Confessions Of A Book Hoarder

National Post:

The first thing people usually say to me, upon entering my home for the first time, is that I own a lot of books. They are wrong, of course. I am rather ashamed at the size of my collection, considering I studied English literature in university and now pretty much write about books for a living. Between my girlfriend and I me, there are probably between 1,000 and 1,250 books in our apartment, a number I consider rather paltry. Ideally, I’d like to double that number once we buy our first home — we currently rent — and I’m no longer faced with the prospect of hauling countless boxes of books between addresses.

Read the whole story: National Post

Comments

[simpleperson]

03:04 PM on 03/28/2011

No..not really. I have about 100 books or so I hold onto due them being gifts from someone special or because I like to pick them up and re-read them.

For the most part, I read a book and pass it along to someone else so they can get the same enjoyment out of it that I did.

I live in a rural community and every Friday night at a little dive bar down the road nearly everyone that comes through the door brings a book or two to swap with others. It is a pretty cool scene and not what you would expect.

[ValdaDeDieu]

01:56 PM on 03/28/2011

Why, YES! Yes I am...

[nnyl]

12:59 AM on 03/27/2011

I used to tutor a kid who told me I had too many books and should get rid of some. I told him there was no such thing as too many books.Except for a few I recently picked up at a library sale, I've read everything I have.

I did clear out and donate several boxes of books when I moved. A few months later I lost a few hundred books in a house fire. Books I don't like, I don't keep. I book I like, I'll want to re-read, which is sort of like visiting old friends.

[owiseone]

10:47 AM on 03/26/2011

Interestingly, there are very tidy homes all with the same Pottery Barn look out in subdivisions with one home looking like the other inside and out, and there will be few books if any.
Then there those who "decorate" with books--people who buy them by the yard never intending to read them but want the look and would as soon toss them all out as not.

Those who have loads of books and actually read them are "nerdy". Hoarding is a new term, popular with the no-book crowd.

Our society has gotten so in the "throw-away" mode that owning lots of books carries a negative connotation of "hoarding"? (Down with education!!??)

[owiseone]

10:37 AM on 03/26/2011

With lots of books in the house one never has an excuse or reason to be bored or without information.
The way I see it: if things get so bad either economically or environmentally that we are without electricity or communication (no TV, no internet) there will be escape into all the books, therefore books are a necessity!!!

[fredgladys]

01:19 AM on 03/29/2011

Agree totally, I have many books which I read and re-read, am a member of a number of librarys and visit them regularly. One of my regrets is that I was never able to instill the love of reading into my children.

[iLuvKOSHi]

07:57 PM on 03/25/2011

Yep & you can't stop me! Wahahahahaha...

[LaurieAnn]

12:29 PM on 03/25/2011

Guilty as charged; although I'm better than I used to be.  My husband and I have had two homes by the same builder.  The  reason, wall space for multiple bookshelves.  Between my husband, son and I we have at least 3,000 volumes in the house. (That's from the last time I counted 13 years ago when I was up most of night with a cranky infant.)

 And I do make a feeble attempt to weed the collection periodically.  Also i do use the public library system to check out books; but nothing for me is quite like being surrounded by books in darned near every room of the house, on every table and countertop.

[FPhoebe]

11:43 AM on 03/25/2011

Guilty. Do I really need that Chaucer textbook written solely in Middle English? Absolutely not, but it's still sitting on my bookshelf gathering dust.

[carester]

11:37 AM on 03/25/2011

I can't tell how many books are in my home. My husband (the guiltiest party), the kids, and I are fascinated with books. The kids love to go to the bookstore and undoubtly "some" books find their way home. I try to promote the library as much as I can (don't have to spend money and don't have to find a place for them to stay).

P.S: My husband is the greatest book hoarder I've ever seen. He rents a storage for books, his mom's garage if full of his books, a room is my mom's house (back in my country) is full of his books, the trunk of his car is full of books, his office (his a college prof.) has piles and piles of books, and of course pretty much every inch of the walls in our home is covered by bookshelves loaded with books, in addition of pretty much every closet and the coffee tables in the living room. I love them all!

[nnyl]

01:00 AM on 03/27/2011

I use the library frequently, but I sometimes find a book there that I know I'll want to re-read. So I get my own copy.

[thebigbike]

11:01 PM on 03/24/2011

Nope! If I don't like it after I try reading it it goes into a pile for the SPCA annual fundraising Used Book sale, same if I've read it and think "eh, once was fine." Same if I look at it "What was I thinking!" Same if I think someone else will enjoy it, I have been pretty much stable in total numbers now, for the last couple of years, not much more than 1,000..... I did give away a collection of over 600 a few years ago which sure helped that goal.

This stabilization is NOT made easier by the fact that a local GoodWill Industries Thrift Store specializes in books..... ninety five cents each for all hardbacks..... even though I can stay away from the used books shelf at the public library. and thankfully we don't have a remainder bookstore anywhere within an hour's drive.

[Jakesmom]

10:41 PM on 03/24/2011

My ex-husband once suggested that since I had read a book, it was ok to get rid of it. I was appalled. It's not why we got divorced, but it should have been why. :)

[LaurieAnn]

12:31 PM on 03/25/2011

I can understand that.  When my late mother was alive she once criticized me for having too many books.  I didn't severe my relationship with her but from then on I always visited with her at her home.

[MJinCanada]

09:18 PM on 03/24/2011

There's at least one full large bookcase in every bedroom and another in the hallway. And a few boxes of books down the basement that I need another bookcase or two for.

Hoarding? Never!

It's *collecting* and *treasuring*!

[odaat52]

08:49 PM on 03/24/2011

Um, yes, I think I am. I don't have time to read all the new books I buy, but I can't stop buying them, either. There are just too many things I'm interested in, and authors I like, so the piles keep growing, both fiction and non. I also have lists of books I haven't yet bought. I have probably 5 paper grocery bags stuffed, mostly with paperbacks, to take to the resale shop, but they've been sitting and gathering dust in my spare room for months. And I'm still trying to figure out where I can put another bookshelf in my small apartment. I'm most likely going to be moving a few years down the line, so something has to give.

[LisaCACO]

08:41 PM on 03/24/2011

perhaps. I have a 5 bedroom home and it's filled with bookshelves. I do sell back some of my fiction paperbacks, but almost never my nonfiction. my daughter, 6, is also obsessive about her books. She rereads her books though, which is great. Of course, nothing like passing hoarding on to another generation...

[c-tom]

04:53 PM on 03/24/2011

I don't think of myself as a book hoarder but I just can back from a 2 week vacation with 9 new (to me) books and about 30 comics, perhaps I should reconsider.

[Sarijj]

12:22 AM on 03/25/2011

I see nothing wrong with buying books while on vacation. I have done this numerous times. The Seattle airport has an amazing book store. What I find odd is that many people I know collect books, not to read, but to just to have. I know a women who, I kid you not, will buy up to 100 used paperbacks a month! I have other friends who have unread books hidden under her bed. To me these are signs of hoarding. If you buy things and never use them, and keep buying more, you are probably a hoarder.

[LaurieAnn]

12:32 PM on 03/25/2011

Book shopping while on vacation is a wonderful thing.  Especially when vacations are planned around areas where there is a good bookstore culture as I have often done.