to think theres nothing wrong with having a few books?

[slightlymentalmum2one]

Well perhaps few is slightly underestimating 1732 but there's no such thing as having too many right?

And newpapers are BANNED in this house. It would be a divorce issue.

of* not off

We have quite a lot of books. I am toying with doing the colour ordering thing today. I find it comforting to know that I can never be bored, there's always something to read/reread.

Our old playroom is now our library; I haven't counted recently, but I have 4 tall and 2 short bookcases, some shelves are double-banked and there's now a row on the floor in front too. (Plus my Terry Prattchett and Brother Cadfael in my bedroom and three shelves of 'nice' books in the living room!) My non-fiction is in Dewey order, I have sections for detective fiction, children's books and science fiction; the rest of the fiction is in author order. (Yes, I aman ex-librarian!)

I don't buy so many myself these days, as I mostly get them on my iPad - but DS now works for a major publisher and is always bringing home books - he's planning to move out soon, but I suspect he won't have room for many of his books in his new place, so I think his old room will become a library annexe....

I have thousands. I couldn't actually count them.

The depressing thing is that my DSis (who doesn't own more than couple of books as far as I know) came round to see the house when I'd just started ordering things after moving in and said of the downstairs sitting room shelves 'They look (LOOK) nice' there. I must get some'.

I think she sees them now as a 'must-have' designer item.

slightlymental You counted them? I have no idea how many we have but they are only any use if someone reads them. I have phases of rereading books I bought years ago, just to prove they were worth keeping!

When I was a student, I had 3000. They were in piles going up the stairs, piles in the bedrooms, floor to ceiling shelves in the living room. I don't think I had ever got rid of a single one.

Now I limit it to 5 or 6 hundred, not including the kids books. Those are the precious ones, that I will re-read.

Got a kindle last weekend and love it already, but it's going to cost a bob or two to get anything like a decent collection!

I love to see books and plants in houses it makes them more homely. I work as an academic librarian and one of my greatest pleasures is when a box of new books arrives. There's nothing like the smell and feel of lovely new books! Love ebooks too. But my kindle has just broken without me doing anything, and it's no longer under warranty so i'm not at all happy!!

I have quite a lot of books, not thousands but a good few. Nothing wrong with it at all.

I do give some away to the charity shop though if I think I'm not likely to ever pick them up again. And I quite often buy on my Kindle now as it's just so convenient (instant books!) though I don't find it quite the same experience as paper books (difficult to flip back and forth, for example).

YANBU. We have thousands. We've just moved house and they've all been in boxes, and I was fantasising about getting a man with a van to take the whole roomful of boxes to the dump, but now the new bookshelves have been painted and I'm unpacking them all. It's like being reunited with old friends.

Personally I think it's a bit weird that some people confine themselves to having only as many books on them as they can physically handle, if they love reading that much. I mean, I can carry my entire collection in my pocket, why would I be satisfied with only having a bagful?

And what if I'm not carrying the exact book I fancy reading at that exact moment in time? I'd have to go to an actual bookshop and hope they had it in stock!!

And if they didn't, I'd have to WAIT until they did!!!

And, and, and, if my house gets flooded, or burgled, or the cat is sick on a book, I'd have to buy it again before I could read it!!!! The horror!!!!!

Not to mention limiting the size of one's collection by the size of house one can afford....

( love the Kindle... )

Did someone mention Blackwells?

I love Blackwells. I want to be buried under the Norrington Room when I die.

Just done a quick count, approx 900. I have gardening, cooking, craft (subgrouped), travel, diet, health, childcare, history, factual, etc all grouped together. I have fiction grouped by writter, then in order of publication. I have piles of books on the floor waiting to be read, then when read, will decide if they are good enough to go on a shelf and be kept ! I also have a small collection of childrens books (have no children of my own) that I just had to have (Hairy McClarey comes to mind). The rest of the house is a tip, e.g. I keep my paper work in the tumble dryer.
Quick question, over the years have been given boxes of old books which contain bibles, while not religious, cannot through them out.(Or give to charity shop as old and tatty) What would you do ?

But silverten, what if your kindle gets caught in the house flood? Or stolen by the burglars? Or vomited on by the cat? It's unlikely all my books would be affected by those scenarios. Unless the burglars had a very big van

And what if there's a power cut in the daytime just as your kindle battery runs out? Or you've lost the kindle charger? I did this the other month. Couldn't find it anywhere. Until a day after the new one I'd ordered online arrived. Luckily I had some normal books to fall back on

I have back-ups of my Kindle books :) So they should be OK unless our home computer and the remote data centre that does the cloud storage all get destroyed...and if there's an disaster of that scale I guess my books will be the least of my worries...

The battery lasts very well on mine, and I can use my Blackberry charger if I can't find the one that came with it.

Anyway for me it isn't a substitute for 'real' books, I still have plenty of those as well!

Jandy yes I counted them with my friend after I refused to believe I had more than a couple of hundred I said she's just jealous as her dh won't let her keep hers!

I'm amazed how many of us are out there.I'd love to have my own library but working in one would be a close second I think

If my kindle was broken/lost/sicked on it'd cost me 89 quid to replace it. Or I could just read on my PC or phone for free. All of my books are there for re-downloading.

I couldn't replace my paper books for anything approaching 89 quid. 890 quid, maybe... but it'd be bloody hard as I only keep paper versions of the really obscure ones that are difficult to track down in any form.

Power cut/lost charger? PC/phone again. Or I could ratch around in DH's Manly Box Of Stuff and probably find two or three gadgets that would do the job...

(was just taking the piss a bit, really. I like books but I do find it a bit that some people judge so much if you haven't lined at least one wall of your house with dead trees. I mean, gastropubs buy these things by the yard when they do re-fits....owning them doesn't automatically make you an interlectshuall...)

silverten, it's nothing to do with being an interlectshuall - I don't judge, I'm just bewildered. Call it failure of imagination, but I can't see how people can do without books.

Having said that, I'm going to have to get a Kindle, I think - about to take a couple of long flights for work. But it's not a substitute, it's an addition!

If it was about doing without reading, I'd be right with you. But there are quite a few instances of smugness-about-owning-lots-of-paper around here, which irks me slightly because it's really rather, well, Them and Us, IYSWIM. Particularly ironic, what with reading supposed to be a fantastically inclusive thing that everyone can enjoy...

Yes. Yes. You need to get a kindle. Go now. Don't wait. Take my car!

My reading habits have increased by a factor of something like ten since I got the kindle app on my phone. It is quite simply perfection in its concept: instant, cheap/free reading, any time, any place. Yes, there are books that aren't available on kindle (yet) and any with large illustrations/pictures are not best enjoyed with it, but for sheer pleasure of opening up your reading horizons, there's nothing else quite like it.

"I said she's just jealous as her dh won't let her keep hers!"

Did I actually read this?????????

I LOVE to read but I HATE paper books in my house. To me they are the ultimate unitask item and nothing but clutter. If you want to look at lots of books, go to a library.

I have 2 shelves of a billy bookcase at home with books, and it's too many for me. But I have hundreds and hundreds on my Kindle, it changed my life. I used to not want to read things because it would mean having to buy the book and then find something to do with it. What a waste of a tree.

You all sound like people who own CDs/vinyls and wail about digital music.

If any of you have had to move countries multiple times you will soon lose your attachment for physical books.

Get with the 21st century please.

Yep, must admit my reading has stepped up another notch since getting an ebook, it just makes it so easy to have a choice of a few hundred books at any moment in time. I still buy paper books, but only if I know I want to keep them.