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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think there's no such thing as too many books for a child?

108 replies

jumpjockey · 15/10/2009 15:31

DD is 10.5 months and has about 40 books - mostly board books, lift the flap, touch and feel, crinkly cloth books etc. She loves turning the pages (book right way up or not... ) and looking at the pictures. Most of them are from charity shops as there's one we pass every day that has a 5p shelf. MIL recently commented that she thought this was far too many and wasn't she too young to appreciate more than one or two?

Given that I'm a librarian this is particularly , but surely babies can enjoy books and have great fun sitting on someone's lap looking at the pictures? How can there be such a thing as too many, given that we're not wasting swathes of money on them, they're easy to tidy up, and she's learning all sorts of things when we 'read' them together?

OP posts:
alwayslookingforanswers · 15/10/2009 22:05

40 baby books may be 1 1/2hr of your thin bookshelf. I have just counted the number of books on the top shelf on my "regular" sized book shelf.....there's 24

Although when I culled my music shelves a year or so back I discovered no less than 142 books on 2 shelves LOL.

FABIsInTraining · 15/10/2009 22:06

I never mind buying my children books but sometimes I think they are expensive. We have loads of books and I love to see my eldest 2 reading. Books are GOOD and I LOVE buying them.

MillyR · 15/10/2009 22:07

As well as all the other benefits of having lots of books, they do provide an extra layer of insulation on the walls of an old house.

alwayslookingforanswers · 15/10/2009 22:10

Milly - that only works if they're the same size books that completely fill the height of each shelf

KristinaM · 15/10/2009 22:11

YANBU

fledtoscotland · 15/10/2009 22:15

YANBU and you know it. My boys are book mad and I too buy lots from the local hospice shop (many unread) never paying more that 50p each. Both boys would prefer to look at a book than watch TV and I hope that once they are older and reading, they will discover the thrill of their own imagination.

Morloth · 15/10/2009 22:23

I find you can get more on a shelf if you lie them down and stack up. All of my shelves are like this, and then 2 rows deep. Just glancing at the shelves from here I suspect they hold about 150 each.

They are in constant rotation as well, as I said I read 5 or so at the same time and can knock over a nice fresh novel in an evening if left in peace.

alwayslookingforanswers · 15/10/2009 22:26

I tried that - made no difference - and most of ours are too deep to to 2 rows .

besides - I don't have the patience to go round and tidy the piles up at the end of every day - at least in "normal" fashions the DS's do a fairly decent job of putting books back on the shelf in some sort of order LOL

Morloth · 15/10/2009 22:28

What is this "tidy" word you use? I hate it when people move my books around, I know where they are!

I mostly read sci/fi fantasy (though to be honest will read anything).

Got a few hardbacks but predominantly paper backs, the hardbacks are on the lower shelves in an attempt to balance out the weight.

We are buying a new place when I go home and I am insisting on an extra bedroom so I can have a library.

megapixels · 15/10/2009 22:28

YANBU. Of course a child can never have too many books, but only if he/she reads (or enjoys, in the case of babies) them! My cousin used to have loads of books, all beautifully displayed in a glass fronted bookshelf. I don't think she'd read even one of them. I was very as she'd never lend me any.

alwayslookingforanswers · 15/10/2009 22:34

I have memories of sleepless nights as a child spend rearranging my bookshelves to try and find the best way of trying to read them all (obviously failed miserably as I'e got rid of loads the DS's have turned their noses up at which I have no idea what they are) and to fit most on a shelf. I was desperate for somewhere to stick other stuff as I was fed up of having to scramble around in boxes under the bed to find my other interests.

I'm afraid I've "limited" my DS's to 2 5xshelf bookcases each - equates to around 500-600 of their books.

I've managed to cut most of my hymn books and books about music/music books down to 1 bookcase worth (still too many for what I actually need/use )

Not sure how many bookcases worth of "other" books are still in boxes......

alwayslookingforanswers · 15/10/2009 22:36

well "tidy" in that they're on the shelve is some sort "respectable" (and I'm a slattern so it's a pretty lax "respectable") fashion

Morloth · 15/10/2009 22:41

DH made a chair out of some of the pile I keep stacked next to "my" spot in the lounge .

I like the mess, the stacks of books all over the place etc. As I said upthread it makes it feel like home.

Books (well and DVDs) are the only thing we accumulate though so it isn't too bad.

alwayslookingforanswers · 15/10/2009 22:48

maybe it's because I grew up in a cramped "library" - and despite my love of books - I just couldn't stand to have that many around me.

The worst was when my parents decided to turn the 2 (large) alcoves either side of the fire place into ceiling to flooor bookshelves (they already had bookshelves on the opposite side of the room.

It felt like I was living somewhere like this - which is fabulous as library........but when you're supposed to relax and do other stuff there as well was hard.

There were so many books in the house there was no room for most of our other stuff - our (very large) attic was full of boxes of "stuff" (again all loving itemised and listed on a databased on the computer should we need something in particular). My dad boarded the whole thing out and had it split into sections A-J - with each section piled high with boxes.

The last house move I helped them with (before they were forced to have a clear out due to them down sizing) I got bored after we'd packed up box 74 of books

I love having books in the house - we have at least one bookshelf in every room except for the bathroom (too damp) and DS2/3's room (due to the fact that DS3 insist on tearing books to shreds

OrmIrian · 16/10/2009 10:20

Well this weekend we are decluttering! . Dh and I are doing the two understairs cupboards and DS#1 is tackling the big shelf that runs around 2 walls of his room. So books will go! Sorry

sayanything · 16/10/2009 10:25

Books as clutter !

OrmIrian · 16/10/2009 10:29

Yep! Clutter.

Anything that is not useful or beautiful is clutter. Including books DS#s room is full of books that he has never even opened - presents from Dh and I and his GPs given in the hope that he would become an avid reader like we all are. But he isn't. So why keep them? Books are not valuable in themselves only for what they contain and if DS never opens them what is the point.

Fuck me this is therapeutic

Let's just see how I actually feel taking armfuls of books to the CLIC shop

alwayslookingforanswers · 16/10/2009 10:30

sayanything - yes books can be clutter when there are too many for your house.

I love books - but if I wanted to live in a library I'd go and buy a sleeping bag and sleep in one

OrmIrian · 16/10/2009 10:32

Perhaps I need to live my fantasy of a big house with a library. Then I could have as much clutter as I liked...

Morloth · 16/10/2009 10:40

Ah see I think the difference is that my books are constantly in use. I read around 6 a week, I can't afford to buy 6 a week, so am always picking up old ones I haven't read for a while.

Neglected books are sad.

OrmIrian · 16/10/2009 10:43

They are indeed. We have mountains of books. I always have one on the go but don't get through quite as many as you morloth! I won't evet get rid of my favourites that have read many many times, but I have quite a few that I read once and though 'meh!' - they are going.

alwayslookingforanswers · 16/10/2009 10:44

how can 1000's of books be "constantly" in use

alwayslookingforanswers · 16/10/2009 10:46

and if you have over a thousand books and read 6 a week that's 3 and a bit years to get round them all

Morloth · 16/10/2009 10:50

3 years is not very long though to have a book in the house?

I freely admit to be slightly deranged here . As I said upthread, DH is just grateful that it is books and not cats.

A book is completely different if you read it every 5 years or so, because you are completely different. Why toss it (or give it away) and then buy it again?

Also I am not the only reader. DS at 5 can read reasonably well and we are working our way through my old copy of Grimms (the originals of course, not the dumbed down versions) and DH will read one or two a week.

Morloth · 16/10/2009 10:51

Libraries don't work for me because they do expect the books back and I prefer to keep my own in case at 3:00am on Sunday morning I can't sleep and want to read Orcs or something.