# I could cry from this comment...



## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

found elsewhere in a discussion of e-readers vs dtb


> I am an avid reader myself, and I know how it feels to have a huge book collection. I have over 100 books, easy.


this is a huge book collection? this is an avid reader? I read that many books in less than six months. what does that make me? I have that many books just on the top shelf of ONE of the 9 bookshelves in our home. (triple deep and then stacked on top)
I have broken bookshelves from the weight we subject them to.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Well iaf a hundred books is a huge collection, I gave away three of four of them this year to our library and still have a couple on the shelves. One of the reasons we read on Kindles now is to free up space in our house that was being over run with books.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Everything is relative...if a person was raised in a background of few or no books, 100 books would easily seem like a lot!  Remember, it's not a competition.  (Unlike in quilting where "she who dies with the most fabric wins" and I'm trying to win!)

Betsy


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Compared to my current collection of 3,000 + DTV, yeah, I'd say this is paltry, but 30 or so years ago, when I first started collecting books, I might have been excited about breaking the 100 book mark.  Or maybe the reader only keeps books to reread.  If I got rid of all books I'd only read once and only once, I'd be way down, below 1000, probably below 500.  So what is the context for saying 100 is huge? It probably is compared to non-readers.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Have you seen this picture already in another thread? Do you live in a two-story house?


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

...


Betsy the Quilter said:


> Unlike in quilting where "she who dies with the most fabric wins" and I'm trying to win!
> Betsy


I got ya beat Betsy... Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah... 
(Cuz I don't make all my fabrics into quilts.. DH swears I buy fabric just to stand and look at it, play with it, imagine it in quilts...)
and my Kindle has definately cut into my quilting time.. as have these boards...
But I do have 3 King size quilts more than half done.. will finish one sometime in the next 2 months.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

yeah Sandpiper.. I actually saw that pic on Bing images about a month before it was posted here.. I was looking at bookcase pictures to find ones I liked to use as screensavers. I miss living in a two story house.. but DH has really bad knees after 21 years in The Marine Corps


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Yep, everything is relative. I remember when I was pretty proud when my LP (vinyl audio recording for you youngsters) collection went over 300 albums. Then I visited a guy's house who had a set of floor-to-ceiling shelves that were at least 9-10 feet wide virtually full of albums. I don't know exactly how many, but I'd guess it was easily 10 times the size of mine, and maybe closer to 4000 albums.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

BTackitt said:


> ...
> I got ya beat Betsy... Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah...
> (Cuz I don't make all my fabrics into quilts.. DH swears I buy fabric just to stand and look at it, play with it, imagine it in quilts...)
> and my Kindle has definately cut into my quilting time.. as have these boards...
> But I do have 3 King size quilts more than half done.. will finish one sometime in the next 2 months.


Is there any other way to buy fabric? We call it fabric futures. I very seldom buy any fabric FOR a quilt now; I work from my collection and just feed the stash when I'm out and see something that works for the style of quilting that I do or if I fall in love with something. (And I'll have to see pics before I believe you win! )

and yes the boards have cut into my quilting time, too. 

Betsy


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> Have you seen this picture already in another thread? Do you live in a two-story house?


That reminds me of this:


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## xianfox (Dec 7, 2009)

I switched over to reading ebooks back in 1996 on my Pilot 1000. Granted it was much harder finding reading material back then electronically, but I always managed to find enough to keep my TBR pile stocked.

In about 1998 we started building the library at my kids parochial school. Most of our DTB collection was donated to this cause. At present the library has 7,000 titles and 9,000 books spanning 13 bookcases. While there have been some new acquisitions and other donations thru the years, I'd say our part of the donation was easily in the range of 2,500 books.

In the 13 years I've been reading solely electronically, I've managed to amass a 1,300+ book library. And now it all fits in my pocket.

Ah, progress.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Maybe the person quoted just left off a zero? (or two? )

Or maybe he/she is 15 years old?

As Betsy said, it's not a competition. Some people might just read everything at the library, too, and not feel a need to own it all.

Though, having said that, if an adult past age 25 or so bragged about having _read_ over a hundred books, I'd be crying too... and yet I believe that is far closer to the norm than our reading habits.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

100 books.
I have 230 on my Kindle and that is just since Feb.
I have been reading for 50+ years.

Just sayin.....


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## meljackson (Nov 19, 2008)

That chair is so cool!! 

Melissa


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## vrc84 (Feb 18, 2009)

I remember when I was in middle school and I first filled one shelf on my bookcase.  I was so excited that I had so many books!  It really is all about perspective.

Now I need to down to Ikea this weekend to get another bookcase so I can get the piles of books off the floor of my bedroom and living room. It will probably be full the minute I get it. That's probably the main reason I got a Kindle - shelf space!  And yet I still buy the occasional dtb...


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## rla1996 (Oct 28, 2008)

Just because a person doesn't own more than 100 books doesn't mean that they're not an avid reader.  Some people get the bulk of their books from the Library and then return them when they are finished with them. Some people buy and read them then pass them on to others only keeping the one they LOVE the most and can't live without.  Some people have limited space and can only keep so many, and yet others (like me) have DHs who get tired of so many books lying around all the time and purge every so often with a trip to Goodwill (he has to be particularly sneaky about this as if I catch him they get brought right back into the house, and he knows not to take books off my "I'm keeping these ones" shelves -of course now that i have my K this isn't a problem anymore ).  I'm sure there are many other reasons people may not have a TON of books around the house, these are just the ones that I thought of off the top of my head.  Truthfully I am proud to say that I am now down to buying about 5 DTBs a year  , and that all of the rest are on my K.  let me tell you my DH is a much happier man for it, though the people I used to pass books on to are not.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

I consider myself to be an avid reader, but my library wouldn't suggest that. Since I don't have all that much room for storage, I only have ... oh, maybe 50 or 60 books.  BUT - they're ones I'll read again and again or else they're first editions.

Now, my Kindle, on the other hand ... oh yesssss .... Pushing up toward 800 books in Calibre - most of them freebies :>) And I've just barely started exploring Gutenberg!!!

But then, it's not about quantity; it's about quality!

Well, OK, there are a few trashy romance books in there - mind you, just for an occasional quick, totally non-thinking read.  ;>)


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## Pawz4me (Feb 14, 2009)

FearNot said:


> I consider myself to be an avid reader, but my library wouldn't suggest that.


Same here. I detest clutter and I'm not much for reading books multiple times. So for the most part once a DTB is read, it's outta here. My entire library consists of a few versions of the Bible and a few reference books.


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## Dankinia (Jun 20, 2009)

Susan in VA said:


> Maybe the person quoted just left off a zero? (or two? )


That would be my thought too.  I tend to excel at typos and missed letters. Which is sad considering I write reports for a living.


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## Concrete Queen (Oct 19, 2009)

Y'know, compared to society in general, reading any books at all makes you an "avid" reader, let alone _owning_ books. I think because we all love to read here, we lose sight of how uncommon regular reading is in the general population. It's my understanding that most people only read a few books a year. How this is, I don't know, but I'm told it's like that...


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## 3boysnagirl (Dec 29, 2009)

BTackitt said:


> found elsewhere in a discussion of e-readers vs dtb
> this is a huge book collection? this is an avid reader? I read that many books in less than six months. what does that make me? I have that many books just on the top shelf of ONE of the 9 bookshelves in our home. (triple deep and then stacked on top)
> I have broken bookshelves from the weight we subject them to.


Seriously I agree with you. I spent about 7 months this year unemployed and read in that time the entire works of Karen Kingsbury (40+), Jodi Picoult (16), James Scott Bell (19) as well as the Sisterchicks series 7 books. Plus a few others. Other than the ones I traded on paper back swap (to earn credits to get more), gave to friends and family and sold in a garage sale, I still have over 200 from that period alone. Often reading a book a day.

My Kindle just may save my marriage....


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I recall reading about a survey indicating that the average US adult read less than one book per year after college age.  Compared to that, a 100 book collection is pretty high-powered.  But (like most of the people here, I think) I had more books than that by the time I was 10 or so.


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## patinagle (Oct 16, 2009)

100? 

Hahahahahaa!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Everything is relative...if a person was raised in a background of few or no books, 100 books would easily seem like a lot! Remember, it's not a competition.


I agree that reading and owning books are not a competition. I also remember some very sad days, over 36 years ago, when DH and I were poor college students and we had to make choices between selling some of our books and eating. At that time, while we were both avid readers, we did not own many books. The few we owned were very precious to us.



Betsy the Quilter said:


> (Unlike in quilting where "she who dies with the most fabric wins" and I'm trying to win!)
> Betsy


For paperfolders, it feels as if "the one who dies with the most paper wins" and we all try to win! And then there are the ones who fold origami from fabric, metal, etc.

DH and I only keep the books we plan to read again and still we have over two dozen bookcases filled with reading material. However, more than half of those are reference books instead of fiction. I remember being very excited when I realized that I owned over 100 books on origami!


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

BTackitt said:


> ...
> I got ya beat Betsy... Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah...
> (Cuz I don't make all my fabrics into quilts.. DH swears I buy fabric just to stand and look at it, play with it, imagine it in quilts...)
> and my Kindle has definately cut into my quilting time.. as have these boards...
> But I do have 3 King size quilts more than half done.. will finish one sometime in the next 2 months.


oh that is me with yarn - I have some that is so wonderful I may just take it out and fondle it for years before knitting something with it


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

A hundred....that alone would be the sum of what used to be my nancy drew and hardy boys collection I had in elementary/jr high. That didn't my manga, magazines, and Shoujo Beat (monthly manga magazine).


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## libros_lego (Mar 24, 2009)

I think you could count it as an avid reader 'cause if you're not an avid reader, would you keep a hundred books and be proud of it?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Jenni said:


> I think you could count it as an avid reader 'cause if you're not an avid reader, would you keep a hundred books and be proud of it?


You know, Jenni, that's a really good point. . . .people who aren't avid readers don't even mention books. . .or if they do its dismissively.

Oh, and, it's "the one with the most guitars wins"


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## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

100.  LMAO...I have that just on Kindle and tons more on sd cards.  My attic is filled with boxes and boxes of books.  100!! oh Gosh...let me catch my breath...I'm laughing so hard. 

MAYBE they forgot a couple of zeros and meant to put 10,000...lol.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

I keep re-reading the comment.. and all I can hope is she typo'd, and meant 1000 or more.. typos are common if you are typing in a hurry. I hvae them all the time.


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

The person may only *own* 100 books, but he/she could have read a lot more (libraries, gave away old books, etc.). I doubt I own even 100 DTBs anymore for those same reasons and because of the Kindle.


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