Renee in NC Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 My mother says I am a packrat because I have too many books. I say there is no such thing. My mother has NO books in her home (and rarely reads more than a magazine or the newspaper.) I have a lot, but much less than many other people I know (I can fit all of mine in 3 six foot tall bookcases.) I say my dh is the packrat because when we moved I had to convince him to let me throw out a box of empty tape cases and CD cases from his teen years. She says no because my books take up more space. What says the Hive?:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Do you read? Yes? Then having books does not a pack rat make. Rather, you are showing librarian tendencies ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraceyS/FL Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 "Non-book people" have issue with books. My STBXH thinks they shouldn't be out in the open... from what i can tell he didn't grow up with books around. I find it a strange thing since we always had books.... Books don't count! LOL!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hathersage Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Well, I'd have to say, that your dh's empty tapes is a packrat behavior. It sounds like you are a bibliophile, not one who suffers from bibliomania, yes there is a specific book Packrat term. So there is such a thing, but I doubt 3 bookcases could ever fit that defition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomania Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Well, I'd have to say, that your dh's empty tapes is a packrat behavior. It sounds like you are a bibliophile, not one who suffers from bibliomania, yes there is a specific book Packrat term. So there is such a thing, but I doubt 3 bookcases could ever fit that defition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomania I used to have more, but as we have added more dc, I have less space, so I have to purge. I got rid of more when we moved this time because we will be 8 people in 1200 square feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefly Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I hear you, sista! :lol: Books are really the only clutter I have in my home. I love my books and can't seem to part with any of them. People often say when they come in, "Oh, look at all the books!" One of my favorite quotes is from Cicero: "A house without books is like a body without a soul." Hey, we've got SOUL! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hathersage Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Well, you are able to purge books. And the books get read, right? If you were a packrat, you would live with the clutter of books rather than part with any of them. A packrat for example would collect newspapers, because they would get around to them someday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyco Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Well, you are able to purge books. And the books get read, right? If you were a packrat, you would live with the clutter of books rather than part with any of them. A packrat for example would collect newspapers, because they would get around to them someday. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I can fit all of mine in 3 six foot tall bookcases. Neophyte!!!! :-) Remind her that a room without books is like a body without a soul and she is lucky not to have soulless woman tending to her son so she will just have to keep quite about the books. I become very uncomfortable when I am in a house without books. At last count (for books not actually on the shelves) I have 27 stacked by the bed as ready reading material, 7 in the bathroom a dozen by the TV, 6 next to the computer and another 10 or 15 elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 No, having many books is not a pack rat problem. However, spending two weeks fretting over how to organize them "just right" may be a bit of an OCD problem. :leaving: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Hedgehog Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brilliant Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 It doesn't sound like you are a packrat. But books aren't excluded from packrat behavior. I have a family member who is definitely a packrat. The packrat behavior includes keeping every book ever purchased. Entire rooms are filled with unused stuff, including stacks of books (paperback novels purchased 30 years ago and not read since then, for example). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaT Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 No, having many books is not a pack rat problem. However, spending two weeks fretting over how to organize them "just right" may be a bit of an OCD problem. :leaving: :iagree: I don't think you can ever have too many books. I am very comfortable with my OCD tendencies. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Haven't read the replies, but my immediate response to your question is "NO!" We have lots of bookshelves-one in every room of our house, including one of the bathrooms! LOL One of my ds17's friend asked me the other day if all homeschoolers had books/bookshelves in every room, and I told him that the fortunate ones do!;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 You forgot to bring her over here to see all of our books!!!!! No, books do not count for being a packrat!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose in BC Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 My mother, however, would probably agree with your mother. My mom reads but she doesn't see the value in hanging on to books. She has one shelf full and when that fills up she sorts through them, donates them and makes room for more. I, on the other hand, generally keep all my books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elw_miller Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 One of my favorite quotes is from Cicero: "A house without books is like a body without a soul." Hey, we've got SOUL! :D One of my favorite quotes, too! I have to agree. It is not a sign of a packrat but the sign of a bibliophile. I'm one, too! A packrat saves a child's backpack from third grade for the memories. A packrat saves ALL plastic storage containers, just in case. Books don't count (unless they have been severely water-damaged and mildewed and you're saving them 'just in case' you might be able to save them). ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Oooo, did you see according to the wiki bibliomania entry there are worse things than collecting books... "Other abnormal behaviours involving books include book-eating (bibliophagy), compulsive book-stealing (bibliokleptomania), and book-burying (bibliotaphy)." :smilielol5: Next time my dh says we have too many books, I'll point out he should be glad I don't have one of these other "abnormal behaviors." Or maybe I should tell him to go check out that mound in the backyard. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawn in OH Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I think of a packrat as someone who keeps a lot of unimportant things around for no reason: old newspapers, receipts from 20 years ago, clothes they will never wear again. When it comes to something as significant and meaningful as books, well, you can never have too much of a good thing! :D Agreed. It seems unnatural to me to not have books in a home. I'm leery of people that don't own books. What kind of person doesn't own books? My parents are packrats. They've never bought something they didn't keep lying around for 20+ years. They still have our old BETA VCR! Their garage, basement and attic are like very untidy museum. They still have the sled I got for Christmas nearly 32 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 book-burying (bibliotaphy)." I think that bibliotaphy is more the hoarding and hiding of books than the burying of them. With the exception of some Danielle Steele and Carter's latest book there are relatively few that should be buried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iquilt Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I do believe that books are the exception - you can never have too many books :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luanne Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Haven't read the replies, but my immediate response to your question is "NO!" We have lots of bookshelves-one in every room of our house, including one of the bathrooms! LOL One of my ds17's friend asked me the other day if all homeschoolers had books/bookshelves in every room, and I told him that the fortunate ones do!;) ... it would have a bookshelf in it too. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I think that bibliotaphy is more the hoarding and hiding of books than the burying of them. But book "burying" is a much more interesting image than hoarding and hiding... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 No, it does not make you a packrat unless you can't move in your house because of the piles of books. What a ton of books does make you is a person who loves books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 (edited) I just want you all to know that my mother is cracking up over the responses.:D She said she'd rather read online than have books. My stepfather, OTOH, has 3 garages full of junk! Edited July 12, 2009 by Renee in FL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 But book "burying" is a much more interesting image than hoarding and hiding... :) Well, you have me there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen in PA Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 The concept of "too many books" is akin to "too healthy" or "too much world peace." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueridge Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Oh my goodness...too many books is an impossibility! I have worked long and hard to provide my children with a *print rich environment* to live in. And so, I will proudly stand up and proclaim that, if having books by the hundreds in every room of the house (I admit to the bathroom, too) is being a packrat,...then I say SQUEAK SQUEAK! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E_Edgerton Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 One can never have too many books! It is my ONLY extravagance. I feel comfortable around them, I am always reading one (or many) of them, and when I look at my collection I can see my entire life defined. I have some of the very first books I ever read, to books that blew my mind in school, to books I discovered in dusty bookshops and stayed up all night to read. To get rid of them would be like getting rid of photographs. In other words, don't listen to her!:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Hedgehog Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaterbabs Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 You can never have too many books.... just too few bookcases. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionfamily1999 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I think that bibliotaphy is more the hoarding and hiding of books than the burying of them. With the exception of some Danielle Steele and Carter's latest book there are relatively few that should be buried. Throwing Iris Johanson under that bus ;) Those are the only books I get rid of (besides the ones my youngest destroys)... normally, I don't even like to pass them on... The concept of "too many books" is akin to "too healthy" or "too much world peace." :iagree: You can never have too many books.... just too few bookcases. :D That's our problem. I have books everywhere (and yes, there IS a shelf in the bathroom)... I also have very sad stacks of books on my dresser, awaiting the day when I can afford some actual tall shelves, or wall shelves or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtroad Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 No, but having 0 books may make you illiterate!;) WE have books everywhere. I work to eliminate duplicates or those with moral view opposing ours, etc. Books are important. My DH is shocked at the number of houses that we visit (friends) who do not have books. They may have a 85 " television (just kidding but big screens) and ALL the cable channels... but not a book, newspaper, or magazine to be found. You are not a pack rat with books unless they are in boxes & piled everywhere & you have no idea what is what and don't read them. I have seen some of those paper back romance novels collect in a woman's home.... just get nasty when the piles get so high. But order, shelves, real reading... nope... not a pack rat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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