I'll plan something like that for my vacation time in May? I need some organization very badly so I quit buying duplicates! Thank goodness for bookmooch so I can exchange the dupes for books I don't have!

[Catamorandi]

I have about 50 books at home, but I have about 3100 in my TBR list. I guess I should start whittling that down, huh?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Unread books? I thought that's what TBR was! LOL. I have about 40 awaiting my attention.

[Marie]

I must have at least 150 unread books! The problem is, everytime I see an interesting book on GR I go to the library and pick it up....at this rate I will never get to the books in my 'unread pile'! It has gotton so bad that if I hit the 1/2 price store, I actually leave the books in my trunk because I am too embarrased to bring them in the house! My favorite saying..."I should live long enough to read all these books!"

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Marie wrote: It has gotton so bad that if I hit the 1/2 price store, I actually leave the books in my trunk because I am too embarrased to bring them in the house!"

LOL! There is a Border's in the Seattle airport and whenever I go someplace, there is always at least a 2 hour layover. I can resist on my way someplace, because of weight and luggage space, but not on my way home. I have to sneak my purchases in the house - no way can I tell my husband I stopped at Border's at the airport.

[Becky]

I'm working my way down... I started with 113 owned and unread, and I'm down to 93. Double digits again is good, right?

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

That's great, Becky!

[Marie]

You know as I am reading over all these comments, I can't help thinking that we could have far worse obsessions than collecting books to read! I mean really, there are some strange things going on out there! And all we are doing is collecting hundreds and hundreds of book to read in the near future! ha ha ha!

[Maureen]

I decided to get serious about adding all of my owned to be read books to my goodreads shelf - I'm up to 138 books, and I've still got approx. 4 shelves of books to add! I'd never counted all of my unread books before - yikes! *slinks off to "I must not buy any more books thread*

[Lianne]

Right now I have 10 unread books on my shelf; by the end of this coming week, it'll likely be more since my course union is holding a book sale on Wednesday and I've already put some books aside that I'm planning on purchasing myself *blushes*

[Lisa]

I have between 45 and 50. I have pretty much stopped buying books, but I keep going to the library. So I read library books instead of the ones I have sitting around.

[Carol]

At home I house thousand of books I never read. My father used to read some stuff, and my mo eats books too. But time to time I read one of her books, and she reads mines.

That I bought and didn´t read yet, I only have 3 o/

[Liz]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Marie wrote: It has gotton so bad that if I hit the 1/2 price store, I actually leave the books in my trunk because I am too embarrased to bring them in the house!"

LOL! There is a Border's in t..."

Okay, both of these posts make me giggle because I am living abroad this year and my boyfriend tried to tell me to stop buying books, but he gave me 2 for my birthday and when I mentioned what he had said he pronounced, "Oh, sod it." However, if we ever got married it could get that crazy!

[Anna]

I keep a list of all the books that I want and cross it off the list when I get it--helps me keep track so I don't buy duplicates. I am however upgrading my paperback Stephen King books into Hardcover ones when I come across them at doscount stores etc...

As for unread books the number is unknown --I always buy more books than I can read at one time--but I always have something waiting for me when I get done with a book. I would guess about 50-60 unread books are on my shelf and growing.

[Fiona (Titch)]

If you want the truth, I have 831 that are on my TBR pile in my bedroom lol.

Using 6 bookcases and 4 piles on the floor. 1st pile is library books, 2nd pile is what books have been started and piles 3 & 4 are whats not able to be fitted on my bookcases lol.

[Christina]

I have too many to even begin to list. I recently started tackling them, starting with "The Good Earth" which I've had since high school. I'm glad I did, because I loved it.

Some of the others that are top on my list to finally read include some Fitzgerald, more Sherlock Holmes stories, and many other classics.

I tend to buy books faster than I can read them. I love owning books.

[Becky]

Wow Fiona. That's a lot. Good luck! I'm currently down to 80 (give or take a couple that I've received in trades and am not adding to the "official" list), so I am definitely making progress from my original 113! *pats myself on the back*

[Tara]

I admit, I have over one hundred, although I don't have the exact number. I do have an inventory list, but it's with the books that have to be boxed since I don't have enough shelf space. I keep them in rotation though, and when I finish books, I replace them with new books to read on the shelf. But I do remember buying/accumulating them all, and there are no repeats! That counts for something, right?

[rebecca j]

Fiona - you made me feel better! My family is always saying I have too many books, but it sounds like you are as stocked up as I am! Here's to us book addicts!

[Liz]

Fiona wrote: "If you want the truth, I have 831 that are on my TBR pile in my bedroom lol.

Using 6 bookcases and 4 piles on the floor. 1st pile is library books, 2nd pile is what books have been started and p..."
If that's just the bedroom, dare I ask if you keep your TBR in other rooms of the house?!?!?

[Kristen]

I don't know that I want to know.. maybe I'll count... one day.. I know I have about 40 library books I want to read.. (no I never get to all of them...)

[Eva-Marie]

Wow- I'm feeling really obsessive at the moment. I have a little less than 700 right now and I buy, order, or mooch (bookmooch.com) every single day almost. At least 5 days out of 7 anyway.
Yikes...I knew it was a bit much but maybe it's a bit more than I thought. I expected the numbers from people to be way higher.
I like having so many books though because sometimes I'm in a certain mood and want something specific. I have almost every kind of book imaginable and it's nice that if I feel like a non-fiction story I have my pick from not just a dozen but hundreds.

[Paula]

I have somewhere between 1200 and 1500 (maybe more, I stopped counting). When my older son moved out, I made his room into a library and so have a lot of space there as well as a couple of closets, under the bed drawers and of course other bookshelves. I do 3 challenges a year which helps me go through my older books and pick them out to read so I do read my older ones. But, I never run out of choices!!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Paula wrote: "I have somewhere between 1200 and 1500 (maybe more, I stopped counting). When my older son moved out, I made his room into a library and so have a lot of space there as well as a couple of closets,..."

Paula, you have only 6 books on your To Read shelf! I wanted to know what some of those 1200 are!

[Eva-Marie]

Thanks for making me feel more normal paula! LOL You have almost twice as many as I do (at your last count anyway!). Next time my family looks at me like I'm nuts I'm going to have to dig this post up to show them I'm not the only one!
How I wish I had a bedroom to turn into a library. Do you have shelves along the walls?

[[deleted user]]

I would have to say that I have about 100 or so books that I need to so read and I haven't unpacked them all from the time I moved in order to curl up in a big comfy chair or my bed and actually read them. I would have to say that I have too many that I can get from the Library and then end up buying them for myself at the bookstore.

Some books I have from being an English major at one time and others that I am starting to rack up on are all of the music reference/composer biographies. But I have numerous ones on the I want to read list and I just want the time to read them all.