Do you have bookcases filled with books at home?

[CatteryCatss]

I grew up without books at home, but my DM frequently read magazines.

Surprisingly, I turned out to be a big reader in adulthood. I have bookcases either side of the chimney breast filled with books (as well as LEGO sets and a couple of ornaments) I also have a bookcase on my stairs and in the office, which are filled.

Whenever I visit my DM, I’m reminded of my childhood without books and it makes me quite sad!

I can remember learning to read and being so excited to be able to read a Read It Yourself book to my granny - the town mouse and the country mouse.

I love my Kindle for travelling, but much prefer the tangible heft of a hardback book. I've never tried an Audible book but am definitely interested. Does the narrator use different voices for different characters etc?

We have 4 bookcases in our house. One big one in the living room which is full of mine and DH's books, and some DVDs. I've also got a pile of books on my bedside table, my favourite ones that I flick through regularly.

Then we've got a smaller one which is half full of built Lego, the other half full of the DC's bigger or shared books (ie old picture books we can’t quite part with, puzzle/maze books, encyclopedias etc).

The DC have a bookshelf each in their rooms, both stuffed to the gills!

but much prefer the tangible heft of a hardback book.

Not so easy to read when lying down in bed.

This isn’t a new thing- was reminded of this bit from the Great Gatsby while doing tea:

"Absolutely real - have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of face, they're absolutely real. Pages and - Here! Lemme show you."

Taking our scepticism for granted, he rushed to the book-cases and returned with Volume One of the Stoddard Lectures.

"See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?"

Gatsby’s library obv didn’t make him a great reader but did impress his guests!

Wrt episodic memory- generally people agree it’s formed around 3.5 or 4, which is why there’s little value in schooling children before this time. I have a vivid sensory memory of the carpet in my childhood home I put down to presumably crawling on it (and some vivid 70’s print)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia

One in the dining room, two large ones - one each side of the chimney breast - in the sitting room plus two bedrooms, used as offices, lined with floor to ceiling shelving. I now operate a one in, one out system.

Yes, 5 Billys with top extensions, full of books.

True. But I sit half propped up on pillows when reading in bed which makes it much easier.

I can't read with the light on as it keeps DH awake. My Kindle is backlit and doesn't.

Books are books to me, whether audible, Kindle or hardback / paperback. I live abroad and love my Kindle, especially the special offers, as the amount i read, I would be bankrupt going to Waterstones. In the early days I would stock up at the British store booksale where they sold books by the centimetre. Since we downsized a year ago, I only kept special books. There is no point in carting them about in the vain hope they might impress someone :) . It's a strange thing - i know having books at home is meant to be a good measure of a better outcome for children. But only if they actually read them (or have them read to them), surely. Having a wall of Dickens or Moliere doesn't work on it's own. Love the backlight on the Kindle too.

My kids have bookcases in their rooms but we don’t have any adults books anywhere, I read every day but only on my kindle.

That's the problem with audiobooks. If you like the narrator it's great, but about 25% of audiobooks I start listening to have a narrator whose voice I immediately find irritating. Which is very disappointing when you're looking forward to the book.

Books where the narrator puts on lots of different voices frankly make me feel murderous.

I have many hundreds of books, but they are all non-fiction. I need them, as I am a researcher, public speaker and author, so I'm always going to my bookshelves for references. Most of my books are second-hand. I tend to get my fiction books from the book swap shelves in local supermarkets and return them there when I'm finished.

I certainly wasn't saying that having multiple bookcases makes you smarter. I was saying that reading makes you smarter.
Having rows and rows of books tidily lined up on shelves would make make me feel lucky, and happy, and organized, though.

This, and making it easier to read when travelling, are the two things that make me consider a kindle but I'm wary of spending money on something I won't use much.
If OH goes to bed before me I read downstairs, if I go to bed first I read sat up in bed with the light on. Both ways work well so far.

No, i dont like having q lot of clutter

I’ve got the books. In boxes in the attic. But no room for the shelves. In my next house I’m having a library (when I also win the lottery obvs). I mostly read on my kindle now and I’ve culled half of all the books I had but I can’t bear to part with some of them so I’ve got about six big cardboard boxes full still that dh moans about carting around every time we have moved house

This is what worries me! I'd hate it if the narrator didn't sound like I think the character sounds like.