how many books do you actually own? and keep in your house?

2 bookshelves in the living room, at least 2 large packing boxes in the loft and 2 more at mums house, keep meaning to give some to the charity shops but can't bear to, so happily donate clothes, shoes, bags etc instead :)

Many. Maybe even LOTS.

Ikea Billy tall bookcases times 5 plus a little one which is all cookbooks in the kitchen. And the "To Read" shelf in my bedroom - about another 10 on there at any one time!

Then there's the boxes which are actually not in my house but still at my parents' place - enough to stock a reasonably sized branch library with child/teen friendly books, I think.

That's just mine. DBoyf is just as bad, and there's even an overlap!

We have about 1.5 - 2 thousand I should imagine - they are everywhere

I cannot give books back either

Thousands, and would probably have more if my mother hadn't callously thrown away all my Famous Five and other Enid Blyton books ie the Mystery series, the Adventure series, etc., that I meticulously collected as a child.

She threw them out after I left home to get married in my 20's. I was heartbroken...and it still rankles now that I am 50!

I used to keep all my books, even the trashy chick-lit ones, but I have learn't to be more selective in my dotage. But I still have all my university books - I was known for buying all my books instead of queuing up for the few copies that were available in library. Was I mad? I just thought they would be good for reference during my career, but I've hardly ever gone back to them and their ideas/practices are probably now out of date!

On reflection, probably a good time to have clear out and make room for some new books!!!!

Is it a competition who has more? Why you keep them at home? It doesnt mean you like reading. YOU LIKE KEEPING . I think, if you really like reading, you can go to the library. There are lots of books....

I have lots, probably in the 1000 area, but I'm quite good about disposing of stuff I'm not going to read again. Mention of libraries earlier made me think about my two favourites, non-real and would love to have one of these, the library in Disney's Beauty & the Beast my favourite scene in the film and favourite real library is the one at Arundel Castle!

As a young 'un with no money I raided the libraries. I eventually had to change memberships from my wee local library to a bigger library in a neighbouring town because I'd read all the books my local one had.

But owning books and being able to dip back in whenever I pleased, and not suffering the rage of finding a beloved book rented out by some other reader-person - oh how I aspired to that. I saved all my pocket money and began my collection. I think I literally bought nothing else for my whole adolescence. I think my parents (not particularly great readers) were vaguely bemused by my voracity for words, but indulged my obsession; probably rightly figuring that there were far worse things for me to be so delighted by.

I still recall the anguish of my maternal grandfather dying while we were on holiday and my aunt (to spare my mother and her other sisters the trouble) clearing out his house - including his incredible library of musty leather-bound antique tomes by throwing them away. I missed the walls of books as much as I missed my grandfather, terrible as that is to say. I am grateful to this day that before he died he had trustingly loaned me everything he had by Sir Walter Scott and (randomly) my late grandmother's Mrs Beeton (said Mrs Beeton is now 104 years old) and I have them in all their frail glory. Gems of my collection. For the books themselves and for the memories.

I am very bad about letting go of my books, rarely giving them away and never lending them out if I am remotely attached to them (except to one BIL who also adores books and can be completely trusted to return them in precisely the same state he received them) the only books I have ever donated to charity have been cheapie paperbacks which I have thoroughly not enjoyed - quite a small list really as I do love reading all manner of things.

DH jokes that we may have to buy another house just for my books one day. DH may find one day that he is not really joking at all. When we moved in together I brought 30 tea crates of belongings - 27 of those crates were chock full of books (the others were full of shoes well, and some clothes and my good kitchen knives) and the collection (books, not shoes or knives) has only grown over the years.

I'm not particularly attached to anything else, but my books are very, very precious to me [insert silly twat emoticon here?]

Prob about 2,000 inc childrens books. My parents also have thousands, lining the walls in many rooms. God know what will happen if I get bequeathed them. I cannot throw away books. Likewise records/tapes/CD's, not to mention photos. A whole house stuffed with memories crap thats me

I've never counted ? but 100s in each room. Ragwort's comment about expecting to have to clear out her parents' books in due course has struck a chord, as mine have 1000s.

However...can I recommend a book called 'Howards End is on the Landing' by Susan Hill? She decided not to buy any books for a year but to re-read as many as possible of those she already had, & then compile a list of her top 40. Have not yet had the courage to try it myself, but think it would concentrate the mind wonderfully.

About 4-5,000; half of those would be children's books. We are slowing down on what we buy now.

No idea. 1000s. Some in every room including the loos and hall. One staircase has books on every step.

Delia something like this'll do me, with the living quarter's tagged on the side

ooohhh a library! Heaven!

oh I agree with you all. Have loads of books and still growing! LOVE LOVE LOVE going into bookshops so calming, ALWAYS judge people by their books!! and I am also studying with the OU for a degree so two more years and I can read all the books I keep buying. I also have a list of books I want to buy- Amazon and the Book Depository is lethal!

We have 3 floor to ceiling Ikea Billy bookcases in the hall, 2 in the lounge ( but I am looking to put another in there), 2 in the dining room, 1 on the landing, 3 in my DC1's room, 1 in DC2&3's room, 1 in our room ( and moving things to add another one). All bookcases are double stacked and jigger to get as many shelves in as possible. There are still books piled in all sorts of corners as well. We love our books and so do the DC. We reread tons and buy lots from charity shops as well as new.

My dream is to have a house with a library ( still have tons of bookcases elsewhere though :) )

I do understand that, TheBride. Certainly one of the first times we moved away, we left pretty much everything in self-storage in Dublin (apart from what would fit in the car. Guess how many books you can fit in a Fiat Punto?!). When we came back, I felt weird about the stuff we had left, and would have happily ebayed the lot, had ebay been invented at that stage (especially the iron and the hoover!).

But books are my little friends!

You are certainly redeemed though, in the circumstances. There was a film where I think it was people in Japan were living in little horizontal broomcupboards to save space. That's where I am imagining you, totally surrounded by hardbacks!

sticky Prob shouldnt admit this, but I can't do storage- it makes me feel weighed down with stuff. It's either in this house or in the bank, or I don't own it. We had some bits in storage when we were in the ME, and then I got in an irrational stress about it and told my mum just to e-bay it all and keep the money for her troubles. However, the closest I come to liking "stuff" is books, so I can definitely see why people love them and I do feel jealous when I go to people's houses in the UK and they have walls of lovely floor to ceiling bookshelves in their 20ft x15ft sitting room with all their books on them.

My problem is, HK apartments are tiny, I hate clutter, and I hate clutter more than I love owning books. I do keep my hardbacks though. Am I redeemed?

sticky - love your logic - i'd sooner leave the children behind

you can't get rid of any, Fanjo!

the bookseller lives inside you, you know.
you can take the bookseller out of the bookshop, but you can't take the bookshop out of the bookseller!

I have loads as I used to be a bookseller but need to de-clutter so seriously wondering about getting rid of some :(

TheBride - we have moved a lot, too, and the effect has been that we've bought lots of books from different places! Thing is, it's a bit like saying that it's inconvenient having to move your children as well - it is of course, but you do it anyway. Thus the favourite books move too, and the rest go into storage containers (apparently you can't do that with the dc). And we pick our rented flats on the basis of shelf space (oh yeah, and bedrooms for the dc to sleep in!). The dc are amassing huge book collections too.

I do give away the ones I don't like (books, not children) and use the library too. They just seem to keep arriving.

I agree with sentiment entirely. Except with books.

Ok, going to break with the consensus- probably only a few hundred between DH and I. Couple of reasons why

• I borrow a lot of books from other people, and lend on a "just pass it down the line" basis.
• I give what I've read to charity shops as I never read the same book twice
• I have a Kindle
• We live overseas and move a lot (every couple of years) so try to keep personal effects to a minimum as storage tends to be crappy in rentals

and

• "Stuff" I own always oppresses me, the less the better. Yes! Me too! I always say this and people think I'm odd, so glad there are at least two of us. I always used to say that if you cant get your life in your car, you've got too much stuff

Christine - agree - and people who put ornaments on bookshelves and then use bookends to separate them - they're just odd.
put the ornaments on the windowsill and use the bookcases for books

we're decorating our beroom at the moment, and have moved stuff around (thus creating a bigger room than we had before (it narrows at one end - by putting the bed in the narrow end, we've widened the room)

anyway, point is, that now we have got a whole wall (not a wide wall, inbetween the door and the wardrobe) that we didn't have before (too close to bed), that we've decided to put a tall bookcase against, so that we can accommodate more books