When DG spoke about a flood yesterday in another thread, he said he had 3,500 books in his home. That got me curious. How many books do YOU own? I now have my own personal library, so I'd like to know what others have. Here is my guess (without actually counting):

150 Children's books
200 Assorted hardcovers
300 Sci-Fi paperbacks
100 Classics paperbacks
200 Bibles and assorted theology books
100 Music books (and eight binders of sheet music)
40 Textbooks and business how-to books
30 Girl Scout manuals
40 General how-to books (like sewing)
20 Cookbooks

I have about 500 music CDs which I have removed from their jewel cases. They are now (mostly) housed in two big binders.

I'm sure my count is low since some of my books are in the attic (I need to expand my library!) and Victoria has a habit of 'borrowing' my books and sticking them under her bed.
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01-19-07, 10:37 AM
doñadiana
I guess that I have about +/- 300 books. That may not seem like very many but we just moved internationally and those +/- 300 books added a lot of weight and space to our move. We hauled a lot of books and magazines down to the church just before we moved....Twelve years worth of National Geographics and other magazines. The books were mostly paper backs and high school/college textbooks. I hated to give any of them up but just couldn't bring them all.

DD
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01-19-07, 10:52 AM
Sherasi
I own about 3000+ books (I had nearly double, but when we moved I gave most of them away to friends so I didn't have to move so many)

Genres:
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Children's
History/Archaeology
Texts
Religious
Civil War
General
etc

500+ DVD movies
Genres:
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Action-Adventure
Chick-Flick
Family Oriented
etc


500 CD music
Genres:
Soft Rock
Heavey Metal
Classical/Baroque (etc)
New Age
Country
Pop
Soul/Blues/Jazz
Musical
etc
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01-19-07, 11:01 AM
juanruiz
I really have no idea. I do know that if I were to bequeath them all to the university library, they'd have to build a whole new wing.
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01-19-07, 02:45 PM
jusork
I have maybe 40 books, mostly fiction and most of them are in a stack waiting to be read. Then I have a few books that have some kind of significance in my life, like a childrens book which is one of the first books I remember reading. Also, Guinness Book of World Records 94, a 98 Kids Almanac that I'm reading completely, a book on screenwriting that my brother got me, a book about spoken word that my poetry teacher gave me, a few books from school that I wasn't able to sell back. I've sold many that I probably wouldn't read again, although they weren't necessarily bad.

For CDs, I just counted: 109 that I keep in their cases in a CD tower that's almost full.

I'm not a big DVD person. Seasons 1 and 2 of Lost, seasons 1 and 2 of South Park, and seasons 1 and 2, and 3 of Family Guy.

If there was a flood, I'd be most devestated if my CDs were destroyed.
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01-19-07, 04:52 PM
aminator2002
Mental note:

Never offer to help an Answerpool member move.

I don't have nearly as many books as you all. I have no idea how many but when they overflow the shelves I give them away to charity.
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01-19-07, 05:28 PM
Sherasi

quote:
Originally posted by aminator2002:
Mental note:

Never offer to help an Answerpool member move.



LMAO
Big Grin@Ami
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01-19-07, 05:52 PM
Karrow
Because of recent circumstances, I sold a large number of my books. I did retain the most valuable; numerous old German Shepherd ones (including von Stephanitz). I also kept the few Griffon Bruxellois books I have and, for sentimental reasons, the Chalet School books from my childhood. The others, approx. 100, are a very varied bunch and include Tom Sharpe novels as he is one author that I literally laugh out loud at when reading, and some of my old Instructor Manuals from when I taught classes at Dog Club.
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01-19-07, 06:42 PM
juanruiz

quote:
Never offer to help an Answerpool member move.



Now I know whom not to contact if I ever get that job at the University of Chicago.
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01-19-07, 07:45 PM
babthrower

quote:
Originally posted by Karrow:
I did retain ... numerous old German Shepherd ones ...

Ummm, books which were written by old German shepherds? Or that once belonged to old German shepherds? Wouldn't they be kind of soggy and moldy from being stored in hedgerows on the moors? (The books, I mean, not the shepherds. The shepherds seem to handle damp quite well. Except for their joints, which get creaky.)
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01-19-07, 10:15 PM
bedstor
I have Perhaps 125 Star Trek books
50+ Dr Who paperbacks
About 2-300+ other paperbacks both fiction non fiction From The Guiness book of Hit singles (2 copies) dowm to mad titled books like Mike Harding semi autobiographical
You Can See The Angel's Bum, Miss Worswick! vol 1 of 3 (note to self must ger the other 2 www.mikeharding.co.uk/books/comedy/angels/angels.htm
Well worth looking out for he's made lots of records both singing (folk singer ) and comedy tales www.mikeharding.co.uk/books/booksfull.html

As to other thing I have about 250 assorted videoes (some partial sets) and about 100 DVD films, 150 computer Games CDs /Dvds with well over a 1000 games..Next I have 3 boxes full of vinyl singles Perhaps 500? and 50 LPs...and a handful of Music Cds
And 2 stacks of backnumbered Computer magazines going back 2 years (had a throw out to make "space" was up to 7 years old!)

These prop up my bed! Razz
And these are just mine...
My other brothers are more into DVDs /CD and have more records
and have larger collection than me

SO If we add all those to my rough total
I estimate (in our house)
There are...
CDs... 500+
DVDs...750 + (and climbing sharply)
Magazines ( mostly mine) 250
Paperbacks easily over 1000
and Hardbacks perhaps 50?

And Computer Games originals maybe 150 (mainly for PS2)
But over the years we have had games for many different computers and Consoles(both originals and copies) So at a wild low guesstimate I have played perhaps 2-3000 different computer games since 1981 ! Eek
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01-20-07, 12:24 AM
Professor
My library has about 200 linear feet of shelf space, of which I'd say books comprise about 150 feet = 1800 inches. How many is that -- a thousand, maybe?

I just moved, so right now they're all sitting in cardboard cartons. All I know is everytime I move, it gets harder and harder to deal with them. But they're like old friends -- I'd never get rid of any. My family thinks I'm nuts.
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01-20-07, 02:35 AM
clarebear
I have about 100 books.
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01-20-07, 10:38 AM
bedstor
I forgot the LP/ singles numbers for our household in my posting That's about 1000 though if you count those we have had before CDs came along, 3000 would be a fair estimate of our stock in this house, plus another 2000 at my brothers who live the other side of town ...
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01-20-07, 11:23 AM
babthrower
What gives? Karrow completely ignored my 'German shepherd' snide remark above, and come to think of it, that's the second of my snipes she has ignored. Big Grin What, getting soft in your old age, K? Next thing, you'll be letting DG get away with saying snotty things. And that would be the end of AP as we know it!! Eek
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01-20-07, 12:26 PM
DorianGreyed
"Next thing, you'll be letting DG get away with saying snotty things. And that would be the end of AP as we know it!! Eek "

Not to worry. I think she has her e-mail program set up to automatically send me at least two insulting messages every week.
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01-21-07, 04:30 AM
Leppi
I have about 300 books.... I used to have many more, but when I moved 2 years ago, I didn't take anything books with me.....
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01-21-07, 08:03 PM
babthrower
I don't have that many books. That's because I just have one gable-end set of shelves plus three other small shelves. When they get full, I start giving away. I have to do a purge soon, again.

Gable end shelves

One small shelf (of three)

Of course I keep a few beside my bed.
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01-21-07, 08:41 PM
bedstor
I do like the gable end arrangement Bt Cool Whose Idea was that?
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01-21-07, 10:41 PM
babthrower
Thanks, Bedstor. I saw a similar idea in a library book on the subject of home storage solutions. The picture doesn't show the whole thing but you get the idea. I keep dvd's, cd's and my old tapes (audio and video) and photos in about twenty of those small storage boxes people use for photos. I keep about eleven of them on the staircase! at the edge away from the handrail. The staircase is wider than average.
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01-27-07, 06:04 PM
Karrow

quote:
Originally posted by babthrower:
What gives? Karrow completely ignored my 'German shepherd' snide remark above, and come to think of it, that's the second of my snipes she has ignored. Big Grin What, getting soft in your old age, K? Next thing, you'll be letting DG get away with saying snotty things. And that would be the end of AP as we know it!! Eek


Sorry Babs, I've been busy and only just seen your remark, otherwise you would have got the sharp edge of my tingue (even if I did badly phrase the post you are referring to!).

As for getting soft; that other snide remark you refer to - it was deleted a while ago. Big Grin

And less of the old!!! Mad
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01-27-07, 06:44 PM
FredPuli
How many books? Several hundred (but only a dozen or so if you count the ones without pictures ) Smile.
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01-27-07, 09:21 PM
bedstor

quote:
Originally posted by FredPuli:
How many books? Several hundred (but only a dozen or so if you count the ones without pictures ) Smile.


So Fred. it's you who's the Superman and Judge Dredd Graphic book collector (Art work on them is very good really!) Smile
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01-28-07, 08:34 AM
Jenny Roberts
I have about 500 books, mostly reference. (I think I own nearly every reference book Dorling kindersley have published Big Grin) I have about 50/60 maritime/ocean liner books, many out of print and collectable, lots of geography/travel guides/history books and approximately 100 local history books. Local history is one of my hobbies. I have a part degree in it which I took some years ago. Only one or two fiction books, the ones I am reading at the moment. I then give them to charity.
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01-28-07, 02:00 PM
FredPuli

quote:
Originally posted by bedstor:

quote:
Originally posted by FredPuli:
How many books? Several hundred (but only a dozen or so if you count the ones without pictures ) Smile.


So Fred. it's you who's the Superman and Judge Dredd Graphic book collector (Art work on them is very good really!) Smile

No. I find the words in those far too hard. Big Grin I like Rupert Annuals though. They have some lovely, quaint, rhymes underneath the pictures SmileThe illustrations in the back and front covers are delightful. Alfred Bestall was a fine artist. I'd pay a lot for the original artwork if it ever came on the the market. ( As it is I've made do recently with original artwork of Donald McGill ! Yes, really: the man who did the seaside 'saucy' postcards. I got eight of them in the last auction)
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01-28-07, 03:21 PM
bedstor
Fred
Me thinks you are a closet Giles and Fred Bassett man too Giles is still in print(albeit repeats)
and the annuals can be brought very cheaply Smile

Was going to post the page for the same but there is a piece of spyware attached! Mad

For all here are examples of the cartoonists art (bit dated )
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01-28-07, 04:33 PM
FredPuli
Giles was from Ipswich. When the time came for the town to put up a memorial to him they chose a statue of 'Grandma', one of his characters, rather than any plaque or depiction of the man himself SmileIsn't that a nice touch? It's right in the middle of the town, by the old town hall.
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01-28-07, 04:57 PM
DorianGreyed
Fred, in Illinois (my home state), there is a statue of Popeye and a statue of Superman. Popeye is in the home town of his creator, while Superman is in, where else, Metropolis. A city in the spinach-growing regiobn in Texas also has a statue of Popeye.
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01-28-07, 05:44 PM
bedstor

quote:
Originally posted by FredPuli:
Giles was from Ipswich. When the time came for the town to put up a memorial to him they chose a statue of 'Grandma', one of his characters, rather than any plaque or depiction of the man himself SmileIsn't that a nice touch? It's right in the middle of the town, by the old town hall.

Found an Image And Yes,before you ask,she was a Battle axe ,said little as I recall

One for comic buffs was the "Oor Wullie" annuals which need a working Knowlege of Scotch twang to understand. Baffle a lot of our Overseas friends ...never published in the Dandy or Beano were published in the Scottish newspapers "Sunday Post" (owned by D.C. Thomson) only way to see these was to get one from a Scotch relative ...Now well known and easily found around the UK www.geocities.com/oorwullie_uk1/
http://heritage.scotsman.com/greatscots.cfm?id=2290862005 ...Is 71 years since this was first Published Wink
Yet more info here, and a First edition Annual of this wee guys adventures is Up for sale here, Dated 1940 (open to offers)www.thatsbraw.co.uk/index.html
Me being a typical answerpooler grabbing all this Red Face
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01-28-07, 06:18 PM
babthrower
What never gets purged from my shelves are:

- Giles
- Scott Adams (Dilbert)
- Walt Kelly (Pogo)
- Gary Larson (Far Side)
- Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbes)
- Berke Breathed (Bloom County)
- Gilbert Shelton & Dave Sheridqn (Fat Freddy's Cat)
- Christopher Matthew (Now We Are Sixty)

Some have a little more writing than pictures.

Who's Fred Bassett?
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01-28-07, 06:32 PM
Karrow
Fred Basset is a dog - Basset Hound, of course - in cartoon strips.
Example of a cartoon

A little information
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01-28-07, 07:44 PM
babthrower
Oh. Thanks, Karrow. It's charm is a bit elusivie IMO.

My son is trying to convince me that Mike Myers (Canadian comic) is hilarious. Although my son and I agree on 99% of comedy, if one of us thinks it's lame, so does the other, and we go into hyterics simultaneously over another, I don't 'get' Myers. No accounting, is there? Confused
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01-31-07, 12:16 AM
dance girl

quote:
Originally posted by babthrower:
What never gets purged from my shelves are:

- Giles
- Scott Adams (Dilbert)
- Walt Kelly (Pogo)
- Gary Larson (Far Side)
- Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbes)
- Berke Breathed (Bloom County)
- Gilbert Shelton & Dave Sheridqn (Fat Freddy's Cat)
- Christopher Matthew (Now We Are Sixty)



I have no idea how many books I own, I don't think they run into the thousands though, the number some people mentioned they owned.
I always have upwards of 50 library books checked out at any one time, either for myself or my kids. I can't help myself..working in the library, I get to see so many wonderful new books come in. Thank goodness I don't have to pay fines!

Books I could never give away, include anything by DH Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan and this fairly recent one by Michael Faber, just read this last one a few months ago,and it's superb.

Click on the link above for Michael Faber's 'The Crimson Petal and the White,' and you can read the first few pages of this novel. What an incredible writing style !
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02-08-07, 07:49 AM
dogspit
I have a thousand or so for sure, I think the breakdown (all rough estimates) would be :

50+ almanacs
100 Sports reference
35 Music reference
13 "Left Behind" books (soon to be 15)
350+ Misc Ref. (Esp. Papacy / Royalty stuff)
500 or so assorted fiction

Lately I have been buying far too many paperback books "just in case" I need extra reading material. I think I enjoy the buying and hording almost more than the reading.
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02-08-07, 07:52 AM
dogspit

quote:
Originally posted by dance girl:
... Michael Faber's 'The Crimson Petal and the White,' and you can read the first few pages of this novel. What an incredible writing style !

I purchased that one for my aunt and she raved about it, but then was much less impressed with his other works.
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02-08-07, 08:59 AM
dance girl
Dogspit..I like the admission that you enjoy buying and hoarding..I'm exactly the same, but I get to them eventually!
Yes, that's what I heard too about Michael Faber's other books..I suspect the Crimson Petal is his best.

Another one you might like is "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls.
This is autobiographical and set mainly in Phoenix.
I think Walls was featured on 20/20, or some such news program. Here's a little bit of Amazon's review:

"" She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them. Her father was a self-taught man, a would-be inventor who could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had "a little bit of a drinking situation," as her mother put it. With a fantastic storytelling knack, Walls describes her artist mom's great gift for rationalizing. Apartment walls so thin they heard all their neighbors? What a bonus—they'd "pick up a little Spanish without even studying." Why feed their pets? They'd be helping them "by not allowing them to become dependent."

For anyone that might think their family is dysfunctional, read this, and you'll wonder how Walls managed to become such an articulate and well functioning adult. She doesn't feel sorry for herself in the least, and the book is written with humor and a genuine love for her parents.
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03-18-07, 03:19 PM
kittypal
I donate mine every month or so or send them to anyone that wants to read them...If I were to keep them I would have thousands.
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03-18-07, 03:57 PM
dance girl
Hey welcome back Kitty..of these books you are donating...are there any that you would particularly recommend?
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03-18-07, 06:39 PM
kittypal
Thanks I can't believe I am back...FINALLY!!!

I started reading Ann Rule...I really like her...Lee Child is pretty good so far too....I will Have to try your Nick Hornby.
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03-18-07, 06:47 PM
babthrower
I got lucky with a pocket book that I found in a waiting room. The receptionist said someone had left it there, so it was up for grabs, and I grabbed it.

It's called Sunstroke. By Jesse Kellerman. He's not yet 30.

It's got a nice strong woman as the main character and she's on a quest. The puzzles just keep getting mysteriouser and mysteriouser. There are flashes of really good writing in it, too.

Now I'm going to get his latest book, Trouble, from Amazon.com. That will make up for getting his first book free. Red Face

Hi, hello, Kittypal. Glad you're back. Smile

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,

I love to read and I know I have hundreds and alot I have not read yet. I love to read all kinds of books. Esp horror...Swan Song is my fav book.

I also buy and re sell books and at one time I had over 2,000 books just to re sell. That didnt include my own. I never keep the ones I resell for long.

I am also a horror movie addict and have tond of horror dvd's.