To think you can NEVER have too many books.

[hippoherostandinghere]

DH said today he would divorce me if I bought any more books. Joking I think but he was pretty serious he didn't want me to buy the DC's any more books. I'd say they have about 250, they are 3 and 1. I was looking at a few Julia Donaldson ones on amazon that we don't have but he doesn't understand how pleasant they are to read. I love adding to our collecting and see it as a good investment. He's being unreasonable isn't he?

YABU, I'm afraid you can have too many books. We have too many and I just don't know how to part with them. But there is no more room for them on the shelves, and no more room for new shelves. And it's driving DH mad. Some of them have to go.:(

I am quite disciplined about buying other "stuff" but books seem to be my weakness. I buy them for me and I buy them for dd. Bought another 3 yesterday. It wasn't so bad when dd was only into picture books but now she likes reading big fat tomes like Harry Potter and The Hobbit, I'm starting to see the error of my ways. There just isn't anywhere to put them all, but she isn't keen to part with them and neither am I! We must have thousands between us.

DH grew up in a home without any books, and none of his family are readers. He struggles to understand but he does just about tolerate my habit. But it's getting beyond a joke now, and I do need to have a clearout.

Don't kid yourself OP - while you have space to store the books, it's fine, but when your collection starts to spiral out of control, you will know that you can indeed have too many books and you will have to start getting rid!

The other alternative is to win the lottery and buy a house with a large library.

COsmos That's the answer,isn't it? You're a genius!

I have run out of book space and have an overflow at present,but short of the kids sleeping in the shed,I just cannot give over any more space.However I have not double stacked (and I hate it when books get pushed back too far on the shelf).
Today I shall investigate the possibilities thanks to you

I have a library with a comfy chair and a stereo but there are too many books. The goal is to cull/curate/whittle down the numbers till each one is a winner, you flop down scan the shelves and each one is a winner. We do have too many things and less would mean I'd enjoy the room more.

If my heart sinks when a child pulls out a book then eventually it will go. Not all Julia Donaldson books are equal, you don't need the complete set. I could n't stand the monkey one but Room On The Broom is lovely to read.

If you do cull, you could try releasing the books into the wild by bookcrossing them: www.bookcrossing.com/

I did it with my class and they loved seeing where the books ended up.

I run a specialist construction company, one of the most popular request we get these days is for library rooms, or bookcases built into the design of the house, it a must have for a lot of people, when people are looking at houses it on their must have list, I often when viewing potential properties with a client get asked where and how we will fit the required shelf space in,

With a backgrounds in architecture,arts, photography, a lot of my books are reference books, a carefully built up library over many years, certainly my fiction library gets used as one, by friends, I love prescribing a book to someone, and them enjoying it.

we have floor to ceiling shelving built into the design of our house(small house) apart from using the books a lot, they look nice and give added insulation to house,

When we have students staying, they often comment on the things they find in our books that they have never come across on the internet, I'm always surprised that they hadn't realised how much they were missing out on.

I love reading and am running out of space for all of my books. However, 250 books for such young children does seem an awful lot. I presume a lot of them are just ABC type books or cheap versions of classical fairy tales??
I would go through them and hang on to the better ones and give the others to the charity shop.

When we moved house 6 years ago, I had to get rid of a lot of books (300 plus) simply because the house we moved to didn't have the storage space). I still have many books, mostly in the loft, but this house was the right one for many reasons.

I have a kindle, which helps, but I do like seeing books on a shelf. One day I'll have my bookcase set up again......

Lots of books = Lots of dusting. Not for me!
Am busy culling books that NLB says we can get rid of.
We are heavy library users, instead.

www.amazon.co.uk/Tidy-Books-Childrens-Bookcase-Lowercase/dp/B002C6AV9K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357040255&sr=8-2

Helps with storing DC picture books. We have two over full ones and lots of normal bookcases over full - thanks to the book people.

I'm trying to get rid of books at minute - both DH and I now have kindles - I've got rid of loads but it's hard going. DH and DC don't like getting rid of things - I'm bothereing as we need to sell the house so need it to look as big as it can.

We still regularly use the local library and the DC get books from school. Hasn't stoped us buying.

YANBU we have about 600 ish but that was before Xmas. Post Christmas we honesty require a new bookcase!

Usualsuspect has it right
It's a fine line between loving reading and loving the image it gives you

For me personally, a good 75% of what I read is non fiction. I like to check facts, I like my art books with pictures in and little explanations, I like not running to Google every time I've forgotten something. Plus even though I probably won't have kids, I can't help saving it all....just in case.....

Crazy thread title. I cull my bookcase all the time. I have no desire to inhabit a dusty old library.

"I have no desire to inhabit a dusty old library."

Sounds like my idea of heaven

Yanbu, and if they are only 3 and 1, then they won't have outgrown anything yet. When they are a bit older, you can cull some books to make pace for new ones.

I loved the beautiful illustrated children's books that ds had when he was little.
I gave them all away when he grew up though.
I now have a kindle, as my books were taking up too much space, and I was always having to have clearouts.
I love, love, love my kindle.

250 children's books sounds fine as they don't take up that much room on a book case as generally very thin.

However, despite me, Dh and DD reading a lot we still don't have hundreds of books around the house. I don't want every wall covered in books and book cases and couldn't deal with them piled up on the floor everywhere.

Both me and DD now have Kindles so have much fewer books on the bookcases, only nes we had before and ones we will re-read, or for DD - also this included signed books. We also have non fiction books in real book form.

DH never rereads books so once he has read his books they are passed on - either to family, friends or a charity shop.

I like to see some books in a house, nicely on a bookcase. But I dont like seeing piles of tatty old novels laying around in piles, etc.

"I have no desire to inhabit a dusty old library."

It's a real problem. I have books that I acquired from my parents that I can't read. If I open them my skin starts to itch from decades of exposure to dust.

DH and I are avid book readers and collectors and also love buying books for DD. We have 5 large bookshelves in the living room, one in the kitchen, three in the study/spare room, one in DD's room, one in our room, one on the upstairs landing plus more in storage. It's ridiculous because we haven't read all our books, we all have a large stack of to-reads by our beds and we still buy more. In 2012 I bought a Kindle to save on trees but now have 100s of books in it. So in 2013 I will buy NO books until I have read 80% of my unread books. If your case is similar then YABU.

Sorry, just re-read the OP and realise you are talking about too many books for your DC. Children love repetition so I try and re-read her books in rotation - especially now she is learning to read. We use the library a lot now for "new" books.