I keep getting books (both buying and as gifts) even though I got a Kindle to quit getting actual, physical books. What's really fucked up is I have at least 100 books in my to be read bookshelf (yes, an entire 6' bookshelf). I could stop getting books and it would still be a couple of years before I read all them. What I suspect is most all book readers/lovers are this way - both my mother and father are. So what about y'all?
I'm the exact same way. I have three giant ikea bookcases full of books, with a huge "to read" pile. I switched over to a kindle just because I'm running out of space.
Our public library has a public book sale where they off load a huge room full of duplicates for a few dollars each - they have bag day where you can get a grocery bag full at some fixed price. I have probably 100 NYTimes list type books I could read - like Middlesex - I read that and The Corrections.
(http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p520/madjohnshaft/photo-2.jpg)
Stupid non-Kindle paper books
Books have always been part of my 'furniture' - it makes me uneasy to walk into a home where there are no visible books on shelves or tables (or if there are, they're self help manuals/Lady Gaga's autobiography/bibles). I have 5 or 6 shelves total, and every couple of years, go through and donate any that I know I won't read again/have no real desire to keep. Periodical pruning has helped keep the collection pretty much the same size for years.
Some of the old books are almost like scrapbooks, and I'll never get rid of them - anybody have these types as well? Books that you've had since you were a kid or a teen, with the bookmarks and margin notes you made back then, school pictures of friends hidden in the pages, old flyers, etc.
The first floor of the building I work at has a thrift store that always leaves boxes of free books outside. I'm always rooting through it and finding such good shit that I can't resist. Especially photography and art books. My shelf space is all taken, so I'm starting to pile them on my old skateboard.
i got a few physics/cosmos/astronomy books i like to leave out..noone ever reads them..too hard for most.
I have six milk crates filled with books. There's loads of poetry, some Carl Sagan stuff, various history books, and loads of novels. I also have some philosophy and religious texts that I enjoy reading (I'm not religious, but I'm a bit of a religion nerd. Especially the Abrahamic religions).
The next level up from six milk-crates is cinder blocks and old boards
I'd love to move into a house with built in book cases.
I would use the cinder blocks and boards bookcase if it wasn't for me being the one that has to move them around. :D
Me too, I buy tons of books at one time if I find a good deal on them and are a topic I'm interested in. I've got quite a back log to read. I've been knocking out quite a few this winter though.
I collect everything I can get on: True Crime, Conspiracy Theories and How to Books.
I was able to downsize from 7 boxes to 6 boxes of books. Don't like having most of then in storage, but better than not having them at all