How many books do you possess?

[Onesilvia]

I'm only 18 and in my library i have 290 physical books even thought I've read a lot more! Please tell me your numbers!

 

[Rodders]

Nice library at 18. Any favourites?

I have quite a lot of film books collected in my youth. Script books, making of books, fantasy art. you know the thing. Including all my Star Wars books, perhaps a thousand and maybe 500 hardback novels. I probably have another 250 titles on my kindle.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

In my house, around 300. But in my bookstore, a stocktake is due, but I'd estimate around 12-13000. I dread the day we decide to move....

 

[Lostinspace]

I tried to guess how many physical books were in my house a few years ago and by counting some representative bookcases and just measuring others came to 2815 (note that includes books belonging to my family). Looking at the kindle library with all selected shows 158 pages or 1571+ books (10 of these are only on loan from Amazon). I have more epubs on my computer, one directory has 929 items, and a few books as pdf files. However, there is obviously significant overlap amongst the ebooks. For example the 929 often includes epub and mobi versions of the same book.

 

[nixie]

I've no idea, did attempt a cull but wasn't successful.

 

[Extollager]

Just now a thread on this topic has been reactivated.

 

[J-Sun]

Just now a thread on this topic has been reactivated.

Yeah, but this one has fewer rules.

Seriously, you could ask a mod about merging them.

I used to have a database but it's pining for the fjords so I have no real idea. I keep starting (and failing) to recreate it. What with sideways books, books stacked two deep, and stray boxes of books, it's hard to even use lostinspace's method but it has to be over 2K and possibly more than 3K.

I've no idea, did attempt a cull but wasn't successful.

Same here - I periodically look through my books and sometimes just give up altogether and, at most, manage to part with a few - I did have one spectacular purge of about 120 about three years ago but, to be fair, it was right after a library book sale when I bought a bunch of duplicates and, while I don't miss most of the non-duplicates, I do kind of regret getting rid of a few of them.

BTW, welcome aboard @Onesilvia .

 

[Extollager]

J-Sun, actually what I wrote was a list of criteria I used for my own count, since It isn't always obvious what should count as "a book." But the criteria were binding only on me. (I didn't want anyone to feel discouraged from looking at the original thread.) I wrote:

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.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

Many . Especially if you count my reference library of various art/jewellery books. My ebook library is currently 2,277 and growing almost daily, but I've never actually counted my physical books. My brother counted his collection once though years ago and he had over 2k at the time not included a bunch more that he had in storage which was probably another couple thousand.

 

[chongjasmine]

I have no idea how many books I have. Probably more than 200.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I've no idea, did attempt a cull but wasn't successful.

I am in the throes of a cull. It ain't going well.

Probably have about 700+

 

[hitmouse]

sh*tloads

 

[Bick]

sh*tloads

Yeah, I have sh*tloads too. For those who don't know: it's a scientific definition, little used these days, meaning more than heaps, but less than all of them.

 

[Bick]

I have no idea how many books I have. Probably more than 200.

I also should point out, this is an embarrassingly low number, well under the sh*tloads criterion, and you need to try harder.

 

[Bramandin]

I have maybe three feet of fiction. I left a lot of badly-decayed bookclub editions with my ex.

 

[Astro Pen]

Pre divorce, 10 years ago, 4000

Now in a smaller and cosier house, 1400
I have, to my credit, had a serious spring cull from what was probably 1407 when I started.

 

[johndsal]

43 years ago, before I got married, I had over 1000. Unfortunately, the wife didn’t like my collection because it attracted too much dust. Now I have to make do with ebooks

 

[Elckerlyc]

I feel small and insignificant :
About 600-700 paper-based and 1147 e-based books, according to Calibre. I may have several e-books more, not yet catalogued.