WHERE are all the books?

[LibraryLover]

I know somone who thinks/thought books were 'too dusty', so they didn't have much more than school books around when the kids were younger. Her oldes dc is an ER nurse (brilliant) with lots of letters and dots in her title, and her younger dc is an engineer (also brilliant). She was interested in their educations and they travelled a lot. She just likes a very decluttered-streamlined home. It was always amazing...still is. You can see surfaces and there is never any dust. She doesn't even appear to be insane, just not a collector of books. ;)

 

If books are dust collectors, then my home is dust mite central. None of my kids are going into the sciences; they all love literature and such. I will have to support them forever. lol

Edited August 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[sparrow]

I grew up in a house with very few books, but I was reading all the time. I got books at the school and community libraries. Eventually, I started building my own little library in my bedroom. I was always asking for books. I remember visiting my Brownie leader's house in 3rd grade and just being absolutely fascinated with the floor to ceiling bookshelves.

 

We have bookshelves and baskets filled with books all over our home. No surprise there :001_smile:.

 

 

 

Most of my family members feel naked walking out of the house without a book (you never know when you might have a moment of time).

 

 

One of my happiest parenting moments came when my daughter was younger and nonchalantly grabbed a book as we were walking out the door. "You never know when you might get a chance to read" she parroted :D.

[starwarsmomma]

I['m jealous of ya'll with good libraries.

 

Our library cost 5 million (yes million) to build, is 5 stories tall. With very little books inside.

 

The selection for good books is very bad. Of course, if my kids want to read pokemon series of books, they have 48 of those. But classics for kids? Very few, and always checked out...

 

It's so frustrating, I pretty much avoid the library now. Every once in a while, I'll go in with a list of books I'm looking for, but usually end up leaving empty handed.

 

I also am very good about going through them every year, and anything too YOUNG for the youngest kiddo (and not a keep=forever book), goes to neighbors, goodwill, or sell it. So that does help (a bit) with the clutter and dust.

[Mrs Mungo]

I think most of our friends are homeschoolers with lots of books. I think we're currently at 14 bookshelves, with boxes of books in the garage.

 

eta: We also have a HUGE, expensive library with a lot of junky books. Last year we found almost nothing from our reading list there.

Edited August 2, 2010 by Mrs Mungo

[Outdoorsy Type]

I['m jealous of ya'll with good libraries.

 

Our library cost 5 million (yes million) to build, is 5 stories tall. With very little books inside.

 

.

 

That sounds like the Library in the town I used to live. I was stunned at how BIG it was the first time I drove up to it. I was sure I would spend hours upon hours there.

 

But I could never find any "real" books there. :confused:

[KidsHappen]

At my house. All kids gets books for Christmas and gbs get books for b-days and Christmas. I buy books every month.

 

By the way, I acutally got out of a scrape with CPS once due to all the books in my house. I was 9 months pregnant and my three year old was running into the street. I couldn't run very fast so I grabbed her by the hood of her coat that kind of caused her head to whip back some. A neighbor complained and I told her where she could get off at. She called the cops and next thing I know they are at my door. I let them in. They looked around (child was still screaming hysterically) and then said obviously you guys are well educated, the children are well taken care of, and quite frankly given the situation your actions were certainly called for. My house was clean, the kids rooms were full of educational toys, I had a live in child care provider but I honestly believe it was all the books that made the difference.

[ChristusG]

We have all of our books in our school room. I love buying the kids new books. We have them on shelves and in baskets for easy access.

[stripe]

So yes, it is important to have books (and toys) in a home, but not beyond those your family will actually read, and not to the point that your home becomes a clutter-filled pool of quicksand. Ah, the elusive balance...

Good point. I've tried to bridge the two by having a more streamlined common area (which does have one bookshelf) and a more messy private area, with more books and games and other things.

 

I also think it is valuable to consider how much stuff you actually use or could see yourself/your kids using, instead of having books to have them or to show off or because you don't take the time to clean out your house or whatever other reason.

 

I grew up in a house with tons of books. However, very few of them were kids' books. I've prioritized children's books in my own house.

[Bostonian]

If you want to be a real jerk, ask the bookless parents, "It appears your children don't like to read much, so I assume they won't be going to college. What are their career plans?"

 

Of course, I would not say that to anyone, but a society where fewer people reason in their leisure time is NOT one where an ever-higher fraction of people should be going to college.

[2squared]

I used to want bulging bookshelves - back when I thought a homeschooler "had" to have books galore. I'm over that status symbol now. I've culled our children's books to the best and have a couple shelves of them. I also have a couple shelves of reference books. If you visit, you probably wouldn't see any of them since they are clutterish to me. The books are easy to access for my dc, but not for our visitors. I think long and hard before adding to our current collection, and I do not plan on adding bookcases to our house.

 

I am a huge reader. My oldest is a huge reader. My youngers beg me to read to them. Love of reading isn't the same as a love of owning books. I much prefer to let my library buy and store the books for us.

 

Then again, I think a lot of the same thoughts (as all the prior book comments) when I go to houses where the kids clearly don't know how to entertain themselves outside. My kids spend hours outside every day. We emphasize reading (despite not owning our own library) and playing outside. I suppose other families emphasize other activities.

[Renthead Mommy]

I don't buy books. I read my books and take them back to the library. Once I've read them, I'm usually done with them.

 

My aunt in law, a retired primary school teacher, gave my son hundreds of books over the years. Floppy, soft covered picture books. I'm glad he had tons to read, but they go as he outgrows them.

 

If we go to B&N, it's because one of us has a gift card (which is great) or we want coffee! But I like just using the library. And I admit a large part of that is enviornmental. But I also don't like moving books and just don't like keeping them around once we are done with them. Growing up I'd pick up books from people/places. Once I read them, I gave them away.

[Guest Hurricanemom]

My now 20yrds asked at his KG testing where the books and his soon to be teacher told him that she didn't have them out yet because she had to teach the other children how to take care of the. My son looked at her like she was from Mars! Needless to say, we never sent him to KG and homeschooled him until he graduated!

[Desert Rat]

We had tons of books growing up. We have even more now. We have them everywhere. My boys will pick up reference books just to look at them sometimes. I love it. I'm decluttering my house right now and the only thing I'm not really touching are the books.

I agree with OP though. I know lots of people who don't think books are important. Ugh.

[Natalieclare]

They are all at my house. It's a Book Rescue. It's hard for me to pass up quality books at Goodwill or garage sales. And though I now have teenagers, I also have a newborn. And I couldn't bear that his reading experience would be any less than his sibs. I have always loved children's books. I have been collecting them since I was in high-school. Even in my freshman year of college, my friends gave me children's books for my birthday. On my honeymoon, my husband gave me children's books as we shopped throughout our journeys.

 

I have read the other posters who talk about culling and streamlined shelves and such. I read them with envy. Whenever I cull my shelves, I think to myself, "I need a week to cull the shelves with my little ones right next to me because I forgot about this one... and this one... and this one...Oh and now this batch of kids is old enough for this one!!!! If I cull with the kids next to me, at least we can read as we go."

[sbgrace]

I've got friends whose kids love books but who utilize the library almost exclusively and regularly. I'm really glad I've got two who love books as their dad and I love to read and I would have been sad if one of them wasn't a book kid. But I don't think we have as much control over that as we might think--some kids are born one way or the other regardless the home I think. Anyway, due to a generous grandma we are absolutely over-run with kid books. I feel blessed and overwhelmed at the same time.

Edited August 2, 2010 by sbgrace

[lisabelle]

We are overflowing with books here. I just found a pretty nice looking bookcase on craigslist and the dh nixed it. He can't *believe* we have so many bookshelves and that they're all full.

I don't think he's realized the space hs supplies are going to take up.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

Even back in the 90s when I was a kid, I never remember there being books at friends houses. I was the strange girl with cases and cases of books.

 

I have passed my strangeness on to the next generation. DD has more books than any other 4 year old I know... but of course, that isn't saying much, since people I know don't even buy their kids books. Just what they read at school, or if they happen to get a book or two out from the school library.

[Belacqua]

I used to want bulging bookshelves - back when I thought a homeschooler "had" to have books galore. I'm over that status symbol now. I've culled our children's books to the best and have a couple shelves of them. I also have a couple shelves of reference books. If you visit, you probably wouldn't see any of them since they are clutterish to me. The books are easy to access for my dc, but not for our visitors. I think long and hard before adding to our current collection, and I do not plan on adding bookcases to our house.

 

 

I think that's a really interesting point about loads of books being a homeschooler's badge of honor. And I can't claim that I'm quite over it. I tell myself that I collect books because I really want them and because the library's budget may not allow it to add much to its collection, but I have to admit that part of it is pride.

 

For example, I felt great when some neighbor kids visited and upon entering my son's room looked around in awe and said, "WHOA, you have so many books!" Then they all grabbed armfuls of books and magazines and spent the afternoon lounging around the lawn, reading (at least I've gotten over the notion that books have to be kept in perfect condition).

 

Our community is very lucky, though, because our library really is about the books. The building isn't anything to look at, and the technology is pretty basic, but I've never had any problem finding a book. Sometimes they have to use ILL, but I've not once failed to get a book I requested.

[Jan in SC]

I didn't have many books when I was a child. My mom would disagree, though. She thought two library books a week were enough and was very frustrated when I would finish one of them on the way home. I think they just valued physical work so much that reading fiction seemed a waste of time. They both read the paper every day and my father had subscriptions to several pseudo-science and car magazines.

 

Fast forward to now though, and I have books everywhere. The boys have bookshelves filled with books. I have a large cabinet to "hide" the homeschool books, but they spill out everywhere! Our playroom has a 20' long x 8' tall wall of bookshelves. It is so disorganized, so we just cram more in any space we can find. Of course, our school/dining room is full of books in a basket for the semester.

[happyhomemaker25]

LOL, when we were foster parents all of the CWs we had always commented on how many books we had.

We had one bio mom try toreport us b/c her son said we never watched tv we were always reading. :lol:

I too always give books as gifts.

[kalanamak]

I

 

Am I the crazy one here?

 

 

Only if atypical is the new crazy.

[MissKNG]

Come to our house! Every where you turn, you'll see a book somewhere!!

[Carrie12345]

Growing up, we owned a lot of *little* kid books, but a small number of older kid books. Instead, we had an entire 2-shelf bookcase to store our library books. ;)

 

There are too many books in my house, but I just can't bring myself to part with them. It's an issue.

 

And just to chime in with others, we have 3 or 4 game systems plus hand-helds, tv, dvd, Netflix, 4 lap tops, blah, blah, blah, and yet the kids' main book case is a complete wreck from being constantly pawed through.

[GraciebytheBay]

We store books downstairs, where company does not go. Otherwise, our house would be overrun with books. There are several huge bookcases full down there as well as some Rubbermaid bins. The kids keep the books they are currently reading in their rooms or the main living area, but that's it.

[OrganicAnn]

I think we could start a used children bookstore in our house. We have bookcases everywhere and still need more.

[peachskittles]

Our books are hiding in boxes, but we don't have many kids books. When my oldest was 3, I had to move cross country and take as little as possible, so any books we had were left behind. As soon as we settled down and talked about increasing the book collection for the kids, we were hit with an eviction AND unemployment. Now we have settled down again (forever and ever, no matter how much I dislike this state), we are slowly starting to work on it. I've utilized the library as much as possible but their selection bites. Even as I go through the lists for all the various homeschooling books, our library has very few. My SO wants to do quality over quantity (with some fun books thrown in obviously) so it's going to be a fun task to accomplish.

 

So to recap, our books are in boxes or at the library. Also, they are at whatever random place we decide to buy books from as well. :tongue_smilie:

[lisabees]

I think we could start a used children bookstore in our house. We have bookcases everywhere and still need more.

 

Yup! In fact, I just added 39 more AWESOME books today. Our independent book store (owned by a good friend) was having a "stuff a bag for $15" sale, on used books.

 

As I was walking out, I saw some great books in a different section. I can't stop thinking about them. I'm going back in the morning.

 

My name is Lisa. I am a bookaholic.

 

Oh - and you can tell from my house. ;)

[dm379]

Growing up we had a few bookshelves. The exact same books that were on it when I was a kid are on them now. My parents haven't added anything. But we did go to the library at least twice a week and I always got the max. My mom used to punish me by taking away my books.

 

I used to own a lot of books but most were mine. Most are gone now and are replaced by curriculum and children's reference books. We do go to the library pretty much daily. It's about 300m from our house and both kids can take my card and go any time they like by themselves. I can't afford to buy books that the kids are going to finish in an hour or two and never touch again. So now I'm working on getting rid of all the stuff I'll never read again on paperbackswap and using my credits for what the kids like. Most get swapped back but some are kept. Reference are always bought new.

 

Last time we moved I had triple the number of boxes of books than I did kitchen stuff.

[courtney.byrum]

I can't imagine not having books!

 

Growing up I had to go through my books regularly because I had so many. I had to choose what to get rid of, keep on my shelves, or put away in the attic. I would go on vacation to my aunt and uncles house and bring home an entire suitcase full of books from used bookstores my uncle took me to.

 

My kids each have a 3 shelf bookcase in their rooms, plus one downstairs and a shelf in the hallway all of which are overflowing with kids books. In the garage I have 17 boxes of my books plus another 3 boxes of kids books that they just haven't gotten to yet (they are 6 and almost 5).

 

Not to mention all the books I have gotten for myself since we moved here (where we decided not to unpack ALL the books since we weren't planning on being here long - it's been almost 2 yrs now...).

 

I have a definite book problem - but I'll deal with it! I'm buying books for me only for my nook now unless it's a book DH also wants or one the kids will read at some point. The kids - they get new books weekly when we go to the library where they ALWAYS have books for sale in a small room and kids paperbacks are only a quarter!!

[EJCMom]

We counted once, and we actually have more bookcases than all of our other furniture combined! We are crazy readers in our house!

 

I do think it's sad when parents don't encourage their kids to read. It's like not encouraging kids to play outside. It's like a big hole missing from childhood.

[nevergiveup]

If you want to be a real jerk, ask the bookless parents, "It appears your children don't like to read much, so I assume they won't be going to college. What are their career plans?"

 

Of course, I would not say that to anyone, but a society where fewer people reason in their leisure time is NOT one where an ever-higher fraction of people should be going to college.

 

My husband never read a novel in his spare time, only read novels when he had to in school, still does not read novels in his spare time has 4 degrees including his Ph.D. so that is not a good assumption.

[lynn]

I don't know why but mother was in book clubs and romance novel book clubs so we had bunches of those but not many childrens books at all:confused:. She would go to the library but never to the kids sections. Needless to say she could never figure out why we did poorly in school. Now I know it was because we were poor readers. She'd get flustered at report card time and have us sit and "read" every night, but that would last maybe a week. I remember thinking even back then that things would be different when I had kids. They would be readers, they would have books. I bought ds the Spot board books and the book buying hasn't stopped. Now I can't stop buying books. It's an addiction. Everytime I hear of a great picture books or chapter book I find it on Amazon. DD loves her reading time. Most nights she stays up after we tuck her in bed and looks through the book(s) we just read.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We are a book family. As kids, my siblings and I didn't mind being sick because my mom would go to the library and bring back a huge stack of books for us to read while we lay in bed or on the couch.

 

We have 4 bookshelves of grown-up books in the house, after purging and selling back to Half Price Books. The bottom shelf of the coffee table is covered in books.

 

My kids have 3 bookshelves stuffed full in their room, and we have a big shelf in the living room with 5 bins full of library and our own books. I have to take a cart to the library to bring home all the books.

 

Most of my neighbors and friends have visible books lying about for their kids. I've seen my neighbor kids at the pool reading Magic Tree House and American Girl books. I've run into several moms and kids at the library.

 

BUT, I have had some people see all the books for the kids in our house and ask, "Do you actually read all those books?" (Yes, we do.)

 

And when I was a teenager, one of our neighbors came over and asked my mom if my mom would take her son to the library for a school project, because said neighbor had never been inside a library before and didn't know what to do. My mom took both the neighbor and her son and introduced them to the Children's librarians! :)

[TXMary2]

I am a book junkie and so are most of our homeschool friends. My mom was always reading when I was growing up and I was always reading. We lived right across the street from the library so I was literally there every other day returning and checking out new books.

 

I come from a family of readers and dh is a reader. Of my 3 kids only 2 love to read. The only thing my oldest will pick up and read on his own is a skateboard magazine. He did Sonlight for high school and he enjoyed most of the books and discoverd books are great, but he still won't choose to read one. Sigh.

[stripe]

My husband never read a novel in his spare time, only read novels when he had to in school, still does not read novels in his spare time has 4 degrees including his Ph.D. so that is not a good assumption.

In fact, I think this is common for many men -- fiction is often the domain of women, but the assumption is that it's "real" reading, not reading magazines or manuals or the like. It's one reason I've tried to find many interesting non-fiction titles for my kids.

[aggieamy]

I used to want bulging bookshelves - back when I thought a homeschooler "had" to have books galore. I'm over that status symbol now. I've culled our children's books to the best and have a couple shelves of them. I also have a couple shelves of reference books. If you visit, you probably wouldn't see any of them since they are clutterish to me. The books are easy to access for my dc, but not for our visitors. I think long and hard before adding to our current collection, and I do not plan on adding bookcases to our house.

 

I am a huge reader. My oldest is a huge reader. My youngers beg me to read to them. Love of reading isn't the same as a love of owning books. I much prefer to let my library buy and store the books for us.

 

 

:iagree: This is my family exactly. We have a small house and have been in a state of major renovation since we moved into it. Major as in at one time we were doing dishes in the bathroom sink because we didn't have a kitchen. We have a two big bookshelves full of books and a little bookshelf in the kid's room. Otherwise we use the library and have lots of baskets of library books around the house. If I find that there's a book I'm repeatedly checking out from the library because we love it then I'll buy it in hardback for our collection otherwise I don't buy many books.

 

I must say though that I love our library system. It's wonderful!

[Giraffe]

My daughter's bookshelf is full to bursting and the library is getting to know us by name. We love books, borrowed, bought, or found!!

[PinkInTheBlue]

Absolutely none of my family or friends are book readers; including the teacher. My mother has always, all my life, said she loves to read but just never has the time. I've seldom really ever seen her read. That's always seemed odd to me. :)

[FaithManor]

Maybe all of the books are at my house! Seriously, I am trying to gain control of the book shelves but I'm actually drowning. I will just have to bite the bullet and make myself part with some. Ebay, here I come.

 

But, I do know what you mean. I know a significant number of families that don't purchase books for their children nor take them to the library. Yet all of the latest DVD's and video games line the walls.

 

Of course, this indictment comes from a weirdo family in which the children get excited about new board games and ThinkFun logic puzzles. So, my opinion might be slightly aschew.

 

Faith

[Maria from IN]

Haven't read all the responses, but I think all the books are here...and at my mother's...and at my brother's.

 

We've just been readers all our lives. Every week when we were little we went to the library and wore it out.

 

In fact, my boyfriend just staged a biblio-intervention a couple of weeks ago. The room that formerly was our schoolroom (J is in private school now) is now our library. We are filling 2 entire walls with bookshelves and cramming them full--hopefully soon we will be able to walk through the house without tripping over a book!

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

Raising my crazy hand here. My oldest son's favorite gift is a gift card to Barnes and Noble.

[Mimm]

When her kids get a book, they read it and donate it to the town's library. Her kids do not own any books because my clutter-averse sister (Okay, Mom assured me that I was not the milkman's kid ;)) gets rid of them as soon as they have been read.

 

 

That is quite possibly the saddest thing I have ever heard.

 

Ok, maybe not the saddest ever, but it still makes me sad. :p What about rereading your favorite books? When I was a kid, it was Nancy Drew, Tom Sawyer, Lord of the Rings, Anne of Green Gables. My dad used to read us Where the Sidewalk Ends so much we could each recite some of the poems. He assigned us each a poem. Mine was the one about the guy's head falling off. One of my brother's was about the king who ate too many peanut butter sandwiches. I read Dr. Suess to my kids when they were little, I could literally recite whole books from memory.

 

All in the name of a clutter free house?? I'm desperately needing to buy more bookcases around here. We have lots of book clutter. For some reason, this hasn't slowed my book buying down at all... :)

[Hannah C.]

I have gone to a couple different houses where there were books everywhere, or shelves overflowing..those were always homeschoolers in my case.

 

That being said, when I was growing up we didn't *own* a lot of books - or, really, any. We didn't have room to store them or money to buy them! We did, however, go to the library every week and checked out countless books. A couple of years ago I tried to do a count of how many books I've read and my estimate was over 1000. I don't think that included any picture books. Most of that number was documented if I remember correctly. So I'm sure my family has definitely checked out thousands of books from various libraries over my childhood and now.

[beezus]

The lack of books in other homes has sometimes seemed strange to us as well, because we are such books lovers here. We have book shelves in every room except the kitchen and bathroom (actually, there are books and various magazines in a basket in the bathroom). Then we have the auxiliary bookcases in the garage. And we always have gobs of library books checked out at any given time. It is a source of embarrassment to my daughter that her step-dad has allowed his library card to expire.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I judge people by how many books are in their home. If there are none, I know we can't be friends. If there are many, I feel confident progressing with the relationship.