..hmm, my last count was a bit over a year ago, then it were something like 420. I guess it must be something like 500+ now , and as soon as I'm finished with catalogising my grandpa's i can add another 60 or 70. Those which I stupidly enough lend to people who just don't return them are not included.



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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(N. Chomsky 1957)

Carla - fantastic job! How wonderful would that be!?!

Hope you get it...



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Do something pretty while you can...

per day?!?!?!

Soon you'll be needing a spare flat for your books hehehhe

(*is only able to recolect Penguin classics though* :/)



Post Edited (07-28-03 14:46)

Hmmmm - Bookcases = 8, the floor to ceiling variety. There is no longer any room on said bookcases after putting in two rows of books front to back. I'm now working on the 'abstract' method. A pile here, a pile there.

My only filing system is therefore, the 1st editions on one side of the room, everything else wherever it will fit.

About six boxes of paberback fiction, mostly SF or Fantasy, stacked in two corners of my bedroom; another box, Crime fiction (including, I think, all but one of Robert van Gulik's 'Judge Dee' books), also in one of those stacks. One box of hardbacks, with most of the newer Discworld books rising in a double column above it. Several piles of loose paperbacks, again mostly SF or fantasy, mostly either new acquistions or ones that I'm likely to reread relatively frequently, in various parts of the room. More paperbacks & some hardbacks, as for those piles, under the bed (with most of the roleplaying game books). Non-ficiton also under the bed, originally sorted into categories but getting randomised, apart from a stack about Richard III & his times. About eight boxes of SF/fantasy paperbacks in the attic at my lodgings, many (perhaps most?) of which could probably be disposed of without my becoming too upset. Several more boxes, containing mostly paperbacks but a few hardbacks too (mostly SF/fantasy again, but also some books from other categories as well) in the attic of my mother's bungalow, a few miles away, most of those books unread since the boxes were moved down to Worthing in the early 1980s (and most of them ones that I therefore wouldnt miss much if they were dsiposed of, although there are a few that I've been thinking about re-reading...). A couple of non-fiction hardbacks (the ones for the BBC Palaeontology series 'The Velvet Claw' and 'Walking with Beasts') still in my locker at work. A few books out on loan to various people. Total number of volumes unknown, but _despite my having gotten rid of several hundred books (most of them yet more SF or Fantasy, or paperback Crime fiction) during the last few years _ obviously in the thousands.

I really need another room or two, just for use as a library. I'm dreading the time when my landlady (who's not exactly young...) dies and her heirs put the flat on the market, and I have to either find new lodgings into which I can move masses of books (as well as masses of compact discs & audio cassettes, & maybe still a few LPs too...) or all-too-rapidly dispose of most of my collection.

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Warning! Product may contain Newts!

I'm doubly cursed! I'm not only a book collector but a music critic too. At the last count I had a little over 3000 assorted books (incl. 250 green/orange Penguins), about 1000 of which are on the subject of rock, pop and folk music, (reference, biographies etc) plus poetry and wherever the two coincide (eg American "beat poets" and English "Liverpool Scene" poets etc). That latter sub-collection resides in what would have once been the Parlour of the rambling old Victorian place I live in, a large downstairs room which has books on one wall (plus a door!), a window desk and computer on another, approximately 5000 LP records on another wall (many containing the matching CD version as well) - and I have absolutely no idea how many CDs are on little shelves running along the other wall but there's probably at least as many again. Last time we moved (12 years ago) it required two lorries, one for me and one for the rest of the family :-(

I'll give a hint as to how many books I have. Over the past few months, I've given away over a dozen boxes of books I won't read again to the library for their monthly book sales.

And I've barely made a dent.

Well, when you've finished making the Dent (Arthur, I presume), be sure to put some pictures up for us ...



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Well, i got about 600 books, not bad for an 18yr old i guess. Not mcuh room thats for sure, living at home with parents!



TMH

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One golfer a year is hit by lightning. This may be the only evidence we have of god’s existence.

Ooh ! Just remembered; I'm sure I saw a set of bookshelves dumped outside a house over the road this evening, as I was leaving to go roleplaying. I'm going to go check if they're still there, and worth salvaging.

I'm obviously gonna have to get countnig. I have no idea how many books I have.

58 (fiction). I would happily give a dozen away, and there are another dozen I read with clenched teeth - Jon will be well aware which they are.

It may well be that I have read more books that Sarah owns than I own myself at present (Pratchett right through for a start).

!!!

So Jasper is really honoured that you're reading him; whereas the rest of us just read anything...



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Do something pretty while you can...

...ähm...for anyone who wants to get rid of some of his fiction books, the fiction library of the English department at my university is always happy about donations,(borrowing and reading of two books from this library is obligatory for every student of English at my, so we always need new books) ...(probably transport would be a problem though)



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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(N. Chomsky 1957)

I could teleport some @#$%& Star Trek fiction to you perhaps? Do they really want it?

I cannot remember how many books I had before I was divorced. Elizabeth got any I don't now have, probably Anne McCaffrey and Piers Anthony and a lot of others that she is welcome to. But my memory suffered really badly at the time. I never had a very large collection.

I tend to think that if I'm not going to re-read a book that it has no business taking up space, and it would be better that someone else had it. I have the memory of many books I wouldn't re-read. A friend had a huge collection of whitemetal figures for wargaming. One day he calculated that it would take thirty years to paint them if he never did anything else, so he sold all but the best and bought a display cabinet (he is an award winning painter of miniatures). I suppose we may have something in common. If people want to keep 7,000 books that is their prerogative, but it is puzzling to me. If the actor Sarah mentions re-read one book a day he would have to go twenty years to go through the lot, and it would deprive him of the joy of reading new ones. Books look nice in shelves, I'll admit. For many of you such a way of thinking would be completely alien. We're different. Isn't that nice!

Yep, variety is the spice of life, and all that. If it wasn't for people like you, there would be no second hand bookshops for people like me to spend money in...

(Just popped out to one. Got The Word Book by Giles Brandreth, Where Was Rebecca Shot? by John Sutherland (wahey!), and Four to Score by Evanovich, which I'm about 60% sure I don't already have. Hmm.



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Do something pretty while you can...

I collected for years mostly because I work in a book store than from any specific desire. I just kept everything I bought. I'm also a pack rat :) But, about a year and a half ago my boss recommended a book on clearing clutter and I thought I'd share part of what she said about books.

"Aim to end up with a collection of books that represents you as you are today and the intended "you" of tommorrow. Add some reference books that you commenly use, allow yourself the luxury of a few other books simply because you love them or love your associations with them, and let the rest go." Karen Kingston

It really caused me to look at my books in a new way. Kept everything I loved, everything I needed, and everything I used. Took the rest, about 1/3 of my total, to the used bookstore. Also stopped bringing home books that I might read someday :)

AnnMarie, I work for Books etc and this happens to me, I was a bit ruthless when I moved last month and got rid of a few things as well... but today was extra discount day so i went and bought 8 more!

There's no arguing with extra discount day :) We get a week in the middle of Nov. when they increase our discount. Unfortunately I use it mostly to buy Christmas gifts.

Jon - since you like trams, I thought I'd just draw attention to my latest Blurty entry. There is a picture in it which will gladden your heart.



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah