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

We have a small bookcase of adult books and a small bookcase of childrens books. I'm not overly attached to the books, just rubbish at getting rid of them, although I often pass them on to others.

I hate the assumption some people seem to have that those without loads of books on display don't read or care for literature. It's like assuming people without shelves of records/cds don't listen to music, or people without dvds don't watch films.

Some people aren't hoarders and pass on their books. Some may have their collection hidden away. Some use libraries. Or e-books (love my kindle).

There are books in every room in my house (9 rooms not including bathrooms), and the first thing I did when I bought it was get floor-to-ceiling bookshelves built in to three rooms. I've never counted, but there must be thousands - maybe over 10,000 if you include all the children's books - but I have started getting rid of some of the trashy paperbacks as I have no shelf space left, and no space to put any more bookshelves. Basically, I live in a library. It suits me fine.

About 20 now.
The ones that we loved and will read again are on our kindle's - we didn't fancy lugging all the books to the new house and ebay'd them.
Can't say I miss them, love seeing the walls

We've got two floor to ceiling bookcases built in on either side of fireplace plus a glass doored tall bookcase for first editions Gollum style "precious things" books in the drawing room, and DS has one floor to ceiling bookcase in playroom. There must be about 2,000 books in our house. I love books and fear and loathe lending them. I would prefer to buy someone a copy of a book to lending mine. I don't read chicklit or modern fiction really so none of our books are discardable. I want them all to stay right here.

The idea of a Kindle is complete anathema to me.

I don't really trust people who don't have books in their houses, to tell you the truth. I think they must have too much time on their hands and get up to all sorts.

I'm not sure, probably a couple of thousand. I've hidden the ones I'm ashamed of upstairs, but I needn't have bothered as I have never been to another house in my area with books on display. This automatically qualifies me as some kind of eccentric. I've started trying to use the library more but I have to order everything I want to read and in the time between making the reservation and the book's arrival at the library I tend to have lost interest.

I can't count how many books I have, possibly too many. I hoard them and only discard most chicklit and books I don't like, and duplicate copies. I have about 6,000 catalogued on LibraryThing but that's not quite complete.

I thought I had about 200, till I listed 50 textbooks on amazon, realized that 50 books isn't even a full shelf in a bookcase, I have 3 bookcases and enough to fill another one in piles and in boxes in the attic

so I must be past the 1000 mark

I don't keep ones I didn't like though

My BH is the reader in our house. She does books and tapes now. Not an enormous amount in the house. we get hardback from the library. I am more into newspapers. But do read biographies,,,,Wife does not like Kindle idea, but i might give it a go

Hundreds, maybe a thousand. Definitely over a thousand if you're counting DS's little books. :)

My friend owns a used bookstore and lets me just take whatever I want. I do try to give some back, but I can read books I love over and over again, so I keep those.

1000s. No idea how many but bookcases in every room including the kitchen. (Ok the bathroom just has a pile rather than a bookcase).
I have , though, got rid of loads and I try only to buy genuine keepers. Most of my reading and DS2s comes from the library. I now have a kindle so that may stop the piles from growing a little.

Upwards of 2000 here too - in a tiny 1.5 bed flat

I can't get the hang of libraries. Giving books back?

doesn't make sense.

I'm finishing my PhD at the moment and must be one of the few people that didn't have to go to the library much - I have most of it on the shelves. Which suits my laziness down to the ground.

Never counted them, but hundreds definitely. I can't imagine not having lots of books, and I do re-read many of them. I get quite a lot of books from the library as well, and a few on my Kindle.

There's about 25 meters of shelf space full with books, plus a couple of boxes in my in-laws' attic. And then of course the various piles next to bed and sofa etc.

When I moved to the UK I had a ton (as in 1000kg) of books to move, but that was 6 years ago, so obviously a I've got a few more since then.

The husband and I have got rid of some duplicates and "married" our collection properly, but it took us years to commit to this (this was after getting married and having a child..), and I still find it difficult to shed books.

I used to have 100s of books but I did a serious cull (gave them to the Oxfam book shop) as I realised I would never re-read most of them (university texts from the 1970s for example ). We now have about 200 left and to be honest I prefer the less cluttered look. I order anything I want from the library and that works really well.

My parents have lots and lots of books and my heart sinks at the thought of having to clear them all out in a few years .................

I hate to think how many.

Shelves of them in the dining room (in fact DP needs to build some more as the books are now being stacked on top of other books as the shelves are full), also the DC have huge built in bookcases in their rooms too.

Thousands.

I forgot to answer the question. Despite watching DH unpacking them all a few weeks ago, I don't know! Not as many as some on the thread - maybe 500 odd.

Oh I love my books. They're like old pals. I moved house recently and getting all my crappy old paperbacks out of storage (after nearly a year!) was one of the best bits. Houses with no bookshelves always feel a bit empty and sad to me.

The only problem is that I would happily have 10 times as many, and miles of bookshelves to store them, whereas DH would prefer to have an annual cull and keep only a select few. (I've resisted so far )

About a million? Actually, more like a couple of thousand. I had to bag up loads and take them to my FILs attic before we had DS2 because the bookshelves became storage for his things. I sold and gave away a lot then, too. I am now more of a library borrower, but I just can't stop buying books from charity shops. On the bookshelf downstairs I keep my more highbrow ones, knowing that people will have a wee look at my tastes. My chic lit is upstairs!

Another book house here. I keep books I've loved, and charity shop those I haven't. We just don't have the space to keep all the books we ever read.
I too love browsing someone else's bookshelves and when a teenager much preferred babysitting in a bookish house.

an awful awful lot

i love them

they make me feel safe

we own about 3000 I would guess. but have "only" around 1000 on display (5 billy bookcases full). some in boxes under the bed and some in storage. we are book-keepers :)

one word of warning - when invited to a new person's house, once they're out of the room I tend to peer at their bookshelves and totally judge them by the contents ...