How Many Books Do You Have?

[trampledamage]

Tens of thousands, which includes hardcovers, paperbacks, magazines and comics. They come in both fiction and non-fiction, and subjects include... well, a lot. My shelves are all full, a lot of stuff is packed away in boxes and the rest is just piled up. I'm another one who needs a house to fit all my stuff, and I will hopefully have one within the next couple of years. And those sliding ladders sound like a good idea.

This sounds like my dad's collection - and he does have a house to put it in! There's his study which is floor to ceiling bookshelves everywhere but the window, door and where his desk is, there's bookshelves in any spare space in the rest of the house too and there's still boxes of books in the attic and precarious piles on the floor in the study. I aspire to that level of book ownership.

 

[ancientone51]

Way too many.

They cover all genres, paperback and hard, boxed, stacked, shelved.

A few signed.

(Iswear they multiply like rabbits when we aren't looking )

 

[Nathan_Heller]

I have approximately 3000 books of various genres. I just moved into a new house and it was a major undertaking to box and move them, but it was well worth it.

 

[judge alba]

200 books ranging from paperback novels to things like ancient china Egypt and medieval japan oh and of course lots of trek books

 

[RJDiogenes]

Tens of thousands, which includes hardcovers, paperbacks, magazines and comics. They come in both fiction and non-fiction, and subjects include... well, a lot. My shelves are all full, a lot of stuff is packed away in boxes and the rest is just piled up. I'm another one who needs a house to fit all my stuff, and I will hopefully have one within the next couple of years. And those sliding ladders sound like a good idea.

This sounds like my dad's collection - and he does have a house to put it in! There's his study which is floor to ceiling bookshelves everywhere but the window, door and where his desk is, there's bookshelves in any spare space in the rest of the house too and there's still boxes of books in the attic and precarious piles on the floor in the study. I aspire to that level of book ownership.

Yeah, I imagine I will one day outgrow the house, too.

 

[Mallory]

Hundreds, about a third of which are non-fiction.

 

[Trippy]

Probably close to 2500 now. It was a dream of mine to live in a library when I was a kid and I'm almost there! I have many different genres too

 

[Harvey]

Too many. I try to hang on to only the books that I'll re-read or need to reference at some point, but there's still probably 500 of them, overflowing off two bookshelfs and elsewhere. When I move out, it's going to be quite an adventure...

 

[Holdfast]

I've never really counted how many books I have...

Me neither, and I don't even have all that many. I guess in my place there's probably about 50-100. There's probably another few hundred left at the family home when I moved out years and years ago and never got round to ever transporting them to my own home. I just don't read books much these days. My attention span has shrunk over the years as I've gotten too used to having multiple forms of entertainment on the go at the same time to actually tune into just one.

I tend to read more when I'm on holiday, sitting by the beach or whatever. I burn through books at a rapid rate in those settings and enjoy them a lot. I've got to think about what to take with me on a 3-week beach vacation I've got coming up in January. But at home, there always seems to be something else to do.

 

[The Sneeze Police]

Hundreds and hundreds. We have two floor-to-ceiling bookcases, four stand alone bookcases. There are small piles on the back of each toilet, a few on the bedside table and some scattered around on various tables. I have dozens more at work in built in shelves and a few stashed in my locker at work. I always have one Jane Austen in my purse (currently Mansfield Park).

 

[Daneel]

Compared to most people here, apparently not that many! Seriously, you're all putting me to shame.

I don't know... I have a few dozen on my main bookshelf, and then a few dozen more stored away in some boxes and bins in my closet. Eh, I'll say around a hundred -- probably more fiction than non-fiction.

 

[Dale]

Used to have at least a thousand, but pared that collection down last time I moved. Sent a lot of paperbacks to servicemen overseas, gave a lot away to friends and neighbors. The last 50 books or so I've read are all in my Kindle... I guess my paradigm is changing. Really the only books I've kept are hardbacks with sentimental value or autographs.

I'll tell ya what I still have way too many of: videotapes!

 

[Kestra]

Compared to most people here, apparently not that many! Seriously, you're all putting me to shame.

I don't know... I have a few dozen on my main bookshelf, and then a few dozen more stored away in some boxes and bins in my closet. Eh, I'll say around a hundred -- probably more fiction than non-fiction.

Eh, I didn't mean to make it a bragging thread. I just think it's fun to see what kinds of collections other people have. Two books or two thousand, it's all good.

 

[RoJoHen]

Compared to most people here, apparently not that many! Seriously, you're all putting me to shame.

I don't know... I have a few dozen on my main bookshelf, and then a few dozen more stored away in some boxes and bins in my closet. Eh, I'll say around a hundred -- probably more fiction than non-fiction.

Eh, I didn't mean to make it a bragging thread. I just think it's fun to see what kinds of collections other people have. Two books or two thousand, it's all good.

Yeah, my collection isn't very large. I honestly just don't read that much. I can't sit in one place long enough to get any solid amount of reading done, so it usually takes me weeks and weeks to get through a single book. Hell, it took me 2 years to read "The Two Towers."

 

[Starbreaker]

300 or so. Most are unread. I'm a sucker for 50 cent hardcovers.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I just counted the ones in my bedroom, there are currently 62.

 

[Ruaidhri]

I estimate about 350-400 in my apartment...say, half of them in boxes because my place is a little small. And maybe that number again at my mom's house.

I share the dream of many here about a library room in my future house.

 

[An Officer]

I'm not a very good collector of things, I'm just a minimalist nomad at heart. I got rid of a lot of books when I moved, then again a year or so ago. I've kept a few classics which I know I will go back to again and again, perhaps 20 to 30. I despise clutter, and work hard to keep a neat and airy space.

 

[May 20]

I have 50-60 book boxes full of books of all kinds in the garage, and I have easily another 200-300 books (not boxes, thank goodness) in the house. That doesn't count my kids' books, though.

 

[RandyS]

Between every Star Wars and Star Trek, Babylon 5, James Bond, Spenser, Quantum Leap, Galactica, Issac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Terminator, Indiana Jones, Buck Rogers, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Lord of the Rings, Mark Twain, Jason Bourne, Tek War, MASH, Martin Caidin, Blade Runner, Harry Turtledove (only his alternate history books), V, Space 1999, Six Million Dollar Man, Get Smart, StarDoc, and Tom Clancy novels ever printed, probably upwards of 8,000.

And that's not even counting my various American history, world history, various movie novelizations, the odd detective novel and various non-series sci-fi novels in my collection. With those, the count is probabaly closer to 11,000.