Sunday 3 January 2021

Books galore

When does book collecting become book hoarding? When do you have a normal number of books and bookshelves, and when does it become abnormal? When does book-buying become such a wild compulsion that you no longer have enough bookshelves for them, and there are piles of books all over the floor?

People with absurd numbers of books (like tens of thousands) will justify them by saying they fully intend to read them all one day, or they're of sentimental value, or they can't bear to part with old favourites, or they're related to a particular interest (like hundreds of bird books).

Jenny and I have always kept our book stock to a modest level - about a thousand books at the last count - by aiming to discard as many books as we buy. This routine has served us well so far. Luckily there's a charity second-hand bookshop just down the road. so our abandoned books will find new readers. Of course we may simply be encouraging book hoarders to buy dozens of cheap second-hand books....

There's a temptation to acquire as many books as your home can accommodate. The first flats Jenny and I lived in were too small for large numbers of books, so we were more likely to "read and discard", but as we moved to bigger flats the need for a rapid recycling of books declined and they tended to linger.

We keep a lot of books on the basis that we're sure to re-read them some day, only to find that many of them never get re-read and just gather dust. Sooner or later our tastes change and that wonderful old book from ten years ago suddenly seems clunky and rambling and ready to be thrown out.

At least I don't buy books I know very well I'll never read, like Ulysses or War and Peace or In Search of Lost Time. That's a few less to worry about.

34 comments:

  1. I don't know how many books I have, 200-300 maybe. It's more than I have room for and I try to move them on but it doesn't work with everything.
    I once bought Dante's inferno to impress someone. I kinda wish I still had it but it falls into the war and peace category.

    There is a tote bag available which is printed "it's not hoarding if it's books"

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    1. Kylie: That's a lot fewer books than ours. Dante's Divine Comedy is one I would also avoid.

      But I don't think books are exempt from the hoarding category!

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  2. Three years ago, I gave away around five hundred books which emptied half the shelves in my library. I kept back only those books that I need to refer. Since then, I have bought books but, only those that I wish to read and as I write this, I have just two books that I have bought that wait their turn. Kindle has been a great invention and I have twenty on it on the waiting list. I do intend reading all of them too.

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    1. Ramana: I have a maximum of about six books on my to-read pile. Jenny has many times that number - but it does mean that she never runs out of something to read!

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  3. We have very few books, most of them reference. I have zero desire to ever reread a book, just because there are too many books out there to enjoy. I rarely buy a book because our library system has everything.

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    1. Bijoux: As a book club member, I get a book a month on loan from the local library. So that's a few more books that aren't cluttering the bookshelves.

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  4. Karen and I are both bookworms and have passed that trait on to at least a couple of people--our oldest daughter, who is in her "dream-job" as the children's librarian in the county's main library, and Karen's youngest brother, who lived with us for a time when he was in college and went on the become the band director for the local high school.

    We seldom buy physical, real-world books any more, having moved to the kindle years ago. The only e-books that I buy now are those that are not available through online loan through our library system or Kindle Unlimited (online lending subscription from Amazon). We still have a lot of books, but far fewer than we once did.

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    1. Mike: I just enjoy reading actual books, so I've never seriously considered a kindle. They must be very handy for holidays - unless you get sand all over them!

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    2. Sand just brushes off of them.

      We used to carry quite a few books with us in our motorhome on our travels. Now, with our kindles, we carry an entire library. I recently reread a "real" book. It felt cumbersome... and a large hardback book, would be even more so. For us, it's not so much the medium the book is in so much as the words the book contains.

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    3. Mike: Some good points. I do avoid hardbacks, because as you say they are cumbersome and no good for travelling around with. You're right of course that in the end it's the words that count.

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  5. I have had to move to e books since, thanks to the bug, my old suppliers - Better World Books -are not shipping to Costa Rica.I was already using the Kindle app on my tablet for e books to read when travelling as previously a flight back to Europe would require three books in the carry on bag, but i like the feel of a book in my hands.
    We have an inordinate number of books, don't throw them out and do read a fair number again
    Guilty of Proust, War and Peace and Ulysses.

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    1. Fly: I'm a fairly slow reader so a small number of paperbacks will easily see me through a holiday - even to Australia!

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  6. I've whittled mine down hugely over the years. I was always lucky enough to have vast bookshelves.

    BUT I am completely amazed at book lovers not availing of public libraries which I avidly use. I order books on line (including best sellers) and then picking up or having delivered (to my mobility issues). I also had books by mail - free - from the library when I lived rurally. A huge box would arrive in my door. This service is available worldwide I believe.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. www: I don't get many books from my local library, because they seldom have new books and if I order them they take a while to arrive. There was a plan a few years ago to close several Belfast libraries but it was heavily opposed and the plan was dropped.

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  7. ? Why would we want to slap a label on someone who has different interests than us? If they aren’t harming other people why judge them?

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    1. Jean: I agree. Though serious book-hoarders are creating something of a fire risk!

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  8. I used to own a lot of books. Until my allergist pointed out what they were doing to my dust allergies.

    Later we sold our house and nearly everything in it and moved into a motorhome to tour the USA. There I had a limit of six books at a time. There were lots of places along our routes where RVers would trade books but ebooks put a dent in that supply.

    Now I only read ebooks and I delete most of those once I've read them. I get most of them free through BookBub.com.

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    1. Linda: Moving into a motorhome would certainly force you to do some serious book-discarding! I haven't succumbed to ebooks as yet, but I might have to if I end up in a much smaller home.

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  9. I read a lot. lol Back before I had a Kindle I would keep all the books that I read so right now I have about 2000 books on my bookshelves. But I have read all of them.

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    1. Mary: You read at an absolutely amazing rate. I don't know how you do it! Two thousand books that you've actually read is quite something.

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  10. I live in a little over 500 square feet. it's really like a tiny house. (only it's an apartment.)
    as in anything when downsizing... a huge amount of books had to go. only my most favorite remained. I switched to Kindle (which I can now see better anyway) so I'm ok. and I have the feeling at least the ones that had to be GONE are at least being enjoyed by others! so it's all good.

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    1. Tammy: People do say that kindles are easier to read than physical books. I might eventually make the switch for that reason.

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  11. I'm about to sell most of my accumulation on line, for pennies each. Good books, someone else will enjoy them.

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    1. Joanne: Someone's going to get some great books for next to nothing! Recycling is the way to go.

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  12. If you include cookbooks in a book collection, than I have a couple of book shelves with these, but a smaller number of other books. As of last year, all books read sere downloaded from the local library as ebooks or audiobooks, which I began listening to in 2020 at a friend’s suggestion. I use a Kindle Paperwhite which is entering its 6th year because it is easier to hold when reading in bed and the included backlight is preferable to the nightstand light, also it’s easier to hold. The audio books have been a delight when doing house chores, exercising or out walking.

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    1. Beatrice: I see I shall have to explore the possibilities of ebooks and audiobooks, as there do seem to be some positive benefits.

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  13. A cousin of mine has books in every room (except the bathroom). Her husband is a vicar, some of them are theology books for ideas on sermons. I asked them if they thought they would read all of the others, to which they replied "We'll have a good go at it"! I've always had a lot of books but not the amount in your image, and I would never have piles of them on the floor. When my daughter emigrated I kept a lot of her books, hers and mine filled a huge Ikea shelving unit. I read most of them but decided that the rest had to go, including the shelving unit. I only have a few favourites now. My book clubs borrow from the library.

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    1. Polly: You seem to have purged your bookshelves very successfully! We wouldn't have any piles of books on the floor either - they go on the shelves or they go to the charity bookshop. And I also borrow my book club reads from the library.

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  14. It's funny, but I tend to want to re-read the books that I've chucked out thinking I'll never read them again. I've bought several books twice because of this stupidity.
    Meanwhile, now I'm using them to make collages.
    Sx

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    1. Ms Scarlet: Luckily I don't do that. Once the book's gone, it's totally forgotten. Or it's remembered but with no desire to re-read it.

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  15. My house is overflowing with too many books. I am now faced with trying to find ways to dispose of them. I have filled bookshelves in three rooms, stacks of unshelved books but not on the floor.

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    1. Joared: Perhaps you have a charity shop or a secondhand bookshop nearby that would benefit from some of your unwanted books?

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    2. There is, or was a used bookstore but I haven't checked since the pandemic to see if they're still surviving. We used to have about 4 others but they long ago went out of business. This store doesn't take hardbacks and only a few paperbacks, but not a lot of the type books I most enjoy. Their readers seems to prefer romance books, and the commercial fluff which is understandable money-wise, but not what I generally read.

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    3. Joared: It's a shame your bookstore only takes "commercial fluff". Our nearby charity bookshop takes everything including hardbacks and amazingly obscure reference books!

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