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Original poster

Do you have a bookshelf with books on?!

244 replies

VerrryNice · 04/11/2023 09:24

I used to have hundreds of books on shelves around the house and loved them. Then I moved house several times and put them in boxes and they got dusty and mouldy so I got rid of them. Then I started using a kindle a lot more.

Now I don’t have any books on display in the house at all. I pass them on to friends or charity and keep a few favourites at the back of a cupboard.

I watched a programme about homes in Wales yesterday and one couple had all their books organised and on display around the house and it looked fantastic and you could really get a sense of the kind of people they were. If you came to my house you would think I was a complete non-reader with no interest in much at all! I was wondering what the norm was these days.

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RiderOfTheBlue · 04/11/2023 09:56

I mostly use my kindle now so I just keep a few books that are special to me for whatever reason. The ones I know I'll re-read. A couple I've had since childhood. Have about 25 I think.

GigiAnnna · 04/11/2023 09:56

The kids have bookshelves in their bedrooms. I don't have bookshelves downstairs as I don't have a lot of space. I have a small pile of books next to my bed, but I don't tend to read books again, only my favourites, so it's just unnecessary clutter to me.

Nicole1111 · 04/11/2023 09:57

Yes but I only keep books that I could read again and again, think Rebecca, Dracula, the crimson petal and the white, perfume story of a murderer etc. All the unread books live under my bed. All the ones I’ve read but wouldn’t read over and over go back to the charity shops I get them from.

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IHeartGeneHunt · 04/11/2023 09:57

I've got one in every room except the kitchen, full of books.

Riverlee · 04/11/2023 09:57

Yes, one bookcase. My family home growing up had a bookcase in every room. DH isn’t book-y so doesn’t ‘get’ how lovely bookshelves are, hence only one bookshelf.

akkakk · 04/11/2023 09:57

4 bookcases in the music room, and then a library with built in bookcases all fall and overflowing plus books elsewhere! I do though collect modern and children’s first editions!

Aethelberht · 04/11/2023 09:59

I've got about 1000 books, mainly in bookcases but also everywhere. It's my vice. I have read all or part of nearly every book, but because I believe that books are for reading, the shelves are not pretty.

Aethelberht · 04/11/2023 09:59

I've got about 1000 books, mainly in bookcases but also everywhere. It's my vice. I have read all or part of nearly every book, but because I believe that books are for reading, the shelves are not pretty.

happystory · 04/11/2023 09:59

We recently downsized and massively decluttered. We had hundreds of books and it was very very difficult to get rid of any at all! But I am happy that the ones I'm left with (on two bookcases) are ones that are special, irreplaceable and/or I will definitely re-read. Couldn't bear a house without books.

LadyCuntington · 04/11/2023 10:02

Yes. I don't read much but I do feel that it gives my house a certain class uplift. I would hate for someone to come to my house for a pot of tea and think that I was lower class and uneducated

User457492 · 04/11/2023 10:03

Just one that's mostly illustrated editions, graphic novels, real favourites... I had well over a thousand books as a teenager. I had a real emotional attachment to them and I wouldn't get rid of any. Then I had a 'what's the point in owning all these books that I'm not going to reread even if I live to be 100?' moment in my early 20s, rang around schools and charity shops to find some who were happy to receive books, put some on Facebook marketplace, gave away hundreds and hundreds in one go and then most of the rest more gradually. Haven't missed any of them and now I read and donate. Don't see the point of books as ornaments.

BlueDilly · 04/11/2023 10:04

We have our books in the spare room and DH office so people may assume we do not have many. He is a Professor and I am a retired academic librarian. I am not bothered about them being on show as such as I have nothing to prove.

Devilsmommy · 04/11/2023 10:07

I've got 2 big bookcases jammed with books and the rest are in storage boxes until I can buy more shelves 😁

Yamadori · 04/11/2023 10:10

Yes, we have three. One is on the upstairs landing and has all the paperback novels on it, including some of my childhood ones. The one in the living room has recipes, about 40 books about gardening and bonsai, wildlife natural history, books about the Beatles, an atlas, dictionary, the complete works of Shakespeare, that kind of thing. There's a bunch of CDs on there as well. The one in our bedroom has more cookery books, all DH's ones about motor racing, stuff about genealogy, travel etc. We have far more large vintage reference books than novels, and I don't think a Kindle would cut the mustard with those.

LookingForPurpose · 04/11/2023 10:10

I've got 7 book cases in my living room and love books. I've still got some of my teenage Christopher pike/point horror books etc. I can't imagine not having piles of books lying around.

Plus, how are you supposed to decipher a new friends moral code and personality if you can't assess their reading list when you go around for coffee for the first time? I think I do actually judge somebody that doesn't have any books at all.

ManAboutTown · 04/11/2023 10:11

I have about 1,200 on various shelves and bookcases around my home (and about 600 went with my ex)

They're part of my life - they will never be thrown out. They make me feel at home

toastofthetown · 04/11/2023 10:11

I have two book shelves which has books I’m yet to read, and books I love enough to want to keep. I also have a Kindle. My husband has the same setup. Personally, I’m not interested in book collecting. Most books I read aren’t going to be reread by me, as there are far too many books on my TBR pile as it is. Books are meant to be read, so I pass along those books to family, or friends, or a charity shop so someone else can enjoy, rather than gathering dust in my my house.

GonnaGetGoingReturns · 04/11/2023 10:12

Yes, living room and bedroom but I’ve cleared out a load of them now.

karmasacat · 04/11/2023 10:13

We have bookcases in 3 of our rooms, one room the books are the focal point (built in bookshelves on 3 of the walls). And still have more in the loft! When we were house hunting I couldn’t stand looking at houses without books, even though I know not everyone is a reader there’s just something that makes me feel depressed in a house with no books.

MidnightOnceMore · 04/11/2023 10:14

Bookcases in every room except the lounge, but I do rotate books out to the charity shop as I don't want to end up with thousands.

GoldenKiwi · 04/11/2023 10:16

We have a bookcase in the living room and the kids have one each in their rooms. I also have one in the kitchen for cookbooks.

Sometimes I do wonder if I should clear them out - most of the fiction I read once and that's it, although there is a chance that the kids will show an interest in them when they're older.

We cleared out all our CDs years ago, and replaced with Spotify and Sonos speakers.

IncompleteSenten · 04/11/2023 10:18

I think there's 2 types of avid readers.

I used to have a couple of hundred books at any one time. Now I have a kindle. I donated the books and don't buy them any more. Since I no longer read physical books, there was no need to keep them because they would have been reduced to ornaments or a "hey look I have soooo many books. I is cultured." statement. They just took up space unnecessarily.

My parents had hundreds and hundreds of books and never wanted kindles. For them, part of the joy of reading was holding and feeling the books. Even the smell of them. For them, a kindle was removing what was to them an important part of reading.

Don't know if that makes sense to anyone

SushiGo · 04/11/2023 10:19

Yes, we do. Although the books get weeded about once a year to make space for new.

It's really important for children to have books in the house. Kids that grow up with books in the house get significantly better exam results. (Library books and second hand books totally count here)

A kindle doesn't have the same impact. Your child needs to see you, an adult, pick up physical books read and talk about them. a kindle just looks like 'a screen' to a child.

JaninaDuszejko · 04/11/2023 10:20

I don't like reading on a kindle. We have books everywhere. The sittingroom has gorgeous Vitsœ shelving on two walls full of my books, the playroom has a wall of IKEA shelving for the kids books but there are also bookshelves in their bedrooms. My parents have a house full of books and my siblings do as well.

ManAboutTown · 04/11/2023 10:20

GoldenKiwi · 04/11/2023 10:16

We have a bookcase in the living room and the kids have one each in their rooms. I also have one in the kitchen for cookbooks.

Sometimes I do wonder if I should clear them out - most of the fiction I read once and that's it, although there is a chance that the kids will show an interest in them when they're older.

We cleared out all our CDs years ago, and replaced with Spotify and Sonos speakers.

I have about 1,000 CDs - some of them are actually worth a bit and it's too much effort to clear them out. Some of my vinyl is worth quite a lot as well

I don't play any of it anymore but it's a very integral part of my life so it stays.

I did dispose of all my DVDs though as it meant much less - kept a few ones I liked - Gladiator, Snatch, Amadeus

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