# Book Hoarders Anon.



## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

I love watching those hoarder shows. It gives me the inspiration to clean, and I feel better about my own lesser (but noticeable) messiness. You can also do a little scavenger hunt -- I play_ find the animal print. _ I also have genuine compassion for the people based on people I've known.

I've been trying to get my bookshelves organized for a while. I actually went through a ton of books last week that I'd purchased for my grandmother and were stacked to forever in the room she keeps and uses part time in our home. I had her permission -- I did not steal her books.  Tonight I continued with the books in my writing room/hang-out/bedroom. And ... I've come to a conclusion.

I can't stand uncluttered book shelves. In theory, I wanted to get down to two rows of books on each shelf, but it looks too plain. Bare. Empty.I look at the shelves and feel a kinship with the print people, with their talk of of smells and touch and covers. Of course, the reality is I'm all stuffed up from the dustiness of them.

I had no problem thinning out some books, particularly the ones I'd selected for my grandmother because they were not my preferred genres. Also, because they're hers -- although she doesn't see them that way -- it was easy to go through them and sort them out for the USB where she spends so much time, and for the troops, and for a cousin. It was easy because I had a guideline of her priorities. I still ended up with two big keeper bags for myself.

My books though, different. There are so many books I've yet to read. So many books I have good intentions to read and still probably never will. The books I can easily let go of though are a small overall percentage. I did manage a good stack to take when we go see my inlaws in a few months. Even there though there are books I haven't read and I'm hoping the time crunch will make me focus there.

I think it comes down to books as a reflection of self. Neat bookshelves are not me. Whether or not I ever read them all, I like looking at the barely controlled chaos of them. Full bookshelves with more stacks on top. Just like I like the wildness of the forest -- trees and bushes and rocks, flora and fauna, birds singing and darting across the paths -- I crave a wilderness of words. A Rapunzel's tower of books.

So, even though I'm donating a lot, and even though there are books here I'll never read, and even though I read mostly from my Kindle, enough books are going back to return my shelves to their beautiful chaos.

Now people can find the book with the animal print.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Yes, I admit it.  I am a Kindle book hoarder.  I have enough books to be read to last me a lifetime.  But I will keep buying them.  If you wandered into my Kindle you'd have a heart-attack!


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

DYB said:


> Yes, I admit it. I am a Kindle book hoarder. I have enough books to be read to last me a lifetime. But I will keep buying them. If you wandered into my Kindle you'd have a heart-atatck!


Yes, my Kindle reflects my book hoarding too. I'm really working on being more reasonable in my ebook buying, but reasonable is a relative term here. I'm just glad that everything has a folder now. I had to replace Willow the Kindle with a New Willow the Kindle, and I made a rule that I couldn't get a new book or download a book from the archive unless there was a folder for it and it went there ASAP.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

What a wonderful confession to read.  I love the idea of "barely controlled chaos" which echoes my sentiments exactly--I tried the double rows one time to get some control over my collection, and I couldn't do it.  It looked neater, but I couldn't stand choosing which books would be hidden from view in favor of other books, as they're all old friends to me, and how do you pick and choose amongst old friends?  You can't.

I have several bookshelves in this house, all overflowing, and stacks of books on several surfaces, including the kitchen counter.  Don't quite know how they ended up there, except I think I was reading whilst stirring some cheese sauce the other day.  I also have stacks of papers, poems, book reviews, magazines that I can't bear to part with because I know someday I'll want to flip back through them and read some article or poem from 20 years ago that I suddenly have occasion to recall.  You're not alone in your beautiful chaos.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

purplepen79 said:


> What a wonderful confession to read. I love the idea of "barely controlled chaos" which echoes my sentiments exactly--I tried the double rows one time to get some control over my collection, and I couldn't do it. It looked neater, but I couldn't stand choosing which books would be hidden from view in favor of other books, as they're all old friends to me, and how do you pick and choose amongst old friends? You can't.
> 
> I have several bookshelves in this house, all overflowing, and stacks of books on several surfaces, including the kitchen counter. Don't quite know how they ended up there, except I think I was reading whilst stirring some cheese sauce the other day. I also have stacks of papers, poems, book reviews, magazines that I can't bear to part with because I know someday I'll want to flip back through them and read some article or poem from 20 years ago that I suddenly have occasion to recall. You're not alone in your beautiful chaos.


Thanks! I love walking into people's houses and seeing their books and movies all around. It just takes a selection or too in common to feel a kinship.

I occasionally wonder what people walking into my house would know about me if my family -- pets included -- were away on vacation. I know they'd know about the pets and the breeds from the furry, unavoidable dust bunnies, decor, mail from rescue groups. They'd know about the cat from the litter box and food dish. They'd know someone has a Buffy fixation and someone else an interest in model trains. They'd know one member is elderly -- my grandmother -- from the medications and the old pictures, including the one on the fridge with her looking all 1940s sassy posing with a handsome soldier she dated. I had a collage done of my mother and I wonder if they'd wonder who the woman in the pictures is, some of them with me as a toddler. I think they'd see some disorganization, and a lot of whimsy/quirkiness in the colors, decor, and art. Neat bookshelves would be a lie though and seeing them would give a false impression.

From looking at the books, just like checking out the Kindle, I think they'd see a wide variety of books, curiosity. They'd definitely know my politics. They'd see an ambition to read and probably laugh at the thought of anyone actually reading all the books, and they'd be right. As much as I'd like to think they'd see me as intellectual, while literature and serious books are represented, they'd dwarfed by the romance, horror, and fairy tale books.

Oh, they'd definitely know I write too from the shelf of manuals, most of them not actually read. That's because I'm pretentious. 

Okay, anyone else want to play? What would people take away from nosing around your house and pawing through your books?


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

well, let's see.. I have a 6'x3' bookshelf full of cookbooks & cooking magazines. One shelf on cookies alone, one on breads & pastries...then in another bookshelf, 2 shelves full of herbalism & soapmaking books, 1 shelf 2 rows deep by 2 rows high of Star Trek books. and TONS of scifi/sci-fantasy books all over the house in bookshelves, then in my nightstand all of the books are fairy tales/mythology from different countries. Then out in my sewing room, I have 2 shelves of Quilting books, and another shelf of 3 ring binders where I am slowly trying to organize the quilting patterns, and the 3 notebooks of my own patterns that I never seem to have enough time to actually make.

I joke about the bathrooms being the only rooms in the house with no bookshelves, but there is a magazine rack in one, and the other often has a book or 2 on the windowsill or back of the toilet..and all of this is after I have already cleared close to 2000 books out since buying my Kindle.


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## Tris (Oct 30, 2008)

Hello, my name is Tris, and I have a problem hoarding books...

Every year I promised myself that I won't do it.  No more new books until I finish the ones I have on my Kindle and in DTB.  Every year I break it.  Oh dear, the Kindle just lets me hide my books easier.  

Tris


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## Addie (Jun 10, 2009)

Tris said:


> Every year I promised myself that I won't do it. No more new books until I finish the ones I have on my Kindle and in DTB. Every year I break it. Oh dear, the Kindle just lets me hide my books easier.


This is my one problem with the Kindle. Before, my bookshelves of unread books would just stare at me accusingly whenever I brought home some more. Now that I've got the Kindle, I buy, buy, buy but don't really see the evidence, which only spurs my addiction. And actually, I've discovered I dislike when I see a category with (1) or (0) next to it. I have this need to fill folders.


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## Cheryl Shireman (Feb 11, 2011)

My name is Cheryl and I am a book hoarder...

And this is the thing about the Kindle - it makes it so much easier to give in to my "disease."

I am no longer limited by physical space! I can just keep adding and adding and no one will know!


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

OHMYGOSH, I am a hoarder.  TOTALLY.  I have two series right now that I started, bought the rest and am hoarding.  I don't want to read them because I so want to read them.  THey are being saved for just the right occasion.  I can't wait.  I don't know when this will be.  Meanwhile, of course, there are other books to be bought, save and hoarded.  I have the same thing going on on my Kindle device.  I load up, organize sort and forget about the little gems.  My bookshelves get slightly organized only to spill over.  At one point we could not use the dining room to eat.  I had to go through and donate a bunch of books to the library and restack the shelves (yes, I have a bookcase in the dining room.  Where else would I put it?  The bedroom already has books in the closet, no room there!  So does the guest bedroom. But I digress.)  Anyway, there are definitely two rows with books stacked on top of the rows.  And now I read almost exclusively on Kindle.  But I'm not getting rid of my favorites.  Or my hoard.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

My name is Harry and I am a Book Hoarder. I refuse to accept that I am powerless though I can't walk in a straight line through either of my two offices due to piles of books on the floor, and my Kindle is sagging from an overload of electrons.


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## bashfulreader (Jan 29, 2011)

MariaESchneider said:


> My bookshelves get slightly organized only to spill over. At one point we could not use the dining room to eat. I had to go through and donate a bunch of books to the library and restack the shelves (yes, I have a bookcase in the dining room. Where else would I put it? The bedroom already has books in the closet, no room there! So does the guest bedroom. But I digress.)


  Right now, the *only* thing in my dining room is a book shelf. We moved from a teeny tiny house to a much more normal-sized one with a formal dining, room, but we've never gotten around to buying a real dining room table. Honestly, since our little kitchen table works just fine for eating, I've considered turning our dining room into a library, with more book shelves and a couple of comfy chairs. I love the idea, but must confess that is seems rather silly, now, since I can't bring myself to read paper books anymore.

(And yes, I might not be hoarding DTB's like I used to, but my Kindle is VERY well stocked. )


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## Bob Mayer (Feb 20, 2011)

When we put our house on the market in 2004, we had people who came in during the open house and would look amazed and ask us how we could possibly move all our books.  We said, put them in boxes and ship them.  My wife and I are actually together because of our books.  When we met, we saw all the books on each others shelves and realized we had many of the same books.  We finally had to get rid of many of our paperbacks and Goodwill said they'd never seen anyone bring so many books in.  We're finally going to invest in a Kindle and I'm sure we'll fill it up fast.


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## StaceyHH (Sep 13, 2010)

Eek! Does this ever describe me! In fact, I held out on getting an ebook reader for so long, merely because I have so many books. This is in spite of the fact that I make regular drops at Powell's and Goodwill, and loan/give away books frequently. For now, most of the books are confined to my little den at home, on three large bookcases, but no matter how I rearrange, I'm out of room. I've been plotting how I can get a large bookcase either in hubby's den, or in the family room. That would ease the cramping for a little while. Heh. 

And Kindle just makes it worse, because in addition to the 100s of paper books on my shelves, I now have several hundred digital books on my computer and Kindle. At this point, I'm grateful for Goodreads, because living in the land of Powells - it being across the street from my office, I found that I'd often come home with duplicates when I visited the bookstore. Now I can look it up and see if I have either a digital copy or a hard copy before I buy. 

Sadly, that's my only REAL attempt to reduce book clutter.


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## Jenni (Feb 20, 2011)

The amount of books I have drives my husband nuts. I keep asking for him to build me more bookshelves. Actually, I want built in bookshelves in my office. As it it is right now, all the shelves are two books deep and then I have a bunch in the basement that my husband keeps threatening to dispose of. And then there is my kindle....


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## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

About the only thing I ever did Before Kindle to try and reduce the clutter of books was to get bookcases that were deep enough for only one row of books (kind of like DVD/media shelves) - that way I could always see what books I had, no "hiders" in a back row. Just meant I had to get more bookshelves.  My ex-hubby was so not a reader, he could never understand my obsession with reading to begin with, let alone *keeping them* after I'd read them.









Now I rarely get paper books, but haven't made much progress in passing along with I had when I first got Kindle 1 nearly 3 years ago. Too many of my books aren't on Kindle, or are beginning to be now but are too expensive with the stoopid agency model on even older paperback-equivalents. Never know when I'll want to re-read an old favorite (mostly series) and I spent too much money in the old days re-buying a series after I'd gotten rid of it....one or two or three times. So I've still got two tall double bookcases that are mostly filled with more stacked on top.

Between those and what's on Kindle and in archives and on computer (non-Amazon), I probably have about 3500 books.


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## chipotle (Jan 1, 2010)

I've been trying to get rid of more books since I received my Kindle because I don't want my house to look like this. LOL http://www.bookgasm.com/features/my-favoritest-bookstore/

My only obsession is cookbooks and I try to keep those to one bookshelf (plus what I have on the Kindle). I currently have so many books on the Kindle that I think it is slowing down so I'm less likely to add free books and I'm trying to transfer more of the books I already have over to the archives.


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## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

Oh, but chipotle, it's Read an eBook Week today through Saturday, and many authors from KB and elsewhere are offering free or deeply discounted ebooks on Smashwords and other places. This is not the week to reign in Kindle hoarding tendencies!


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Steph H said:


> Never know when I'll want to re-read an old favorite (mostly series) and I spent too much money in the old days re-buying a series after I'd gotten rid of it....one or two or three times. So I've still got two tall double bookcases that are mostly filled with more stacked on top.


Yup. Got rid of a couple and then just had to have them again. I'm not even a re-reader. But every now and then I want to re-read (especially if there's a new book in the series or sometimes because I'm reading something that reminds me of...)

Then I had to buy them again. I'm a dork.


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## Madeline (Jun 5, 2010)

Cheryl Shireman said:


> My name is Cheryl and I am a book hoarder...
> 
> And this is the thing about the Kindle - it makes it so much easier to give in to my "disease."
> 
> I am no longer limited by physical space! I can just keep adding and adding and no one will know!


Ditto. It's really so ridiculous. For every one I read, I'm adding 20 more. I have enough books to read for the next 30 years lol


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

MariaESchneider said:


> OHMYGOSH, I am a hoarder. TOTALLY. I have two series right now that I started, bought the rest and am hoarding. I don't want to read them because I so want to read them.


I do that too! I don't want my favorite series to end or have to wait a year for the next one to come out so I always try to leave at least one or two left (if it is a long series) until the next or last one comes out. In fact, I have so many series I am reading it isn't even funny and I would bet almost every month, I find a new one to start.

I just might be addicting to buying new books. I have well over 100 I haven't read yet, yet, I still keep buying them. I can't help it when all these read new series and books come out that I want to try!


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## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

I'm not ashamed to say I'm a book hoarder. It's comforting to know that I have many, many, MANY choices of what I want to read at any moment.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

You guys are so fun and supportive.

You know what I have on my shelves? This might be a blast from the past for some people:





They're honestly really good books. Great pictures and tons of folklore.


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## Anna_DeStefano (Feb 28, 2011)

LOL! What a GREAT topic. I have to first say that while writers love book hoarders, we're all (if we're honest) closet hoaders ourselves   We can't help it. We grew up in love with stories, couldn't get enough of them, until the point that we had to write them ouselves. At least that was my geeky, head-in-the-clouds experience. 

My biggest weakness--the backlist. Once I find a writer whose voice speaks to me, I'm hooked and have to have everything they've ever writte. Fiction, non-fiction, classics, contemporary. I currently have a stack of Michio Kaku on my desk for research, Virginia Woolf sitting at my Kindle app fingertips everytime I pull out my iPhone, and decades-old Linad Howard on its way to me by snail mail.

Hello, my name is Anna, and I'm a book addict...


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Yes, I am also a book hoarder. Was, anyway. Back in the prekindle days I had to force myself to stop going into bookstores, as I would spend hours I didn't have, and dollars I didn't have, to buy books I didn't have time to read.


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## tsrapp (Jan 3, 2011)

Me?  Hoard books?

Nahhh.

(Hmm, if I look directly at this very small section of wall, I can't see the 6+ shelves of books stacked two deep and piled high, and don't ask about the guest room.  Or the craft room.  Or the Kindle.....)

Mostly fantasy, urban fantasy, mystery, and adventure with a few misc others thrown in.  Oh, and art books, craft books, drawing books, a few history books...  reminds me I wanted to look for a specific book....


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

So nice to see I'm in such good company!

Fantasy (I actually have two copies of the Lord of the Rings, one my mother's set of tattered paperbacks from the early 70s with Tolkien's artwork on the covers, another my tattered paperbacks from the late 70s--they have some weird, kinda cool, very colorful designs on the covers, like someone drew them in the midst of an acid trip), Sci-Fi, Horror, Anne Tyler, Alice Hoffman, Susan Howatch, Romance, English classics like Shakespeare, Dickens, Hardy, Austen, and the Bronte sisters, True Crime, strange poetry books, books on writing, books of essays, political books, tons of art books, tons of architecture books, tons of cook books, tons of obscure history books (I inherited a motley assortment from my dear mentor and professor who passed away in 2001). I've inherited not only her collection of books but both my parents' collections, and they had wildly varying reading tastes. I can't bear to part with any of them. Every time I open something as simple as one of the cookbooks, I hear my mom and dad in the kitchen. Or I opened Anne Lamont's _Bird by Bird _ today, a gift from a friend, and a postcard from an art show we both attended in 2004 fell out. Or my professor's cramped notes in the margins. Or places where my mom dog-earred the pages. Every book is a memory for me. Every book holds ghosts amidst its rustling pages.


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

My hubby bought me a kindle hoping it would help me release the thousands and thousands of books around our house back into the wild. It has save us some space as there are new books than now all exist only on the kindle, but I can't bear to give up my pbooks.


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## Anna_DeStefano (Feb 28, 2011)

purplepen79 said:


> So nice to see I'm in such good company!
> 
> Fantasy (I actually have two copies of the Lord of the Rings, one my mother's set of tattered paperbacks from the early 70s with Tolkien's artwork on the covers, another my tattered paperbacks from the late 70s--they have some weird, kinda cool, very colorful designs on the covers, like someone drew them in the midst of an acid trip...


LOL! I have my tattered paperbacks of Mary Stewart's Author/Merlin trilogy (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and, sigh..., The Last Enchantment). Then I have the hardcovers I keep on my bookshelf. And not just any card coves. I went out and found copies of the book club hardcovers, which were the original versions I read back in elementary school. I HAD to have those, because it's how I first found the stories. It's what I want to see, when I scan my keeper shelves looking for the perfect re-read.

So, yeah. I'm a quirky hoarder. My husband's learned to live with it...


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## Shelia A. Huggins (Jan 20, 2011)

My name is Shelia, and I am a book hoarder. 

Last year I actually had a breakthrough. I gave away about 90 books. However, I still have too many books for my bookshelves. Built-in book cases in the office and living room. Freestanding bookcases in the kitchen, my bedroom, and the second bedroom upstairs. Our curio holds books instead of dishes, and my daughter's bedroom has three freestanding bookshelves in it. We are indeed a mess.

A friend of ours knew an older gentlemen, a doctor, who died a few years ago. We took all of his books. Old medical books and journals (yes, his personal medical journals...and about real people too). He even had a set of encyclopedias from the late 1800s. I'm telling you, these things make for very interesting reading. Yes. They are falling apart. We refuse to give any of them away. Books are on the console and coffee tables and along the back of the sideboard (no dishes for that either). Yet, we keep buying them, right along with ebooks now.

I think there is a special place in heaven for us.


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## BarbraAnnino (Jan 27, 2011)

Oh wow, it's nice to meet people with the same addictions. We bought a B&B and I named it Huckleberry Inn just so I could keep buying and hoarding books! When we put the house up for sale, I finally broke down and de-cluttered. I kept one bookcase of the classics, the signed, and the 'pretty' books. Now that I have my Kindle, I can continue with my obsession!


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

My name is Tim and my wife and I are book hoarders.

We have books on the coffee table, books on the kitchen table, books in the office next to the computer, e-books on the computer, e-books on her kindle, e-books on my tablet PC, a library full of books, so many books - but we still have room for a few more. I think you know you are a hoarder when you build a bookshelf to hold your books to find that you already need to start building another one (if my math is correct the new shelf I'm building that is 50% larger than the last two and will be 80% filled with the various piles we have around the house). We even have a pile of 20 books sitting next to our library shelves of books we want to sell.


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## graffdroid (Feb 1, 2011)

My name is Phil and I am a proud book hoarder. Most people would not know it to look at me that I am an avid reader. I have shelves and shelves of books throughout my house that I may randomly be perusing and see  long-forgotten gem that is a 'must' revisit for me. I have some designs sketched out for new bookcases to allow me to de-clutter as well as allow me to showcase some of my favorites. 
Like many others here, the kindle has allowed me to somewhat slim down the collection but to be honest I have only replaced a few books with kindle versions. The kindle has just opened new doors for me.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

graffdroid said:


> My name is Phil and I am a proud book hoarder. Most people would not know it to look at me that I am an avid reader. I have shelves and shelves of books throughout my house that I may randomly be perusing and see long-forgotten gem that is a 'must' revisit for me. I have some designs sketched out for new bookcases to allow me to de-clutter as well as allow me to showcase some of my favorites.
> Like many others here, the kindle has allowed me to somewhat slim down the collection but to be honest I have only replaced a few books with kindle versions. The kindle has just opened new doors for me.


Welcome, Phil.


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