Is it normal to keep buying books even when you have plenty?

[MsGreying]

People often ask me why I'm always buying more books. The truth is, I have a genetic condition where my body doesn't produce books on its own, so I have to supplement.

Yes, I buy books with the full intention of reading them.
Currently, I have more than 800 books waiting tbr.
My bookshelves are groaning but I have no more room for any more, yet still, I scout charity shops and boot sales for more!!
I have got to a point where if I cannot get into a book within a few chapters, I put it to one side, but I feel compelled to finish it, even if I'm not enjoying it. 😫

My kindle and audible have stopped me filling the entire house with books. I do still love a hardback though, but don’t buy many of those.

I do a cull of the TBR shelves every few years and have to be honest that whilst it sounded fascinating I’m obviously not that interested if I haven’t started it after two years. In this manner I keep the acquisition of books that will remain in the house down to a dull roar. I also use the library, can’t resist a good independent and have BookBub emails every day! Keeps me out of trouble. 🤣

I will put a visit to Barters Books on my holiday wishlist. It is too far for a day trip for me.

If anyone can get themselves to Bath for a day or longer then I highly recommend Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights. It is the most delightful higgeldy piggeldy shop run by genuine enthusiasts. The Persephone bookshop is nearby for even more book acquisition opportunities.

There are lots of us. I feel sad when I do not have a book pile on my bedside table and a little queue on my kindle!!

Perfectly normal! No kindle here, but DH and I both obsess over books so have somewhere between 1500-2000 between us, a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Our four bookcases (one of which takes up a whole wall, floor-to-ceiling) are overflowing, but DH would happily see them piled up throughout our cottage. We recently downsized, but will be upsizing again at this rate!

I collect books on Interiors, Pre-raphaelite art, Art Nouveau and the Arts & Crafts Movement of which I've 200+. His 'thing' is local/social history...oh and Christmas books.

The difference is, I read mine whilst he doesn't. My TBR pile (mostly novels for bedtime reading) usually stands at about ten and I get through one per week. He's had the same four/five on his bedside table for a year and has only (re)read one of them 🙄 Doesn't stop him bringing back more from car boot sales, charity shop or Waterstones! I'm an eBay/WOB girl.

mines the various stories on a kindle that you get for free

I have the same genetic condition OP. It’s ok, it’s the norm for us.

Well, when Russia/Musk/the aliens/AI finally turns the internet off, on the upside I will be fine for reading material for a decade or so.

Maybe there should be a literary preppers subtopic on the preppers board 🤔📚 - checklist for fiction, non-fiction, poetry/prose, anthologies and biography etc

This about sums up my book buying habits…

😂
I hope so.

You should be aware that the further this affliction progresses the more signs and symptoms shall appear.
Within the last year I have (unwilling of course) begun to intersperse different themed book nooks along with various book related ornamentation on the shelves of both read and unread books.

Yes, I too gave reached this advanced stage of the illness. My (several large) bookcases have become literary landscapes with little owl ornaments peeking out from the shelves (because owls & books belong together) and several small teddies sitting comfortably.

On the book shelves in our living room I have gone full arcane esoterica decorating them with brass candle snuffers, battery lit candles and various objet d'art.

One of my favourite Christmas presents last year was a special brush for cleaning my books!

Has anyone else on the thread got a library room? We have (who needs an unused spare bedroom anyway?) but additonal bookshelves have escaped and filled the upstairs hallway and all the bedrooms anyway. 🤣
I love my library, favourite room in the house. I work from home and I find working in a room surrounded by books is very calming.
that's my excuse for buying far too many books and I'm sticking to it

At some point a future house will have to have a library… not least to accommodate my collection of non-fiction (everything from architecture, through cooking to travel), and Folio Society volumes (about 400, collected since I was at university).

Me too, ours have industrial quantities of dust (not helped by the ongoing DIY which - however much we smother everything in dust sheets - gets everywhere. Although DH says that's my excuse and I just hate cleaning he's right 🤣)

Sounds like I need one of those brushes @StrugglingwithIvanhoe. In reality, it would probably sit with all my other unused specialist brushes in the lootility, lol!

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats we started out trying to create a 'book room' here, but similarly our bookcases don't all fit in the room, so it's now just a snug with huge (2.65m x 2.2m) bookcase plus one small one whilst the others are dotted about the place. The snug is a calm, relaxing, cosy space overlooking the garden whilst our main living room is upstairs.

When my DF died, we had to sort out his ‘library’. I reckon he had over 3000 books, many with the spines unbroken. There were stacks of books all over his bedroom.

No, but would love to. We have a library section in one end of the lounge, which was set out as a dining area in the showhome. What a waste! That area now houses 6 tall billy bookcases, with another 3 tall and 6 short in other parts of the house.

Yes of course it’s the law - and there’s also a lesser known law that dictates that if you’ve read and enjoyed a book and kindly donated it to a charity shop then once it’s 99p on Kindle you have to buy it to admire despite never reading it again.

Just seen this. Have exactly the same condition. The works is dangerous, came out with 6 books yesterday. Also find it hard when the new 99p books get updated on Amazon as I am on a fac page which shares the list on the 1st of every month. Also part of a book club

I see reading as two different hobbies, first one is buying them and the second is reading them. Can never have too many, esp when I have the Kindle app
It's always nice to have a selection of different types of authors and genres.

My husband doesn't understand

You can never have too many books, this is my "To be read" pile...

...casts gaze to the left and the right on the couch... books, hooks, books, all with bookmarks...

Ah yes, bookmarks. An often overlooked symptom, whereby every purchase of a lovely, hefty hardback must be accompanied by a co-ordinating bookmark.

Completely and utterly normal in my world. I spend most of my time wandering around my house wondering how I could manage to squeeze some extra shelves in somewhere. I have a room which has floor to (tall) ceiling shelves along one wall, built especially for my collection of books on my one specialist topic alone. Then my sitting room has some massive shelves which recently looked like they might collapse under the weight of books so I had to move some to a bookcase in the hallway. That's now full up and I am eyeing up the guest bedroom.

In most other respects I am quite sanely minimalist. Actually I do have a couple of other great loves that I indulge to ridiculous excess. Anything to do with kitchen gadgets or dining/crockery/glassware, plants for the garden and Christmas decorations. Now and again I force myself to do a cull, but any freed up space just gets filled again with more of the same.