Do you have a bookshelf with books on?!

[VerrryNice]

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.

So whilst people literally can read off a screen, it isn't necessarily as pleasurable, engaging or informative.

I don't agree with this in my case.

Reading for pleasure is quite a meditative thing, the turning of the pages, the feel and sound of the paper are all part of it.

Or this ^^.
I find trying to hold a book open to read it PITA, especially if I am trying to eat my lunch at the same time.

I belong to a book club and engage with the books I read properly. I also can't read at night if it is a paperback because it means having the light on while DH is trying to sleep.

Are some posters getting mixed up with a kindle paperwhite screen, which is matt and gives off far less blue light, vs other screens (phones, tablets) which are shiny and give off more blue light?

I also don't have room for any more books or bookshelves.

This thread is turning into "who can outdo each other with the number of books/bookshelves boast"
It is now.

Yes we have a full bookcase upstairs for our books and children have a bookcase in each of their rooms with their books on. Some of my children's books are from my childhood and really they have outgrown them now but I can't get rid....

We used to have lots of book shelves, esp. in DC rooms. 3 DC were proper full bookworms. Now down to hardly any bookshelves. I'm happy with that. I wish DC read more but ... they don't. It's just stuff to gather dust.

We moved house recently and got rid of SO MANY BOOKS.
Children’s books-to the library who choose what they want and leave out the rest for anybody to take.
Out of date textbooks and a 1960s encyclopedia (!) to the recycling.
Unwanted modern fiction sold to a literary cafe for a small sum.
Crafting books to a book crossing point.

The rest was carefully catalogued and sent to the storage unit (of doom).
We now have two bookcases/China cabinets/display units stacked two deep and DD has two 2x4 Kallax units.

We have lots of children’s books and cookery books about but both DH and I read everything else on our kindles.

Maybe strangers would come to our home and think we aren’t readers but they’d be very far off the mark. I probably read a book a week, I love reading but I love reading on my kindle. I find it so much more convenient.

My DH is dyslexic, he enjoys reading too (although it’s more of a slog for him) but the kindle has a different font style and size that works for him. Without a kindle he’d probably read nothing.

I recently helped Mum clear her deceased dh's book shelves. These are beautiful bookshelves in a proper study. Some refinery had to be set aside for his family. Things from 18something and something that were family records of things. They're falling apart, having been kept properly, but possibly precious to them. I like the really really old magazines, things from the 40's and 50's, but the Internet provides this too. He also then had lots of rubbish (readers digest, sports things, etc).

The book shelves actually look better now as a result this big clear out, but there's a whole other wall left to do.

I have books going back to when I was 16 (I was poorly educated, moved a lot and missed a lot of school, but I liked used book stores and always sought the good stuff). I do go through all my books, regularly make sure that I'm only keeping the sentimental - what has really given me an interesting new thought, perspective, understanding or experience. I used to have tons of books related to my profession, but as i near retirement I've passed on the practical stuff, keeping only the sentimental.

My dh has a book shelfs and his has lots of OS maps, amongst other things, which is messy but i like it.

There's research showing that humans don't absorb as much info when reading off screens. This is apparently due to the lack of sensory engagement.

I reckon that will change as digital media continues to become the norm for future generations. I sit and help DS1 revise for exams and he makes my head spin with how adept he is at ploughing through information on a screen! I'm definitely old school when it comes to learning, but do prefer to read for pleasure on my kindle.

I donated all of DD's children's books to the local school for the library. They were incredible grateful.

All the people I have spoken to at the various fund raisers I support say that they often get more books donated than they can sell because more and more people read books on kindles and other devices. Clearly they aren't mumsnetters 😁

I used to have loads but over several international moves they got cut down and cut down. Now I just have a few boxes of my most beloved books in the loft. Like my childhood copy of Slack Beauty which has few pages still attached to the spine.

I would like some nice bookcases but the house already feels too cluttered and claustrophobic to me.

I’ve got four wide shelves in the living room full of books. My daughter keeps wanting to cull them but they aren’t going anywhere! I can’t read so comfortably on a screen.

I have 2 six shelf bookcases - the tall Billy brand from IKEA. Most shelves are double stacked and also piles around and in front. I need some more storage actually. So many that my ex MIL once asked me I’m skeptical tones if I had really read all those books? Answer, yes, I have, many, more than once 😁

Two bookcases, ones quite small though. I read a lot of crap on kindle, I only keep books I want to read again.

No - no bookcases / shelves whatsoever of dust collecting books that are never read again or taken off the shelf.

How often do you actually use the books / read them? If the answer is never - clear then out.

Yes. One bookcase in the living room.
We all have a small pile of books in each bedroom.

I read a lot but don’t have many books in the house anymore. I read one then give it to a friend or the charity shop.

We had to do a cull when we moved overseas last year. We weren’t very good at it and still have way too many books to stack properly.

I use a kindle, but have gardening and cook books in the kitchen, work reference books in my office and then the most beautiful books I can find on Teebook shelves in the lounge. Cloth bound, cased, etc. DD has some beautiful pop up books on fairies, and Da Vinci.

But I wouldn't judge a house with no books. Most people read on devices or are too busy. Or they may hate my hobby.

Bookcases everywhere. I get them off a chap on Etsy and we are slowly replacing our Ikea Billy bookcases. One in the kitchen for cookbooks, living room etc. I love settling down and grabbimng a book off the shelf

grabbing obvs

We have a big set of bookshelves (all across one wall) downstairs and smaller ones in bedrooms.

They are everywhere, just love them.

This thread makes me wildly jealous.
I grew up with walls of books in an extended family of passionate consumers of literature and still think of myself as a 'person with books'.
I do have books, but these days they feel like a glaring reminder of how stupidly pressurised my life has become ‐very little time to read due to working too much. The majority of my books are from before my work began to encroach so badly on my time and it sort of stings when I sit down next to my bookcase, opening up my laptop to work.
I work around it a bit by really loving my Audible subscription which means I can 'read' while catching up on chores.

I love perusing other people's bookshelves!

We have a library! (Well, home office, but it's got full bookcases wall to wall on every wall). Also have a full bookcase in the spare room, a small bookcase in the playroom, kitchen and DC's room, and books piled on the coffee table.

I do have a kindle but don't really like reading on screens. I've only read one short book on it.

I used to have hundreds. Now culled to one small set of 3 shelves. Hurrah. Less dust.