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What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

How many books do you own that you haven't read (yet)?

59 replies

mynameisred · 23/08/2014 20:01

I've decided not to buy any books for a year and am currently going through
my bookshelves to see which books I still haven't read.

I'm not even halfway through and have already found enough for a year of reading. Please tell me I'm not alone in this...

OP posts:

FickleByNurture · 27/08/2014 10:33

I have loads of generic books I get through quite quickly but if I buy interesting looking books that I've been looking forward to I tend to "save" then for a day that's miserable and then curl up with them and a cup of tea. This now means I have at least 10 such books as well as any outstanding books on the kindle(probably >50)

Redglitter · 27/08/2014 10:25

I've got 562 on my kindle

DuchessofMalfi · 27/08/2014 10:24

Did anyone else listen to the brilliant (imho) BBC adaptation of Ulysses. Was on Radio 4 extra earlier this year. About as close as I'm going to get to "reading" it

PacificDogwood · 26/08/2014 23:01

Oh, and much as "kindly' is really cute, I meant 'Kindle' in my penultimate post. But you all got that.

PacificDogwood · 26/08/2014 23:00

Oh, I 'practice'. A lot. I just always read even the most amazing pile of steaming tripe to the end
I am a greedy and indiscriminate reader - not undiscerning, I like high quality trash.

Original poster

mynameisred · 26/08/2014 22:53

Ulysses is the only book that has ever defeated me - I could not read it. Haha, yes, I know exactly what you mean, I'm not sure I'll ever manage.

I cannot bear to have books unread You need to practise . I'd panic if I didn't have unread books. I need to know that there is always a good, unread book nearby.

OP posts:

Ludways · 26/08/2014 22:28

About 200 tree books, I read all the time and when I see a good book I buy it. I couldn't bear not to have plenty of books around me. I never re read and get rid of them straight after reading. I have more on my kindle and I'm a member of the library.

PacificDogwood · 26/08/2014 22:28

Ulysses is the only book that has ever defeated me - I could not read it.
I am still traumatised by my experience tbh.
As my last attempt was about 20 years ago, maybe I should try again? Or not bother…
I cannot bear to have books unread - even if I load several on the kindly in preparation of a holiday, I get all uncomfortable and stressed until I've read them all

Original poster

mynameisred · 26/08/2014 22:23

Why? You might have read it from the library.
Sorry I should have made it clear that I was joking. I read a lot of books from the library and quite a lot of the books I've read aren't on my shelves.

I've about 200 yet-to-be reads on my kindle and at least 500 in hard copy
It's good, isn't it? Like having your own little bookshop at home.

OP posts:

frogbubbles · 26/08/2014 00:19

I am such a boom hoarder id say about 20 on my book cases I haven't read and roughly a thousand on the kindle

Cheboludo · 25/08/2014 23:45

I'm astonished at the amount of restraint people have. I can't imagine not having a stack of books to choose my next read from - at the moment I've about 200 yet-to-be reads on my kindle and at least 500 in hard copy
Like others, I buy when I find low- priced books I want to read & I find it really, really difficult to only buy one book at a time. My choice of next read is dependant on so many factors that it would be impossible to only have one choice of next read.
I should go on a book-buying ban but I tried that at lent with cookbooks & only lasted 10 days. I didn't even attempt it with novels as I knew I'd fail

EBearhug · 25/08/2014 23:31

Why? You might have read it from the library. I've read tons of books which aren't on my shelves.

Original poster

mynameisred · 25/08/2014 22:02

but more difficult to fool people into thinking you've read it.

OP posts:

EBearhug · 25/08/2014 22:01

You can get Ulysses for free on Kindle. It's less guilt-inducing in that form.

Original poster

mynameisred · 25/08/2014 21:59

I did a massive clear out recently of scores of books that I had sitting on my shelves for years and never got round to reading.
This is what I had planned to do. I'm going through all my books now, shelf by shelf, but most of the unread books are actually books I'd still like to read one day. It's actually quite nice to discover so many interesting books that I'd forgotten were there.

They were making me feel guilty, so I got rid. Only 'Ulysses' is making me feel guilty, sitting there like a fat toad reminding me of several failed attempts at getting it read. Maybe I should get rid?

OP posts:

Original poster

mynameisred · 25/08/2014 21:31

Fairyliz please visit your local independent bookshop instead, they need your support more than Amazon. And it is so much better to browse in a real bookshop ...

OP posts:

Fairyliz · 25/08/2014 20:10

None thats why I am sitting here bored to tears I might even have o talk to DH.
As an aside has anyone else noticed how poor the selection of pperbacks in charity shos is getting since the invention of the kindle? Im going to have to get one aren't I.

riverboat1 · 25/08/2014 18:37

Probably about 20 now.

I did a massive clear out recently of scores of books that I had sitting on my shelves for years and never got round to reading. Most of them were books that 'seemed like a good idea at the time' of buying, but re-reading the blurb or the first few pages just left me without any real desire to get stuck in. A lot of them were quite full-on dense things, which probably didn't help.

They were making me feel guilty, so I got rid.

TillHammerZeit · 25/08/2014 14:21

I have about 800 on my Kindle that I've yet to read. And 50 or so paperbacks.

mmack · 25/08/2014 14:20

I just counted and I own 14 books that I haven't read yet and also have 2 unread library books. I'm actually very surprised that the number is as high as that because I don't like unfinished things at all. I'm going to have to read some of them before the 3rd Justin Cronin vampire book arrives in October.

Hulababy · 24/08/2014 20:54

I don't have any "real" boos unread. I stopped buying actual books, other than non fiction, a while ago as I prefer my Kindle.

I have about 10 unread book on my Kindle at the moment. Others I want to read are on a separate Amazon wishlist ready for me to order when I start to run low.

EBearhug · 24/08/2014 20:51

More than I had before I started with MN...

Original poster

mynameisred · 24/08/2014 20:47

I feel much better now

Usually because I have found them cheaper than amazon and if I don't buy them there and then they won't be there when I get back.
Yes I do that too, and a lot of mine are for references purposes as well. Still I'm surprised I have so many I haven't read.

But my problem is reading a review of a book, and then developing an obsession with it so that I must track it down and buy/borrow from library and read it immediately.
I do that too. I almost ordered a book because of a review before I remembered that I wasn't supposed to buy any new books, and then I decided to count all the ones I hadn't read...

OP posts:

Southeastdweller · 24/08/2014 13:09

Agree with most of the comments, especially from Uterus - I buy more than one book and don't finish them before buying more. My number is roughly 50 - 30 paper books and the rest on my Kindle. My problem is that I love browsing in charity shops and in the city where I live there's some very good ones where I've very cheaply bought recently published books that I wanted to read and I can't resist buying them. I really need to ban myself from getting anymore, but then again there's some interesting new books coming out soon from Grayson Perry, Stephen Fry and a few others...I need to make better use of libraries.

17leftfeet · 24/08/2014 09:39

None

The only time I buy books that I'm not going to read straight away is holiday reading

Other than that I will read a book as soon as I'm home

I'm not a fan of charity shop books -you can't smell them like you can smell a new book, and I don't have the money to buy more than one at once

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