THE BOOK REPORT: How many books do you own?

[Extollager]

Responses are starting to come in at the thread I created some weeks ago to prepare for this thread.

Please use this thread, from now on, to report your numbers if you are so inclined. I reported 4,086 volumes as of May 25. However, I'd forgotten my own principle #4 below, which will add about 100 volumes to the total.

Here were the criteria that I proposed to follow for what counts as a book. No one is obliged to follow them.

1.Electronic books don't count.
2.Telephone books don't count. (See also #7 below.)
3.Books that are yours only for use during your time on a job don't count.
4.Bound volumes of magazines do count, but loose magazines don't count.
5.Items that one has bound with staples don't count as books. (I have a number of novels that I downloaded from Project Gutenberg, printed, and bound with large staples. I'm not going to count these as books.) However, something like a fan-published book that is bound with staples will count. I have Harry Warner's fan history A Wealth of Fable in the form of three mimeographed and stapled "volumes." It will count as one book. (But see #8 below.)
6.Diaries, personal journals, scrapbooks, and photo albums don't count as books.
7.Ephemera such as Penney's or Monkey Ward's catalogs, paperback almanacs, college catalogs, and bookseller catalogs don't count, but school and college yearbooks do count as books. I own four city directories. They will add four books to my count.
8.Each volume of a multi-volume book counts as a book. For example, the two-volume Ballantine Fantasy editions of The Night Land and The Well at the World's End will add up to four books, not two. A forty-volume encyclopaedia set counts as 40 books.
9.Duplicate copies of books certainly do count. The idea is to count books, not "titles."
10.If you're married, it's up to you whether you count all the books in your household or not.

 

[Randy M.]

3,330. But I still have 5 bookcases, a couple of chairs, and three small lamp stands to count. (Hey, anything with a flat surface ...)

I also have a 2-3 boxes of books I intend to trade or give away that I haven't counted.

Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

Be sure to send along the final count, okay?

Know what you mean about horizontal surfaces getting burdened with books, papers, etc.

 

[ratsy]

If you ask me, Not enough, if you ask my wife, Way too many.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'll be curious to see what people do say but I don't think I have the time to count mine as it would involve moving heavy furniture and opening far corners of my attic space up to get to them all. Thus making my house even more of a guddle than it is right now - and that I DON'T need.

I can tell you I have 688 pre ISBN Penguin paperbacks, because I am sad and have them catalogued on a spreadsheet -
and I catalogued 767 books on Librarything before I got bored (less than 40 books overlap).

Life, I am sorry to say, is too short. But good luck!

 

[K. Riehl]

My number is 3224. This breaks down to 368 1st edition hardcover collectibles (above $100) of which 129 are signed. 2011 paperbacks. 41 science fiction reference books. 378 other hardcovers(readers, modern 1sts which do not reach my arbitrary $100 level). 58 books currently for sale or trade. 406 other books.

If other story forms such as magazines, pulps and fanzines were part of the criteria I would add 1236 to the total. I also have 17 full or partial manuscripts.

This is all after selling or donating over 100 cases of books in the last couple of years.

If I included my wife's music books, music reference titles, and modern fiction I would add 654 titles.

So overall 4131 titles around the house.

I have a problem on the horizon as my parents have been selling their collection and want to downsize some more. They have offered me around 4,000 titles that I will have to find room for.

 

[Extollager]

A collector with parents who collect! I don't seem to run into that very often.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I have very few. Mostly paperbacks. With emphasis on back. As most will know i usually use the front cover as a boomark. I find it useful to do this as it reminds of not only what I'm reading but also where I'm up to. It also makes for easy storage see below. The added benefit is if I come across it after I immediately know it's been read. In fairness though this rarely happens because they usually end up in the wood burning stove. Save the planet and all that. There are a few exceptions. So I would estimate i only have 50 to 60 actual complete books. Oddly when I return books to the library I get some odd looks, but in this over PC world where no one is supposed to be offended I just shrug my shoulders and look innocent. Sometimes I get a fine but usually they just don't bother. Occasionally if i like a book enough to read it twice I have to use the back cover too. After that it's straight on the fire.

 

[Joe Grech]

I just moved countries, so counting the number of books I own is easy. I own 2 books. A copy of T.S Elliots poems and a copy of China Mielvilles Three Moments of an explosion, which I picked up last night.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Oddly when I return books to the library I get some odd looks, but in this over PC world where no one is supposed to be offended I just shrug my shoulders and look innocent. Sometimes I get a fine but usually they just don't bother. Occasionally if i like a book enough to read it twice I have to use the back cover too. After that it's straight on the fire.

On behalf of the non PC speaking world I'd just like to say: "You are a selfish twat."

 

[Elvraie]

For the EndIsNigh, I hope you are not a student in a University. Where I'm working, we charge the price of the book to the reader if it comes back defaced. I'm surprised that the libraries you are using are not barring you from borrowing.
Anyway, back to the topic. I did a very rough count of my books and compared to some people, my count is rather paltry, as I pride myself as a book lover. I have books in French and English and all in all, SF, Mainstream, non-fiction, paper or hardback etc amount to around 1,550 books. I didn't count the 3 heavy books (One 'Wheel of Time', a Wilbur Smith and a Ken Follett) I use as doorstoppers or the few dozens books belonging to my husband.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Occasionally if i like a book enough to read it twice I have to use the back cover too. After that it's straight on the fire.

I hope you are trying to make a joke. This a site full of people that love reading, and may write. Many may be disgusted.

Saves the planet more to donate your unwanted books to a charity shop.

I'm willing to post you bookmarks. They are easy to make.

 

[Randy M.]

In the U.S., a dollar store usually carries 56 bookmarks per pack of playing cards. (58 with Jokers; 59 with the usual promotional card.)

Randy M.
(Of course, these leads to my superstitious English teacher opening one of books and finding herself staring at the Ace of spades...)

 

[Ray McCarthy]

A collector with parents who collect! I don't seem to run into that very often.

Both my parents, separately. Though neither has the 3,000+ physical books I have. Sorry, I gave up on the count, it might even be 3,500+. I've 1290 ebooks in my Calibre Library, that are on my Kindle, Kobo and backed up on my server. Most are off Gutenberg, some from archive.org's book public domain section. A few bought.
My dad recently sent us over 25kg of books. Some will go to the Charity shop.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

On behalf of the non PC speaking world I'd just like to say: "You are a selfish twat."

Seems a bit harsh.

I hope you are trying to make a joke. This a site full of people that love reading, and may write. Many may be disgusted.

I count myself amongst them.

On another note:-
People often forget that shelves of books lps cds and the like count in the value of their content insurance. This is often a replace as new valuation so 1500 books could easily be valued at $15,000 to replace. If your insurance was say $30000 then there is the potential you would lose 50% of any payout for any claim regardless of what was actually lost. With so any books it could be that they would be looked on as a collection. If not mentioned as such, your insurer they might take a dim view of not being told.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

If your insurance was say $30000 then there is the potential you would lose 50% of any payout for any claim regardless of what was actually lost. With so any books it could be that they would be looked on as a collection. If not mentioned as such, your insurer they might take a dim view of not being told.

• I've no idea where your 50% figure came from.
  
• Contents insurance is usually part of house building insurance unless you are renting, people here renting usually don't bother. Building insurance is pretty much mandatory if you have a mortgage.
• You decide what you are claiming for. The assessor decides the value, the company decides if it was covered. You aren't obliged to claim for anything other than building with mortgage.
  
• Any single item only has to be notified if over a certain value (stated in advance and in schedule)
• payout can be replacement cost OR resale value. VERY different. Depends on policy and what is agreed in advance. By default the value is often resale value at time of loss, unless different was agreed, thus if I had 4000 books, that might be $2,000 or $40,000. It would not be 50% of replacement value, it would be either full replacement cost or basic 50c a book garage sale value.
• Personally I'd not put my annual premium up by looking for new book replacement value. The majority cost anywhere from zero to $2 in Charity or S/H shops or bulk in auctions. I'd be happy with the probably automatic $2,000 and books would be the least of my worries.
  
• Laws and rules differ in different countries.
• Normally only "valuable" books, records would be notified.
• Typical Irish Insurance profiles (out of date I think) Outside Dublin it might be €200,000 house* and €40,000 contents in 2016. Very rare for renters to have other than car insurance (always separate).

[* note much less than buying a house generally, as virtually every property here is freehold, even in UK, the land lease would still exist. A significant part of cost is the site/land. Rebuilding on a site you own (or in UK have long term lease, maybe 900 years) can save €20,000 to €250,000 depending on location]

 

[hitmouse]

Several thousand. Problem is lack of space, so my bookshelves are all stacked 2 deep and there are boxes and boxes of books in the attic not opened for the best part of a decade. I need to move to a bigger house before I think about trying to count.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

[QUOTE="Ray McCarthy, post: 2030065, member: 36855

][/QUOTE]
Ray: very different in the UK (although a lot of pdople don't realise it till they claim). Especially with contents insurance. Most people believe lthat if they've insured there whole house contents for £10000 and they have a fire that destroys everything that the insurance will fork out the full £10000. This isn't the case. The assessor assesses the full contents value say £20000. Most people forget the carpets the curtains the stuff in the loft the clothes in th0e wardrobe etc. But contents means contents. You can't pick and cHoose which are insured today and which you don't care about tomorrow. Afterall if the fire only damqaged the carpets you would expect the carpets to be replaced. So in the UK if you only insured your contents for half their value you would only get half of the value of everything that was lost. So if your new carpet cost £1000 then you would only get £500 from the insurance.For building insurance the situation can be worse. In the UK most of the value of most houses is the land it's built on. So you could just look at the rebuild cost. However you al so need to include legal fees architects fees planning fees and accommodation costs for the period of the rebuild. The insurance companies are not idiots and any chance not to pay out is taken. They will assess these figures and reduce the amount proportionally for any percentage that they deem you have under insured your property. I had a recent break-in and the first thing the assessor did was calculate the rebuild cost against my sum insured. Fortunately the £1M cover was sufficient so no reduction factor was needed. I would check any fine print because in my experience insurance companies are loathe to pay for anything if they can see a way not to.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I would check any fine print because in my experience insurance companies are loathe to pay for anything if they can see a way not to.

They are a special kind of bookmaker.
Paying insurance is a kind of gamble. So is not paying it!

Yes, devil in the detail.

 

[Extollager]

To American readers: my son's experience with Progressive was a bad one. Would not recommend this company, based on that experience.