Anyone else have the problem of owning way too many books

[kaelvan]

I started cleaning out my room of stuff since trying be more minimalistic since want to later on be modern nomad (that's another topic for another day). And I just found out why my mom get so upset bring home more books.

I'm pretty sure I have atleast 100 books alone in this one pile alone. Didn't even bother with the other side of my room. Too scared to.

[Lalie Fanyarendil]

There is no such thing!

 

But, I admit to having four floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. I will need a fifth in the next few years. E-books just aren't the same. I need paper.

[Einar]

I prefer the real thing but ever since I went on my first deployment I learned to love the convenience of e-books.  As an added bonus it really cuts down on the space my library requires

[Gobnait]

Too many books?  I do admit that some need to be stored at the public library.

 

Figure out which ones you need electronic, which ones you can have stored at a family member's house when you do nomad, sell or donate the rest.

 

I do need some things in dead tree format because electronic can't keep up with my flipping pages.

[Taijibum]

No such thing as too many books. However when I was contemplating being a van-dweller nomad, I was making a list of my must have books. I have some pretty large collection of martial arts and spiritual books, plus a ton of business books. I have over 2000 books, but they are all on shelves.

[cracked_belle]

 

I have 1015 books in my database I've created.  and that doesn't include the four boxes of books that have been't cataloged yet.

[pureleeawesome]

For someone who still lives with her parents, yes, I have too many books :-)

I've moved to e-book format for some types of books, but even then I really do need another bookcase, and I've been told I'm not allowed to have one. I've done as much culling as I'm willing to do as well, which makes it hard. Nearly half my collection is non-fiction too.

[redtomato501]

I have 85 cookbooks. I haven't even tried to count the rest. And don't even start with ebooks - I've got so many!

 

I figure I'm doing good though, I'm pretty sure my mom has about 1700 cookbooks (literally - counted several shelves and extrapolated from that sample), and they have an even more impressive selection of non-cookbooks (mostly fiction). It's not an exaggeration when I say that part of our basement is a library, and that there is at least one book shelf in every room except the bathrooms.

[Robpocalypse]

Yes.. I have boxes of books in the basement and a closet full of novels I have finished.

One particular problem is my habit of buying more books than I can finish. I see books in the store, I know I will forget the titles if I do not purchase but I already have a queue a mile long. So I buy them and they start building up in the drawer of an entertainment center I have devoted to unread novel storage.

Wish there were more used book stores locally.

[PMyrrh]

I as well own too many books. Years of booksales and yardsales have given me about 4 bookcases (3'x7' ish) full of books. I can't help but pick up a book if it looks/sounds interesting and is a dollar or less.

I have a standing To Read list about 40 deep.

A problem I have with so many books is that I keep wanting to reread some of the great ones while I know there are a plethora of unread ones sitting around, lol.

[erosan]

too many and books do not compute in the same sentence.

If anyone ever saw Read Or Die (the OVAs, not the series) and felt as jealous of Yomiko Readman's first scene as I did (she doing several shopping trips filling a suitcase with books), I'd like to add them as friends. [emoji14]

[Jakkals]

Too many?

 

At present I got around 900 books in my bedroom. This is after two very big cleanouts, lots donated and some sold.

 

In the rest of the house we have 10 boxes of books that I still have to donate, but even so we have no empty shelves in the house, just a little more breathing room.

 

The only ones I feel I would keep is a lot of children's books from my youth that is out of print and irreplaceable.

 

I would love to go electronic for new books, postage is killing us here.

[Companion]

Been purging mine slowly. It is hard. Soooo hard.

[xoek]

NEVER!!!

[MichiruSedai]

I downsized by a couple boxes when I moved two years ago - stuff I don't reread often and knew I could find at the public library.  But yeah... I have a TON of books... and I don't see that changing ever!

 

I do have a kindle with 10 or so books loaded, but I really only use that when traveling.  I vastly prefer to hold a real book over a tablet.   Habit I suppose.

[Apocrita]

I sometimes go on a book spree when I buy around 5 to 10 books at a time. "Because I'm worth it" and all. And I love books, and I can never have too many. Ever.

[justtrish]

It's only a problem when I try to find one - is it on a bookcase (which bookcase?), on kindle, on nook, somewhere else?  I've gotten better at noting on my goodreads where the book is, but it's not anywhere near 100%

[Hong WeiLoh]

I don't "own too many books", I am "curating my own private library".

Perspective is everything. >;-D

[shortstuff]

You can never have too many books, one day (in my dreams) when I own my own house I would like to have a room with all my books in it with a comfy chair

[Deirdredawne]

Last time I purged my books, I got rid of 5 -_-". I'm also a literary horder. But I don't think of it as a bad thing. My library is my safe/happy place. 

 

When you're about to go all Nomad, maybe box up your must keeps and store those somewhere. Sell or donate the rest, and if you have any you can't live without - download.  

[Mark D]

I credit my purchase of a Kindle with saving my marriage, my wife was getting tired of me bringing home multiple books each week, and they'd congregate on any flat surface I could find.  I still GET as many books, but zeroes-and-ones in the Kindle memory don't take up space, and they never topple onto the floor.  Nor do they need to be dusted.

[erosan]

I credit my purchase of a Kindle with saving my marriage, my wife was getting tired of me bringing home multiple books each week, and they'd congregate on any flat surface I could find. I still GET as many books, but zeroes-and-ones in the Kindle memory don't take up space, and they never topple onto the floor. Nor do they need to be dusted.

problem is when the wife is also guilty of bringing home multiple books each week…

[Elastigirl]

Seems like a lot of book nerds look down on kindle, because they aren't "real' books. But to me, kindle was a way to buy more books without worrying about where to put them. We do seems to have at least few books always laying about though too.

[erosan]

I think we read 1 book per each 3 we read on the cellphone/tablet... I like both of them, but you have to agree that its a completely different experience.

 

I mean, don't you love the slightly different from one book to another smell of paper and ink when you open one for the first time? its intoxicating.

[Mark D]

Seems like a lot of book nerds look down on kindle, because they aren't "real' books. But to me, kindle was a way to buy more books without worrying about where to put them. We do seems to have at least few books always laying about though too.

 

I was like that until I got one.  Then I realized how convenient it is for commuting on public transportation, especially when I get near the end of a book I don't need to carry another book to start, I can just load it on the kindle.  Much lighter, especially for hardcovers.