How many books do you own?
Discussion
psi310398 said:
. Fortunately, most of them are in our second home. They provide very adequate wall insulation, too.I've tried persuading my wife to thin things out but every time we start we get diverted by something interesting. It's an analogue alternative to losing an afternoon surfing the web.
And being able to delve into any of about six decades' worth of Wisden when visiting the downstairs lav doesn't help speed up the time spend enthroned either...
Halb said:
ANyone any tips on selling books?
Sorry, I've never tried as all mine are just fiction and any time I go to a car boot sale you can't shift for piles of books at 20p each or less. I just send them to a charity shop. My problem is that I don't do it often enough, which leads to having too many. 
droopsnoot said:
Sorry, I've never tried as all mine are just fiction and any time I go to a car boot sale you can't shift for piles of books at 20p each or less. I just send them to a charity shop. My problem is that I don't do it often enough, which leads to having too many.
Thanks for that. For some of my books, I'll take them to the charity shop, but I have a large selection, and some are quite old, so those ones are more to be pegged for sale.I've seemingly accumulated around 100 in the last couple of years, most of which I've read.
Problem is that I have no shelves so they're sat in piles in various rooms!
Baffles me sometimes how little people read. Then again I'm probably the odd 23 year old who reads an hour before bed and over a nice coffee on Sunday mornings!
Problem is that I have no shelves so they're sat in piles in various rooms!
Baffles me sometimes how little people read. Then again I'm probably the odd 23 year old who reads an hour before bed and over a nice coffee on Sunday mornings!
National Literacy Trust said:
Around 15 per cent, or 5.1 million adults in England, can be described as "functionally illiterate". They would not pass an English GCSE and have literacy levels at or below those expected of an 11-year-old.
The plebs read red tops or get their news from Facebook. I say no moreA large proportion of the UK reads the football scores and the Sky EPG and that's it.
Slowed down a bit - I stopped working last year so not having a regular income does act as a BIT of a deterrent to buying more. But I do still buy a few from charity shops. I daren't count mine up again. Maybe at the end of the year. We may well be moving and downsizing next year so will have to start looking at what to lose...
I don't know how many books we have in our house.
The bookshelves in the sitting room (bespoke covering one wall) are full, the bookshelves in the kids' rooms are overflowing, I have loads piled up at the back of my wardrobe, there are several boxes full of books in the loft. And we gave away loads to charity - the ones we have left are the ones I couldn't face getting rid of because they are first editions (or similar), I've convinced myself I will read again (generally unlikely), they have some sort of sentimental value (like the one my grandma won at the local Sunday School in about 1925), or I think the kids will want to read them when they are older.
I'm not allowed to buy books any more
It's the literary equivalent of the cyclist's s-1. Instead, I have to go to the local lending library to get books I want. Which, as it happens, is a great step forward - I'm too much of a hoarder to be allowed to buy books. I even have a Kobo rather than a Kindle because it means I can borrow eBooks from the library rather than having to faff around with the physical versions.
The bookshelves in the sitting room (bespoke covering one wall) are full, the bookshelves in the kids' rooms are overflowing, I have loads piled up at the back of my wardrobe, there are several boxes full of books in the loft. And we gave away loads to charity - the ones we have left are the ones I couldn't face getting rid of because they are first editions (or similar), I've convinced myself I will read again (generally unlikely), they have some sort of sentimental value (like the one my grandma won at the local Sunday School in about 1925), or I think the kids will want to read them when they are older.
I'm not allowed to buy books any more
It's the literary equivalent of the cyclist's s-1. Instead, I have to go to the local lending library to get books I want. Which, as it happens, is a great step forward - I'm too much of a hoarder to be allowed to buy books. I even have a Kobo rather than a Kindle because it means I can borrow eBooks from the library rather than having to faff around with the physical versions.lost count certainly in the multi-thousands, poss. about 4,000... of which perhaps a quarter are first editions I collect... some of them a better investment than a modern 911 or Ferrari! The living room is known as the library (or music room due to the number of instruments) and has two walls completely shelves all double banked in books... then bookcases / piles of books in every other room including the bathroom, even high shelves along the wall of the upstairs corridor, ideal for firsts as there is no sunlight...
certainly in the multi-thousands, poss. about 4,000... of which perhaps a quarter are first editions I collect... some of them a better investment than a modern 911 or Ferrari! The living room is known as the library (or music room due to the number of instruments) and has two walls completely shelves all double banked in books... then bookcases / piles of books in every other room including the bathroom, even high shelves along the wall of the upstairs corridor, ideal for firsts as there is no sunlight...
I have had over 100 books I collected over time.
I love reading fantasy genre about Forgotten Realms, Ravenholdt etc.
But once I started giving my books to my friends to read, they started disappearing somehow and the number is greatly diminished.
That is why I don't lend anyone, not even my closest friends any books anymore.
I like to keep my books in my mint condition too but everytime someone takes them to read, they ruin them.
I want to start building my archive again tho.
I love reading fantasy genre about Forgotten Realms, Ravenholdt etc.
But once I started giving my books to my friends to read, they started disappearing somehow and the number is greatly diminished.
That is why I don't lend anyone, not even my closest friends any books anymore.
I like to keep my books in my mint condition too but everytime someone takes them to read, they ruin them.
I want to start building my archive again tho.
Not quite books, but I do want to eventually have the OS Explorer maps for the whole of the UK. Slowly growing my collection as we go on holiday round the UK.
£2500 to buy all 403 at once!
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/map-bundle-c...
£2500 to buy all 403 at once!
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/map-bundle-c...
My Grandparents had the whole ~1960s 1" 1:63,000 series.
Got passed on in a house tidy out to my Uncles Brother or someone (I got the whole of the North on the Green original 1:25,000s Pathfinders - about 200 odd). Years later I asked my Uncs if his brother still had the 1:63s........apparently he'd got rid of them for a road atlas!!!!
Books, about 500 Engineering textbooks - an Institue had a clear out many years ago to members that "bagged" any books they wanted - right place - right time. Most available on Knovel online now. Occasionally sell the odd one or two on Ebay - just after a new edition is issued and people hark for the old one in print rather than through an online subscription service!!
Novels ~ 2,000.
Travel guides, many histrical but many modern (last 20 years of travelling the globe monthly) ~ 1,000.
Ebooks. 4.
Private Eyes....passed on an inheritted from a relative whom didn't have space for them but mostly complete 71- 94. Probably should sell, missing a few to many to be top pound, just haven't got around to it.
Oh, and wifes collection of funny toilet books. Three toilets in the house 80 "witty things to say whe you are dead" or "Times favourite letters" type A5 or A6 novellas......
And Prue Leiths household cookbook.
(And possibly though I suspect this rite of passage may now no longer exist, four grot mags under sons mattress).
Got passed on in a house tidy out to my Uncles Brother or someone (I got the whole of the North on the Green original 1:25,000s Pathfinders - about 200 odd). Years later I asked my Uncs if his brother still had the 1:63s........apparently he'd got rid of them for a road atlas!!!!
Books, about 500 Engineering textbooks - an Institue had a clear out many years ago to members that "bagged" any books they wanted - right place - right time. Most available on Knovel online now. Occasionally sell the odd one or two on Ebay - just after a new edition is issued and people hark for the old one in print rather than through an online subscription service!!
Novels ~ 2,000.
Travel guides, many histrical but many modern (last 20 years of travelling the globe monthly) ~ 1,000.
Ebooks. 4.
Private Eyes....passed on an inheritted from a relative whom didn't have space for them but mostly complete 71- 94. Probably should sell, missing a few to many to be top pound, just haven't got around to it.
Oh, and wifes collection of funny toilet books. Three toilets in the house 80 "witty things to say whe you are dead" or "Times favourite letters" type A5 or A6 novellas......
And Prue Leiths household cookbook.
(And possibly though I suspect this rite of passage may now no longer exist, four grot mags under sons mattress).
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