The books that ate my house

[pbray]

In order for the service technician to access my modem and DSL line, I had to clear a path in the writing room (friends who have seen this room now begin laughing hysterically.) Over half the clutter was books, which makes sense given that the books have overrun every other room in the house.

I think it's time to face the fact that I need to do something, but obviously a project of this magnitude requires careful contemplation and research. Which is where you come in, as I've used my newly restored internet access to create a poll.
[Poll #1563432]

Comments

[shana.livejournal.com]

Keep them until lack of space forces me to cull some of the ones I don't absolutely adore.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I think that's where I am.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Usually I return finished books to the library. After all, they own them.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

:-)

I was a heavy library user in my younger days for general fiction and mysteries, but for f&sf, once you got beyond the classics, it was the bookstore.

[blitheringpooks.livejournal.com]

Since the first of the year I've hauled off a lot of books. I have eliminated most of my TBR books, because they were almost all impulse buys that I've had for years w/o ever actually reading them. I finally decided that I needed room to breathe, and was shocked at how many TBRs I had.

I am more likely to keep a hardcover simply because paperbacks after a few years get brittle and start falling apart. If I really love a book I'll attempt to get it in hardcover, even if I first read it on Kindle or paperback. If it was only available in paperback and I love it, I'll keep it.

Every time I haul off books, I'm rather astounded by how many I still have. I have finally begun to feel claustrophobic with all the "stuff" around me, and so am really making an effort not to hold onto things just because I own them, or just because somebody special gave them to me. If having the actual item, whether it's a book or some other gift, doesn't bring me pleasure in and of itself, I release it into the wild to find a home where it can be appreciated.

If it's somebody who regularly comes to my home, it would be a bit different.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to avoid being featured on the next episode of Hoarders. Clothes I'm good at giving away, but other stuff not so much. I really need to get serious and get rid of things I no longer want, need or enjoy.

[cypherindigo.livejournal.com]

The reason I know how many books I own, it that I have them listed on a database, that way I don't buy duplicates.

BTW, I am a cataloging Librarian, the OCD comes naturally.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

After marrying a fellow geek, I ended up with something like 300 duplicates. Cataloguing became a necessity :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I once had database ambitions but those fell by the wayside, perhaps because I am a database programmer, not a librarian :-)

[fireun.livejournal.com]

...you have seen my house, Tricia. If I didn't have the library room I would have a similarly interesting box/books on the floor situation.

I am super amused you had to clear a path in that room. I have fond memories of you stumbling from one end of the room to the other...

If you have ones you definitely dont want, toss them my way and I will put them up on the swap.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Ah, but compared to me you are an amateur book hoarder. At one point I had 500 books in sweater boxes under the beds, let alone all the bookcase ones.

I am seriously thinking of doing a cull, and will let you and the local crew have first crack at finding new homes for the good stuff.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I do in fact cull my books - a routine that shocks my coworkers. Librarians do not get rid of books once they are in their possession!

If I know I will re-read books I will keep them. If I don't I will give them away to people I know will love them; to the local library for the book sale; or try to sell them myself.

The fact is that I know I have limited space and unlimited love of books; an unending need to stay organized; and the local libraries only can support my habit so much. So, I do what I must!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I wish I had a need to stay organized... but I agree, the best thing is to pass along books you'll never read again to someone else.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Between me and the marquis, we have something of the order of 8k books in the house. For years 2k of these lived at my work in my office, but when I finally moved back here, they came too.
We built an extension.
And went on accumulating books...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I've thought of moving, and space for a decent library would be one of my main considerations.

all those books

[chipwyn.livejournal.com]

@blitheringpooks:Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean about the claustrophobia caused by too much 'stuff'.
When we went overseas for a 3 year tour I left 31 boxes of books in storage and quite frankly never missed a one of them. So when we returned home I sold most of them to used book stores. And since then I have made a concerted effort to keep the numbers down. And I often go through my 'keepers' and weed out the ones that are no longer to my taste. I still buy books, of course, but rarely keep any that I buy. Half.com is my very good friend.

Re: all those books

[blitheringpooks.livejournal.com]

I regret that we have lived in the same house for 25 years because it has led to an accumulation of WAY too much stuff. Too much stuff means closets and drawers so stuffed, the overflow is now everywhere. So yeah, I'm taking this "clearing stuff out" operation very seriously.

My Kindle has helped a lot. I can buy books of people I know and support them without surrounding myself with a growing TBR pile.

[larryhammer]

For the format and keeping, assuming there are alternatives, hardcover if I'm likely to return to often and so need durability.

---L.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I find it harder to get rid of a hardcover than a paperback--I think there's a large part of me that associates hardcovers with middle-class respectability or perhaps the image of a classic country house library.

[tryslora]

We decided to wall in our basement in with bookshelves, and get a projector for a TV so it didn't take up any extra space that could be used by books against the wall.

[slweippert.livejournal.com]

I bow to your awesome literary geekness...

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

What do you do with books after you've read them?

Well, for a long time I just held onto them, but as we needed space for the growing family, I began to cull some of the herd. I've still held onto about 85% of the books I've ever owned, however.

Only if the author regularly visits my house

I've never had an author visit my house, so if this were the criteria I'd have nothing in my house. It sure must be nice to have an author over to play a game of, oh, say, Settlers of Catan....

Engineer a way to store to books on the ceiling

Four words: attics and air conditioning.

Seriously, my book total would be much much much larger if the Cincinnati area didn't have an awesome library system. There's a reason to be proud of a system that regularly ranks in the top ten in the country in terms of book circulation, and had last year's best main branch library (according to some ALA trade publication).

You know, I didn't count the kids' books in the total I gave...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Alas there is no attic in my house, but if I had one, I would store books there.

My local author friends are indeed game monsters. I also have autographed books from folks who are not likely to visit--first books from members of the local RWA chapter, for example, that after a suitable period can be donated to library sales.

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

I almost never buy hardbacks because they just take up too much room. The exception to that rule is if they're special and I know I'll read the books over and over again for years (Harry Potter, Little House series, Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer).

"Now that her house is overrun by books, what should Patricia do?"

The true answer is "All of the above" with (A) being the last option (except for the duds, why keep those?).

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I rarely buy hardcovers, because my TBR stack is so huge it doesn't make sense. The last Jim Butcher was out in paperback before I had even cracked open the hardcover.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Now, I didn't expect to be near the top of the list on the number owned question. But it's frightening how far down I actually am.

Possibly more frightening is my sudden urge to buy more books.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

My work here is done :-)

Though once you're over 1K, you're in the club. Anything less than 1K can be accomodated in sweater boxes shoved under beds and in closets.

[earthgoat.livejournal.com]

Ballpark estimate may be more of wishful thinking. Likely much much higher.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I stopped counting years ago :-)

[wiredwizard.livejournal.com]

As I'm living in my office these days, the majority of my collection is in numerically sequenced rubbermaid bins in storage. As they get read, they get put in the next bin & the bin number is annotated in the book cataloguing software on the computer.

(Yes, books bring out the OCD in me, like the cataloguing & not being able to leave a series unfinished, no matter how Cthulhu-awful the writing gets)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

At once point I was organized, and when I moved from the apartment books were organized in boxes by genre, alphabetically. But chaos has completely overrun my house, and that makes me cranky.

[karen-w-newton.livejournal.com]

ebooks are the answer!

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Why am I not shocked by your observation? ;-)

[origamilady.livejournal.com]

I am a voracious reader, who now lives in an area without a public library (well there is one the next town over -but to use it I need to shell out 3000 dollars. As such I have been the proud owner of a Kindle for the past year and Whow! has it ever changed things. I have bought all of 6 hard cover books in the past year -because I absolutely LOVED the authors, the bulk of my book buying has been through the amazon Kindle store -which means I can now carry almost *all* my books with me wherever I go, at a fraction of the weight. My physical book shelves are still full of books -but now for the most part have either books I hold on to for sentimental reason, classic hard covers (a la Shakespeare or Plato or books that I bought at half price bookstore for a dollar or so that I can read while relaxing in the tub.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

The kindle doesn't quite do it for me, but I know many folks who love theirs.

[slweippert.livejournal.com]

We've overloaded bookshelves here until "bookcase catastrophic failure" occurs.

When hunnybun moved in with me, the household book total grew about half again as much, but interestingly we had few duplicates. We had different parts of some of the same series, but that's what you get for falling in love with a fellow geek. :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

When dating, the first thing I would check out is their book collection. Really it's one of the more attractive features in a potential partner. :-)

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Keep the ones I liked, the ones I think I'll read again, the ones that could be useful for research (and also all reference books, even out-of-date ones, because You Never Know), the ones that I didn't particularly like but DH might, and the ones I haven't got round to doing something else with yet.

However, I cheat a bit: I get a lot of my reading material from the library, and don't often buy books for myself (I buy heaps and heaps of them as gifts for other people, because, well, BOOKS!) unless I'm about 90% sure I will like them. Quite often I buy books after reading them several times, because I am tired of going to the library to get them ;^)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

In my younger days much of my reading came from the library, but luckily my disposable income grew as the local libraries fuding for new books was slashed. (I also donate generously to both local libraries, but that's another topic.)

And yes, reference books are much harder to cull--for the few I have gotten rid of, I wound up donating them to other writers.