Books in people's homes

[Goliath]

Jesus Christ--I seriously need a new bookcase.

I went rooting in my linen closet for something yesterday evening, and you know what I found?

Books. Books I had forgotten I owned. Even a book that I thought I had lost, or loaned out to someone. I distinctly remember thinking, what did I do with that book? not too long ago.

I'm just a cash-support system for a book collection. Forget the selfish gene--think the selfish book.

 

[milo bloom]

Growing up, I don't recall my parents having a lot of books. They had a large collection of the Reader's Digest condensed books, but they never interested me, and I don't recall them ever reading them.

But I always had tons of books, and I was at the library as much as possible. My wife is also a big reader, and we have a large collection of books (at least several hundred). A couple summers ago, my wife found a Craigslist ad of a guy near us wanting to downsize his sci-fi/fantasy book collection. We drove to his place, and one full bedroom of his townhouse was full of bookshelves (not just along the walls, but in spaced across the floor) and each shelf was a double shelf with a little tier behind the first row for the second row of titles. 50c a book he said. I left with three big produce boxes and two cloth shopping bags full of books, and he was even throwing on free stuff just because we were getting along so well. I bring a book to work, and I read on my lunch hour everyday, I'm currently on volume 5 of the Man-Kzin Wars.

But back to my parents, now they hardly have any books. My dad has a few from the likes of Limbaugh and Coulter , or biographies of people like Ray Kroc or the guy that used to call Kentucky Wildcats basketball games on the radio. And the only thing my mom ever reads are decorating magazines like Country Living and such.

But all my wife's friends always have books, and she's always getting on to me cause I'm always checking out their shelves whenever we visit.




Hey, would it overload the forum if we started posting pictures of our bookshelves?

 

[Holdfast]

I almost never read books these days. I have one on my bedside table that's been there for nearly 6 months I think. The only time I read books is when on a beach holiday, during which I usually binge on a good handful.

It's an interesting development. I was a truly voracious reader as a child, and I have no doubt that this helped my vocabulary, imagination, academic ability, etc, etc. But I never feel like getting into a book these days, unless I really have no excuse to do anything else but read. Do I have books at home? Sure, a bookcase full. I doubt more than five were bought within the last five years though!

The internet very much took over the leisure time previously devoted to books. So I still read a tremendous amount, probably as much if not more than when I read books. It's just not in book format. I suspect this is not a unique shift.

 

[RoJoHen]

I doubt more than five were bought within the last five years though!

See, I buy new books all the time even though I don't read any of them. I want to read, and I like owning books, but I just never get around to it.

I blame wireless internet. Instead of reading a book before bed, now I look stuff up on my laptop.

 

[RAMA]

I had over 400 books at one time, as I moved, I gave some up. Recently, despite getting electronic e-book readers, I bought a few hardback novels I've wanted. I now have 3 bookshelves with books, roughly 1/3rd of them belong to my wife. In addition, I have almost 600 e-books, many which I have not read yet.

BTW when I was able to download MP3squickly and DVDS came out, I quickly got rid of my analog items...but I dont see that happening with my books even though my original plan was to convert to all e-books.

 

[Holdfast]

Instead of reading a book before bed, now I look stuff up on my laptop.

Yep, pretty much the same with me, though I don't take the laptop into bed. But the point about having got out of the habit of reading before bed is so accurate for me too.

 

[23skidoo]

I currently have approximately 3,100 books in my library. Due to a move expected within the next year I anticipate pairing that down by about 25%.

My family has always had books. I've always had books of my own. I have books for which specific memories are tied. There is no substitute.

That 42% number cited earlier might go a long way towards explaining why people are so hellbent on giving up the permanence of books in favor of the temporary, transient nature of e-books. (And they are different things: a book does not require the permission of a third party - by way of technology, software, or license - to read. An e-book does.) It's simply not part of their culture.

Alex

 

[John Clark]

I probably have too many books (and access to even more) as my family have always been readers. It's a rare day when I leave the house and don't have a book to hand.

Having an ebook makes storage issues a little easier.

 

[JoeZhang]

I read as many books as I ever did but I haven't touched a physical book in years.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I long ago lost count of the books I own. Many thousands, going back over forty years. I've got paperbacks, hardcovers, comics, magazines-- you name it. In categories too numerous to mention as well. I've also got a lot of books in PDF format, mostly public domain Pulp reprints, but also some older classic mainstream stuff. For my birthday, I got a nook, so now I'm starting to collect some e-books; I've got about twenty so far.

With a couple of exceptions, almost nobody in my family reads. When I was a kid, I would get advice from my relatives along the lines of "Why don't you get your nose outta da book an do sumpin."

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I have thousands of books.

Four years ago I had to move to a bigger house - mostly to accommodate my book and DVD collections.

It is utterly ridiculous.

I now have a study the size of a medium sized American bedroom. This room has one built in floor-to-ceiling bookcase the takes up an entire wall. I also have a barristers bookcase (for a rare book collection/1st editions/autographed books) and 3 other large (nearly to the ceiling) bookcases in that room. In the living room, I have 4 smaller bookcases (tall but fairly narrow) filled with books. I also have 2 small bookcases (waist high) in an upstairs hall and 2 large storage drawers full of paperbacks under a bed....and a small bookshelf against each wall on either side of my bed (waist high). And finally, about 8-10 cartons of books (boxes from office copy paper) full of books yet to be unpacked. Need more shelves before I do that.

Most of my collection is non-fiction - there are certain topics that I have extensive collections on (travel writing, mountaineering - particularly on Everest, arctic exploration, religion and theology, history - particularly French Revolutionary history and Russian history, history of film, bios of classic film actors and directors, etc). But the paperbacks under the bed and maybe 2 of the unpacked paper boxes are fiction - mostly mysteries and spy novels.

But even with all those books, I am a lightweight book collector compared to at least one member of this board. Top41 has more books than God. It is scary how many books she has.

My sister, on the other hand, probably owns less than 5 books at any given time that are her own - she reads only trashy romance novels and then gives them away. Her son will inherit my book collection one day. He has a nice sized collection of his own and is a nerd, so he'll appreciate my book collection.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I'm surprised by how many of you like to read non-fiction for pleasure. If it wasn't for the books I accumulated for college, I doubt I'd own even one non-fiction book. I have some books that are half based on historical fact and half fiction, but besides that I find non-fiction books dreadfully boring. Unless I was buying a specific manual for some reason I can't see myself ever reading them for pleasure. It's all murder mysteries for me! My mom loves reading memoirs, but I usually get bored of them by the third chapter and ending up just reading a summary online. If I'm going to read for pleasure, I want to lose myself in a fantasy world.

 

[Ghost07]

Usually, I, too, find non-fiction borrring...however, I picked up a book on forensic science, called...Dead Men Do Tell Tales...and it was so exciting that I stayed up all night to read it cover to cover. I can't remember who wrote it, other than the man identified the Czar Alexander family, but if you see this book, get it; it's the most interesting non-fiction book I have ever read.

Most of my collection is science fiction and fantasy, I do love swords and sorcerers , but I do have several books on ancient warfare, and histories of some local towns and villages.

I like the past. Besides these type of books, I have cook books, books on identifying edibles in the mountains, craft books, survival manuals, emergency medicine for people and dogs and cats...and reference books on mythology ...oh...I read anything I can get my hands on...except romance novels. That is one type of book I avoid like the plague! It's like reading a boring story over and over, just with different people in it.

When I get desperate enough, I'll even read the cereal boxes...

 

[Miss Chicken]

About 2/3 of what I read is non-fiction. I especially like

Survival stories
Books about animals (I am currently reading a book about the history of the platypus)
Biographies/autobiographies
History of Iceland (also travel books about Iceland)
History of Native Americans especially of the Cheyenne

As far as fiction goes about 80% of the fiction I read are crime mysteries. I especially like Scandinavian authors i.e. Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland), Karin Fossum (Norway), Johan Theorin (Sweden). I also like novels set in Iceland. I also like novels set in more 'exotic' places/times, for example I have just read a novel that is set in Bangladesh in 1971 during that county's War of Independence.

 

[TerokNor]

My parents always had books and both enjoyed reading in the evenings or weekends. I had books from as early I can remember and my mother also read to me before bed-time, when I could not read yet. I also remember very warmly my grandmother reading to me "Little Lord Fauntleroy". As soon as I could read myself I enjoyed it immensly...I especially loved adventure/ detective books, horse books and fantasy books.
Then I had a time where I sort of stopped reading books for a few years. Well but that passed, now I like reading again. I read online and in normal books, though I actually like reading in normal books better, the feeling just is different.
I normally read books, that have sort of a philosophical influence, with my favourite books being "Distant Winds". And I enjoy fantasy and books with some sort of psychological touch/ drama/ angst. I also like books from the area of my study, about development, psychology, paedagogy, education and such.
And I enjoy reading to children in the nursery groups...or to make up stories with and for them, when bringing them to bed after lunch. Never met a young child till now, who did not love stories, if it has the possibilty to get his or her hands on books and/ or an adult. *L* Though met plenty of children, who grow up in families without books and story-time. These are the children who are especially fond of getting this sort of attention in nursery. You just have to sit down with a book and in a second your lap is crowded with children who fight over sitting in it for hearing a story.

TerokNor

 

[pigletsgiblets]

I have few books on my bookshelf.After I read them I take them to a used book store and trade them in for more.I do that over and over.

 

[An Officer]

We never had books in my house when I was a kid, my mother is not much of a reader, she's more of an arts and crafts person. I was lucky to have a library card though, and so had free access to as many books as I could read. I spent my early years on fiction, mainly romance, horror, historical fiction, and sci-fi and fantasy.

I guess I have accumulated many fiction novels over the years. In the last 10 years though, I have switched almost exclusively to non-fiction. I purged all of my fiction novels in my last two moves, and now have a lean library of non-fiction of about 50 or around that figure. If I believe I'll never read it again, I recycle it to charity. If for some reason I unexpectedly need that information again, there's always the interwebz.

I'm a serious minimalist and could probably move tomorrow in 10 boxs. If it's not been used recently, it goes. I despise any sort of excess clutter and dust traps. The books I do have are behind glass cabinets. If it were not for my reliance on the web for research I would also probably have a monster collection by now - good for the Amazon though!

 

[SmoothieX]

We've got all our various textbooks from college, grad school, b-school, etc., literature from conferences we've been to, and a load of cookbooks. We rarely have more than a dozen or so 'read for fun' books around. I mostly use my Kindle now, but before that, we'd read a book and then just donate it to one of those book drop bins so they don't clutter up the house.

 

[Beagleman]

I find these numbers so hard to comprehend, households without books (...NO BOOKS!?), ok, I grew up in an apartement where nearly every wall is covered in bookshelves and there are piles of books in the living room... I don't think it will ever be different for me, I love books and reading. I suppose I have about 1000+ at the moment. I don't think I've ever known someone who doesn't own books.
Might invest in a Kindle soon though, the space is becoming a factor.