FIR '11: How Large is Your Book Collection?

It's Week 4 of the Fall Into Reading 2011 Challenge. I haven't read much from my list but that will change once I'm done reading through the Giller Prize shortlist! This weeks question:

How large is your personal/family collection of books? And where do you keep them?

I think most people would say that my collection is pretty big. That is if I could ever get it all together in one place. I have one bookshelf next to my bed which is now spilling over onto the floor. It consists of recent books I have been reading. My children have a very large collection of books, so big that last year I donated 1/3 of the books to my daughter's school and the bookshelf is still overflowing. And now we're adding French books to the collection.

But the majority of my books are in boxes. We live in a two bedroom apartment and don't have much space for our books. My husband used to work in the warehouse of a major publishing company and was allowed to bring home any damaged or returned books. And so he did. Hundreds of them. Those are all in boxes in our storage area right now. Any books I accumulated during my childhood, teenage and university years are in boxes at my mothers house.

So basically I have no clue how many books I actually own. My dream is to have a library room when we own a house one day. My husband plans to make the bookshelves for me, so maybe then we'll find out just how many books we own.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 19, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    I hope you'll be able to have your library soon, Shan. I have 2 nice bookcases and some old ones in the attic. I am always out of space. I think I must have about 350 - I had more but had to get rid of a lot when I moved countries and now I give away a lot of my books, the ones I a, not planning to reread.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 19, 2011 at 10:50 AM

    I have quite a few bookcases and have one room that was entirely devoted to books, but now has crafting stuff in it, too (though, the crafting stuff comes and goes -- the books always stay!). I have probably up to 400 books, and constantly kick myself for the days when I trade them in or give away books I don't think I'll read (but now want to!). I hope you get your room soon!

    ReplyDelete
  3. HeatherOctober 19, 2011 at 12:13 PM

    5 new books shelves this year and we still have books on the floor.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lover Of RomanceOctober 19, 2011 at 1:42 PM

    Thats awesome!!! I don't have that much room in my apt for a lot of books, I have one bookcase that holds about 75 books, and I have a big pile in my closet until I can get a personal library with lots of shelves. Until that time I stick with the library lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. ShanOctober 19, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    I guess you can tell just how much someone loves books by the size of the piles next to the bookcase!

    ReplyDelete

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