How Many Books Do You Own?

I don’t know how many books I own, but the number is probably going to grow quite a bit once I start earning money to buy books with (currently funds are low, but hey, I’m a college student).

Song of Solomon is one of my favorite books, too. Actually, Toni Morrison is probably one of the few writers that made me want to be a writer.

I don’t know how many I own – but I READ a TON! I take advantage of the best deal in town – the good ol’ public library! Going in there is almost as good as going to a candy store for me!

I think our total is “gobs and bunches and lots” of books. When we built our current house, we opted for a small library off the front hall. I built in bookshelves on two of the 12-foot-long walls, opposite one another, and they’re packed with what might be called an eclectic array, from Stephen King to Melville, Charles Schultz to Plato.

And I can’t bear to give any away. I still have a few high school textbooks. Maybe I’ll go back and brush up on my Latin some day. Nah…. forget that.

La Shawn,

I have never counted them. I have a closet full of books and boxes of books stacked outside in my studio since there just isn’t enough room… Then there are all the books on my desk, on my stereo speakers, on the kitchen table, on my nightstand, on my… okay, I’ve got them all over the darn place. I try to read just one at a time, but I keep getting diverted, so I end up reading at least 2 at a time…

I’m reading David Nevin’s book 1812. Boy howdy, if you haven’t read this book, you really need to. Our current war mirrors this war so much it’s eerie. This is not in this book, but did you know that the first time we were attacked on Continental US soil was on September 11, 1812? Eerie…

I must add that book to my list! – Admin

I’m not sure how many I own. I have floor to ceiling bookshelves on two sides of my study. They are full of novels, treatises, technical books, text books, etc. I also have a dozen boxes of books sitting in my “junk room”. They were from my youth. I really don’t read them any more. Of course, I’m buying books from Amazon.com all the time. Thank G-d for Amazon.com.

I couldn’t even begin to venture a guess as to how many I own. I will say this, I still have books that I bought in elementary school in the late 70’s when the school library would sell old books. I just cannot bring myself to get rid of a book.

I don’t know how exactly how many I own either ( and I’m feeling to lazy to get up from the computer and go count them) but I’m sure it’s over 75. As a gift to myself I allot at least $50 for books every month, so I always have a backlog of unread books. I don’t mind the backlog though, I just love to pick up a book, even one that I haven’t read and flip through it.

I’m also a hoarder of books! I even keep my textbooks from college for a long time.

My kids adopted most of my books. We had them falling out of our library, dropping off shelves in our bedroom, in boxes under the bed, wrapped and tucked away in the garage and always in piles by this doorway or on that closet floor. And the kid’s rooms were piled with them. So, when the mamma said that we had to bring things to some semblance of chaos, I called in the kids and we had a party dividing the books out. We know where we can lay our hands on them and they are stoking the flames of interest in other homes. We dropped from several thousand down to about 100.

I am particularly fond of two books by Stephen L. Carter: (1) “Integrity” and (2) “The Dissent of the Governed : A Meditation on Law, Religion, and Loyalty.” If you have not met up with this author, you are missing a great deal.

If you care to have your view of world history messed with, you should definitely read these two books: (1) “Catastrophe: An Inventory in the Origins of Modern Civilization” by David Key. (This book is becoming quite expensive and is not available in paperback.) … and … (2) “1421: The Year China Discovered America” by Gavin Menzies. (This book is out in paperback and it is set in a readable type, as well. Old eyes appreciate a bit of size in the type!)

Not as many as I’d like to unfortunately. Most are political in nature. Some are history, and of course I read a lot of Victor Davis Hanson. Recently, I do a lot of my reading on line… columns, blogs, and ebooks. The ebooks are especially nice as they save on shelf space… although they take up a good piece of my hard drive

I wish I knew how many books my wife and I own. I know it is more than we have read. There have been times in our lives (when we had money) that we collected books that we intend on reading…someday. We also have a good number of signed books. Meeting the author at a signing gives a book an added dimension.

Our books mainly consist of children’s books (my wife collects them, many of them signed), Science Fiction (also many signed, I suggest David Weber’s Honor Harrington series if you’re interested, lots of politics), Christian Apologetics (my favorite is a very old book called “Why I am a Baptist”), Old books (I love the smell and feel of them), Technical books, and, of course, books for homeschooling our three kids.

Four large bookcases and endless boxes.

Do not know how many copies of “The Screwtape Letters” I have picked up at garage sales to be able to give it away (again).

The only books we lose to friends are those good enough to recommend. Prefer a poem to coarseness and prose to most poetry. Love Quotes.

LaShawn,

OK, you finally got me… I’ve read and admired your site for some time but bring up books and I go to pieces.

I’m somewhere around 3000 – counting my office. I’ve given away 1500 in children’s lit. and reference (We, wife & 4 kids, used to have a 900 sq ft attic in a custom home – lined with shelves 3 high filled with children’s books – we were in a homeschool group invited to clearout a condemned school that had been used to store school district library books. They figured it was going to cost too much to catalogue and figure out which were obsolete etc… so they just gave them away – we got to take as many as our truck and station wagon could carry. Once they were in the attic and we sold the house to another homeschooling family we just said keep them!)

It seems there are a lot of homeschooler entries here… makes sense.

I’m kind of into sets – I have an Encyclopedia Britannica (prefer paper and ink to internet for just reading about stuff), The Great Books set – Durants’ History set, Churchill – Hist. of Eng. Spk’g People and WWII six vol., Page Smith’s US History set, Dumas’ works, Proust, Hawthorne, Kipling, CS Forester’s Hornblower series (I read the whole series every few years), starting to collect all of O’Brien’s Aubry & Maturin series (I call it Hornblower for s) civil war histories: Catton, Foote, Nevins, Schaara’s (for a light treatment), lots of biographies (Manchester’s Churchill 2 vols – my favorite – but Gilbert’s one volume abridged is good too), Calvin’s Institutes, Spurgeons sermons – seven vol. set… oh my gosh – I have to stop, see LaShawn – you got me started – sorry for the long post…

May God continue to Bless you and your work and may He grow your library!

Thanks for all you do. -Stan

Oh my gosh, the bibliophiles are coming out of the woodwork, and I’m one of them. I used to work near a bookstore, and I was afraid to go in there in case I’d spend all my hard-earned pay.

I have no idea how many books I have, but I think I have 10 or 11 Bibles (I used to have 13 but I gave away 2 or 3 and bought one more–I needed the NLT). Lots of my books are in boxes in my storage unit, with more to follow as I prepare for major downsizing, but not having a book when I want it gives me palpitations sometimes. I hate not having my bookcases up and stocked.

I still have most of my grandfather’s Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks, printed in the 50’s or 60’s, and got my daughter turned onto his Mars series.

Like others, I love the Shaara books, Manchester’s Churchill books, anything by Mark Steyn, and I fell in love with McCullough’s John Adams biography.

For fun, it’s Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, Karen Kingsbury, Julie Garwood, and Elizabeth Lowell/Ann Maxwell (the same person).

Oh, and I have at least a couple dozen blank books just waiting for me to write in them.

And one book I recommend to ANYONE who has a family member with Alzheimer’s is My Journey into Alzheimer’s Disease, by Robert Davis, a pastor who was diagnosed early and wrote about what it was like for him. Beautiful!

Thanks, La Shawn!

I never counted them, and they occupy 7 bookshelves, but one thing I know for sure is, I don’t have nearly enough!

We have a lot of religious books. I like to collect classics and children’s books. Right now I’ve run out of space so my husband told me to cool it for a bit until we move into our new place. The other thing is, we moved to Jerusalem three years ago and for some reason, it just did not occur to me that I wouldn’t be able to find good English books here! The bookstores are tiny here, and the English selection even tinier. I guess most people order from Amazon in the UK, but that is very expensive and anyway, nothing beats the experience of wandering around a gigantic Barnes & Noble or Borders for a few hours with your hot herbal tea and scone in hand. Sigh. We also do not have big public libraries here like you have in the states, which is sad for me. So all of booklovers, enjoy what you have in America!

I have a dream of opening an English Children’s library here but I will need a lot more books first . . .

I have more books than I can count; sometimes I think they multiply when I’m asleep! I use the local library, but they sell old books for a quarter! I not only have some of my old high school textbooks, but some of my parents, and my grandfather’s! Books will never go away, no electrical power required.

I have at least 100 books on antiques and collectibles plus a few hundred more ranging from novels to children’s books for my grandchildren to read. However, I have one book that I bet nobody else has and that is an 1815 edition of what is known as the first American cookbook, “American Cookery, Or, The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables and the Best Mode of Making Puff-Pastries, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, custards, and Preserves And All Kinds of Cakes, From the Imperial Plumb, to Plain Cake.” It is a little book, intact and complete, but with foxing.

Only a couple exist and these are in university libraries. I spotted it in an antique store and was intrigued by the preface which begins, “As this treatise is calculated for the improvement of the rising generation of FEMALES in America, the Lady of fashion and fortune will not be displeased, if many hints are suggested for the more general and universal knowledge of these females in this country, who by the loss of their parents, or other unfortunate circumstances, are reduced to the necessity of going into families in the line of domestication, or taking refuge with their friends or relations, and doing those things which are really essential to the perfecting them as good wives, and useful members to society.”

Whew what a long sentence! The author, though not named on the book, is well known as Amelia Simmons. She was an orphan who had to support herself and writing this book is how she did it. I didn’t know any of this history until I researched the book and of course, appreciated it much more after that!

So, you see, feminism was alive and well 200 years ago!

According to BookCat (a personal library program I heartily recommend)I have 804 left after we sent off nearly 400 to BooksforSoldiers.com
which I also recommend

Ah. At last “measurement,” because I did not actually count, I had over 500 running feet of books, but I think that’s modest compared to most bibliophiles. Your question is like an arrow to my heart, because most of my books are packed away for now; I do not have room for them all. I saved out those books that were nearest and dearest to my heart and/or 1st editions and books otherwise replaced with great difficulty, plus the reference books that I thought I would need. I have about two dozen dictionaries, not counting foreign language dictionaries, but I packed all but three English and three “foreign.” (Spanish, French and Latin).

One of the nicest compliments I ever received came at 10 p.m. on a school night, when one of my girlfriends telephoned and said, “The library is closed and my son needs a poem about snow for his English class tomorrow. Can we come over?” This was before the days of home computers, but using Bartlett’s as a cross-reference, and my dozen or so books of poetry, my chasten young friend and I found enough poems for him to choose from.

One of my most exhausting, yet satisfying, non-fiction reading was the 6-volume “Jefferson and his Time” by Dumas Malone. Mr. Jefferson was probably the most complex, brilliant, and fascinating of our Founding Fathers. This detailed look at his entire life was quite revealing.

For my next marathon read, I really need to get the rest of the volumes (I only have 2 now) of Churchill’s “The Second World War.”

“What would all of you take with you to your island?”

Depending upon where the island would be, I’d choose:

1. Exhaustive volumes of Illustrated Natural Science/History books, starting with my old battered copy of Life On Earth.

2. Essential Bushcraft – Ray Mears

3. Guide to the Flora and Fauna of *
(*the region of ‘my’ island)

4. Guide To The Night Sky

5. The Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia

6. Mayfair Men’s Magazine, March 1967

7. “How to Brew Ale From Anything”

9. 20,000 pages of blank journals & propelling pencil, kilo of pencil leads.

10. Survival First Aid.

11. World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time (Hardcover)

Not forgetting the sunscreen

My husband estimates that we currently have about 3000 books in our home. We gave away a car trunk-full last month to the local library sale. I carry a notebook in which I list books I am interested in looking at, in case I run across them anywhere, so I may consider whether to read them.The older I get the picker I get about what I’ll spend time on as far as fiction goes. I homeschool my daughter and she brings home probably 20 pleasure-reads a week from the library. We do re-read our books (currently re-reading “Fahrenheit 451″) and I finished last week reading a series promoted by LaShawn, the Chronicles of Narnia. Thanks for recommending that series, LaShawn. Now I know why my kids loved it so.

JohnD (author of #41) – Such practical choices with an eye for pleasure as well (”ale” and “poetry”). It seems you’d survive quiet well on your little island!

Like many other here, so much of what my wife and I have is in storage (and I envy the people with garages dry enough to store books in, mine is built into a hillside and way too damp). In the accessible part of the house there are over a thousand books. This is not counting all of the home schooling curricula and the mandatory 50 years of National Geographic and 25 years of Smithsonians.

My Mom was a librarian, and she and Dad read constantly, so we have scads of antique books.

My favorite author is Churchill (I’ve read his history of WW II at least three times) and I have wanted his ‘Life of Marlborough’ for ages. I’ve even found a couple of his early novels (yes, he wrote fiction!) at library book sales (though they are rather tedious for a non-Victorian).

The best thing for a bibliophile (especially on a budget) is Dover Publications. They reprint tons of stuff in public domain, literature, art, architecture, history, math and sciences, for incredibly cheep prices.

Currently I’m in the midst of Vitruvius “The Ten Books on Architecture” and Emile Male “Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century”, both from Dover Pub.

Next up is “Paris In the Twentieth Century” by Jules Verne (another favorite author). Futurism as history, heh!

Proverbs 4:6-7 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
Proverbs 19:8 He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers.
Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.

As a homeschooling parent of six, I have too many books to count. The room I’m currently sitting in has six, six foot bookshelves completely full. Another room has two equally sized shelves full of books. And of course, there is the basement with three or four bookshelves and cabinets full of books. I rarely sell books either. And now my children are beginning to build libraries of their own. Egads, we’re going to put an additon on just for our books if this keeps up!

Since we’re on the topic of books, there is one book I would heartily recommend to anyone who is a book reader, “How to Read A Book” by Mortimer Adler. I thought I read well and then I read Mr. Adler. This is required reading for my children before they graduate from our school and is the key that unlocks the ability to understand what others write.

Ah… well, in terms of deadtree editions, the combined collection of books in my family library number in the hundreds, if not thousands. I’ll try to take a good count tonight.

Types of books include the Bible(s), of course, a hundred-plus Christian apologetics and study guides, various course materials (Alpha, Christianity Explored, etc); various encyclopedias, DIY books, coffee-table books.

On the fiction side, we have a great number of murder/mystery (esp Agatha Christie, but also Robin Cook), thrillers (Michael Chrichton, Robert Ludlum, Jeffrey Archer), Enid Blyton books (far better than Harry Potter IMO but then again I’m an 80s child), some of the soppy romance novels (think Mills & Boon or Harlequin), some the soppy teen romance novels (think Sweet Valley High/Sweet Vally Teen), and [ahem] borderline-erotica (from my junior high school’s yard sale, if you can believe that, and in Malaysia that’s saying something!)

Of course, my favourite titles are from the F&SF genres; Forgotten Realms, Eddings, Feist, Goodkind, Baen’s stable of authors. Used to like Asimov and Heinlein as well. Then there’s Tom Clancy for the present-day type fiction as well. Jean Auel’s Stone Age novels, but right now I’m reading Eric Flint’s Assiti Shards series.

Of course, once you widen the scope to eBooks, then it gets interesting. I’ve got Project Gutenberg on my list of bookmarks, and I’ve downloaded heaps of stuff. Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes (and other ACD books), etc.

No listing of magazines – too many beyond number. Talk about Abe’s descendants.

I love reading. It’s incredible!

Recently I moved from an old house with lots of shelves in a room I called the library. I gave away hundreds of books knowing I’d no place to put them in the new place. I lasted only a few months before I HAD to have shelves built in what was called the dining room and could start collecting again. As usual I recommend Robertson Davies whose Debtford Trilogy is the most perfect set of novels I’ve ever read.

I currently am down to 200 or 300. Lost 1500 in Katrina including a Wind in the Willows illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Yet every bookshelf in the house is packed and we have boxes of unopened books awaiting shelves.

I can recommend one about Hitler. Hitler: A study in Tyranny by Alan Bullock. It is an older book but the abridged version should be fairly palatable, given the subject matter.

By the way, I would have a lot more books in my possession were it not for the fact that I keep a lot of mine in circulation. Because of my radio job and the fact that I often review books online, I get a lot of complimentary copies, especially of Christian fiction. I pass them around through my family and friends.

#56 “I’m looking for a good book on the Holocaust that isn’t TOO academic and won’t put me to sleep.”

My wife emptied the library of Holocaust literature last year, so I asked her. She says:

- ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel

- ‘Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust’ by Lyn Smith

- ‘The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945′ by David S. Wyman.

- ‘Auschwitz, The Nazis & The Final Solution’ by Laurence Rees

Regards,

John

At least 500 (if you include my 200+ cookbooks) but the number will probably drop somewhat since I’m planning a long distance move soon. I’m culling my collection and removing the light-entertainment novels and such. The cookbooks stay, as do the works of such authors as Buckley, etc.

A literary masterpiece on the Holocaust is “If Not Now, When?” by Primo Levi. It’s one of my favorite books by a brilliant author!

Dear LaShawn: I’ve enjoyed your postings over the years but this last one asking about books and libraries, suggests that you might be related to one of my favorite characters in a story by one of my favorite authors. I read and re-read to my kids and grand kids as they grew, Kipling’s fascinating account of The Elephant’s Child. Did you read it? Elephants in the ‘old’ days didn’t have trunks but one child was filled with ‘satiable curiosity. He asked questions everywhere he went, until finally he ended up down by the great grey green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees where he found a creature in the water and asked “What to Crocodiles have for lunch?”
“Lean down my child and I will tell you.” And the child leaned down and the croc bit his nose and they had a tug of war which left the child with a long, long nose which, as answers to many questions, turned out to be very, very useful.
As to my library. It consists of 108 feet of shelving, floor to ceiling. And many smaller sets of shelves at desk tops and bedside elsewhere. It was estimated, some ten years ago, that there were 10,000 volumes. Biographies range from Adams to Young. Novels range from those by Aaron to Wycliff and include those of Tarkington, LeCarre, C. S. Forester, Ludlum, There is every volume by and about C. S. Lewis. Every volume, some autographed by Rev. Margaret Barker. Every volume, some autographed, by Eric Hopper. Many volumes by George MacDonald. All of Kenneth Roberts (a tenth cousin) some autographed. Copies of the works of Shakespeare (whose 443 birthday is today); Byron, Keats, Kipling, Milton, some in fancy bindings and some “pocket” book editions from the early 19th century. There are volumes of Jewish, Gnostic, Christian (pre Nicene and post) scriptures and the Koran and many of its commontaries. . Commentaries begin with Eusebius’ Ancient Ecclesiastical Histories (published in 1633) and apparently in its original binding. There are two sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica, starting with the 11th edition and ending at the 1958 edition, plus some American Encyclopedia, the name of which escapes me. There is a copy of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary and many of those while followed, including English-Arabic, Eng-German, English-Russian, English-French, etc. etc.
Just trying to answer your question makes me want to take an armful of them to bed.

Jay, years back, HBO made a film version of [i]Name of the Rose[/i] that was absolutely spectacular, with Sean Connery as Brother William of Baskerville and Christian Slater as his novice.

All sets were REAL Medieval-era monastaries, the research for the era (1327 AD) correct. For once, HBO didn’t fall down on the job.

I absolutely loved the film AND the book.

Not counting Bibles or the 150 or so cookbooks, we probably have somewhere between 500 and 1000 books. They are upstairs, downstairs, and in my lady’s chamber, so it’s hard to say. I’m always culling some and adding more. I have the complete Shakespeare and the complete Mark Twain (which seems to be misplaced at the moment), a two-volume “best-of” Kipling, a large collection of mystery, science fiction and fantasy novels(Tolkien and Lewis most prominent), humor, non-fiction on just about every subject imaginable, a few (very few) ordinary novels, a two-volume set of the annotated Sherlock Holmes that I inherited from my father (note to all those concerned: never read the annotated ANYTHING).
My father also had a complete set of Dickens, but they were tragically flood-damaged and couldn’t be salvaged.
Have you noticed that Dickens was a genius at first lines? “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” “The kettle began it.” “Marley was dead, to begin with.”
Doug–I’m a big fan of Rex Stout, Thurber and Zelazny also. I also like Ruth Stout’s gardening books (Rex Stout’s sister), not only for their gardening advice, but because they are so well-written.
The Humor of Christ by Elton Trueblood is a book that has given me new insight into the Bible.
I also have many books on music, and a not-as-large-as-I’d-like-it-to-be collection of old children’s books. I don’t mean silly stuff from 1980, I mean really old books. My oldest book is a music book called A Child’s Garden of Song (yes, I know), published in 1895, but unfortunately missing a page.
I read a novel a few years ago that I believe was called A Night of Watching. It dealt with Kristallnacht (sp?) and the Danish refusal to accommodate the Nazis in their slaughter of Jews. Powerful reading.

I would estimate that I own approximately 200 books now; I’m trying to keep my library small by only hanging on to reference books; books that aren’t available at the public library, such as some books by Christian authors; and autographed books (I have books signed by Paula Deen, Mark Steyn, Hugh Hewitt, and others). Recently I have read and liked Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, and Green Shadows, White Whale by Ray Bradbury. I own The Renegade Writer too, LaShawn, but I can’t seem to start writing! Thanks for your blog. : )

I consider myself a book worm. I remember my first book fair in the 1st grade (1969). I bought all 10 books that were offered to us and read every last one. I just love to read. As I read this, I sat here and counted 100 books on 3 shelves in my bedroom. I have 2 more shelves to go on that same bookshelf. I know I must have over a 1,000 books in this house and that would include my nightstands, my tables, my living room, my children’s rooms, and some boxes here and there. Yeah, I’m a book worm and proud of it!