100 books or more?

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

There's an article in the local paper that states that 24% of households in my demographics have 100 books or more.

That means 76% have less than 100 books??? Really?? How is that possible? One bookshelf hold 100 books!!!

 

and 20% have 10 books or less? One household out of every five??? TEN books???

 

Gee, homeschoolers should totally skew that stats!! I'm just in shock. 10 books? really?

[lisamarie]

Some days I wish I had less than 100 books. Like when I try to cram yet another book onto one of my 4 book shelves. And that does not include the 30+ books we check out weekly from the library. :lol::lol::lol:

[caroljenn]

Ten books? How would I survive?? Haha! I have to be closing in on 400...I am going to have my own library room one day! =D

[Slartibartfast]

10?? Do they read them over and over?

[happypamama]

We routinely have 100 books out from the library at a time!

 

And that's from ONE library system. It doesn't count the other that we also frequent.

 

I think I have 100 books in my schoolroom alone. And in my living room. And on every shelf of the upstairs library. I don't think we quite have more books than Legos, but sometimes I think it's a toss-up.

 

I think there are probably close to ten stashed on my nightstand or in the bathroom at any given moment.

[amy g.]

Dh grew up in a house with one children's book. It was an anthology of stories. He remembers sitting on his mother's lap when she read it to him, but he couldn't keep it, because it belonged jointly to all 8 children.

 

A couple of years ago, his sister surprised him with a copy of that book. He was so excited.

 

We tend toward the opposite extreme now.

[stripe]

It's my understanding that this is why there is a push to get books in the hands of kids, especially from lower income households, and even a few books are often treasured.

 

It is very sad.

 

I once had a neighbor come to my house with her kids, and while they were there, they looked at every single book on the shelf of kids' books. I never saw any kids' books in their home, although they had many books for the adults in the house. They had this hungry look in their eyes.

[Arcadia]

and 20% have 10 books or less? One household out of every five??? TEN books???

 

If you do not count non-fiction, I have like maybe 30 story books which are all my boys.

 

We borrow a lot from the library and buy very few. That is because we have very limited space and we have moved quite a few times. Also my boys, me and hubby read fast. Unless it is a book then we will reread many times, it does not make monetary sense to buy it in our case.

[Kathryn]

I once overheard a grandmother offering to get her granddaughter a book at the dollar store. The girl protested that she already had a book, what did she need with another one? I almost cried.

[Mandylubug]

We had a great program when my babes were all little funded by the Dolly Parton Imagination Station that gave each child in your household under five a book every month. We have many multiples but it was such a great program when our finances were oh so tight.

 

 

We probably have 100ish books.. honestly probably more.. they are all over our house. Me and DH were just speaking about moving the tv to above our fire place so that we could have the sofas on either side of the fire place and free up our walls so I could have custom built in book cases around my entire living room :D I am dreaming, naturally ;)

[elegantlion]

:svengo: Dh rarely reads books and would probably have less than 20 if he were alone. He reads online and magazines, just not books.

 

I have made up for his deficit. I grew up with a lot of books, not all fine literature, but a lot. I have more books on some topics than our library. :lol: I just counted, I have 56 books on the 2 hanging shelves above my desk.

[Mergath]

I know several families that only own two or three books. It's sad.

 

We have over a thousand books. I don't know how many over, because I threw my hands up in the air and stopped counting when I got that far. I've given a few boxes to the library since then, so I'm hoping it's fallen below a thousand.

[Ali in OR]

I'm thinking we're closer to the 1000 mark but I've never counted.

[jar7709]

That can't be right. Can it? I know we have a large collection (our conservative estimate is probably upwards of 1,600 in this house) and maybe that explains why I'm often disapointed by our local library's offerings, but that doesn't sound right.

[kitten18]

I really didn't think we have all that many books but I'm sure we're pushing 1,000. I just didn't think that was all that many.:001_huh:

 

MY DH doesn't even really read books, the children haven't really realized that yet and I'm trying to hide that from them.;)

 

Dh grew up in a house with one children's book. It was an anthology of stories. He remembers sitting on his mother's lap when she read it to him, but he couldn't keep it, because it belonged jointly to all 8 children.

 

A couple of years ago, his sister surprised him with a copy of that book. He was so excited.

 

We tend toward the opposite extreme now.

That makes me want to cry.:crying:

[LMD]

Well, we just bought a 4th bookshelf, and it's just about full... I absolutely love having books around the house, I love the kids having open access to lots of good books.

 

I believe the statistic though, my sister doesn't have one book - other than a cookbook - in her house. Her and her partner are just not readers. She hasn't read a book since highschool and is just not interested. I want to weep and shake her. Just today she was saying they were thinking of buying a bookshelf for their new home, except they have no books! I told her I'd buy her a bunch if she'd just try and read a chapter!

[sparrow]

I grew up in a home that had less than 25-50 books. My parents are very intelligent and successful business owners, however, I don't think I've ever seen my mother read a book on her own. I've probably seen my father read less than 10 books--this is over my lifetime of 42 years.

 

As a child, I remember visiting a family that had floor to ceiling bookshelves in their living room. I was in complete awe. I came home and told my mother about it. She said, "Imagine the dust!" ;).

 

There are readers and non-readers. The non-readers don't think they're missing anything, but we readers know the truth :D. I don't think it's sad, or that the people with fewer books are somehow less, it's just different priorities.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

we have over 3,000 books and that's because we went digital in the last 3 years (just this year, I have over 1,000 ebooks)... We're both readers and so are the kids.

My sister married a non-reader. At one point, he estimated my sister was spending 50$ a year on books and he was complaining about it. My sister spends about 200$ a month on books! LOL.. It's a good thing her husband never investigated. :lol:

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

Here's the link, although it's not relevant to most of you here.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/High+math+scores+Quebec+Grade+students+2010+came+against/7527014/story.html

[cathmom]

Someday when I have nothing to do I will count our books. I think we have at least 1000, probably more.

[sparrow]

I grew up in a house full of books. One of my fondest memories is going to the MAIN Denver Public Library--we went every Saturday morning. I remember going to the grand opening of our local library--before that we had to go to a one about 10 miles away. The new one was SO nice. My mom and I would go several times a week. Back then, it was .10 to take out one of the new books and she'd pay it every time if I wanted one. We would both wallow in historical fiction. It's sad to me to think of children not growing up with books.

 

That's just it. We didn't have books in our home. It wasn't a priority to my parents, but they knew it was a priority to me. They took me to the library every week. Just because I didn't have them in my home, doesn't mean I didn't grow up with books.

 

Besides, I had the coolest doors in the world to open when I went to the library :D.

[Arcadia]

They took me to the library every week. Just because I didn't have them in my home, doesn't mean I didn't grow up with books.

 

:iagree:

 

It was a priority to my parents, just that our home was a 75sqm/807sqft two bedroom apartment and there is no space for books. i got to go to the library and bookstore everyday if I want to, both were walkable from my school.

 

When we first moved here, we weren't sure where we will be staying but my kids get to spend almost everyday at the neighborhood Borders (now closed).

 

The closest library to my home is about 300 feet away.

 

ETA:

 

I guess I find it weird that it is assumed that there is a positive correlation between number of books at home with amount of books exposure (maybe in rural areas). I grew up in densely populated Asia and no way could most people afford the luxury of even 100 books in their homes except in less densely populated areas. Space is such a premium.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Arcadia

[momtoamiracle]

I have only one friend that collects books. Other friends either have very few, or none. Other friends only have books because I give them. And these people do not go to the library too much...

 

 

 

 

 

I just did a book purge and cleared out about 100 books. I actually have just 1.5 shelves free now. The shelves were all crammed to the hilt...

[Element]

I believe it. I've seen this a couple of times: The parents had no books and the kids had 3 or 4 books thrown in the toy tote with the toys. It was very sad to see.

 

I'm so incredibly thankful to have come from a book-loving family. To this day, I can't walk in to my 80-year-old grandfather's house without him pulling out a book to show me or one of my dc something. That's just how it was. Grandma would insist you didn't get enough to eat and Grandpa had to show you something interesting he just read. :D:001_wub:

[aggieamy]

We've got a small house so we've got anywhere between 400 and 500 books. And a ton more that are visiting from the library.

 

DH and I are both book people and growing up my parents were book people. The kind of people that have books stacked two deep on a bookshelf to fit them all in. My grandmother always had tons of books too but hers were all neatly organized and put in seperate bookshelves depending on subject matter. I take after my grandmother.

 

A few years ago DH and I were on a trip with DD and my niece to see some of his friends from college that lived across the country. We read a bedtime story every night - either our read aloud or a picture book so I had plenty of books packed in the car. I didn't want the kids to run out of books while we were driving or at bedtime. DH and I were both tired so when I put the kids to bed and he was unloading the vehicle I told him not to worry about bringing the book bag in, I would just grab a book from the shelves of the kid room we were staying in. (As a side note - the rooms were beautiful. Lovely interesting paint techniques, quilts and matching pillows, accessories, wall hangings. DH's friend's wife was quite the decorator and I was impressed because my house is plain and I don't know how to make things look nice like that.) So I'm looking around this beautiful room and realize there's no bookshelf or books. I pop over to the other daughter's room. None there. Playroom? Family room? They had no chidren's books in the house.

[sparrow]

Cool doors, but did your library have a carousel in the middle of it? :D

 

Lol, no, but the local shoe store did!

[KungFuPanda]

How would you even go about guessing how many books are in someone's home?

[kubiac]

"Number of books in home" has repeatedly been shown to have predictive value in a child's literacy achievement over the course of his/her education. Jim Trelease mentions it to some degree in The Read-Aloud Handbook.

 

This is an interesting report from a couple of years ago:

 

Books in Home as Important as Parents' Education in Determining Children's Education Level

 

"Book poverty" is thing that breaks my heart; I've started volunteering with a group that works to address it in low-income schools in our area. Some numbers: "A recent study shows that while in middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of age-appropriate books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods the ratio is 1 for every 300 children."

[ChristineW]

"Number of books in home" has repeatedly been shown to have predictive value in a child's literacy achievement over the course of his/her education. Jim Trelease mentions it to some degree in The Read-Aloud Handbook.

 

This is an interesting report from a couple of years ago:

 

Books in Home as Important as Parents' Education in Determining Children's Education Level

 

"Book poverty" is thing that breaks my heart; I've started volunteering with a group that works to address it in low-income schools in our area. Some numbers: "A recent study shows that while in middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of age-appropriate books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods the ratio is 1 for every 300 children."

 

So sad. I know that our local girl scout group collected books for a low SES school as part of their Bronze project. Also, Kaiser gives an age appropriate book at every wellness check.

 

We have four bookshelves of kids books and just under 100 books checked out from the library right now. I don't think we are unique in our area either--the local elementary school sold 15k worth of books at its book fair this year (which averages to about $42 a student).

[nmoira]

There's an article in the local paper that states that 24% of households in my demographics have 100 books or more.

That means 76% have less than 100 books??? Really?? How is that possible? One bookshelf hold 100 books!!!

 

and 20% have 10 books or less? One household out of every five??? TEN books???

 

Gee, homeschoolers should totally skew that stats!! I'm just in shock. 10 books? really?

I see stats like that, and my first thought is, "Within reach?"

[thebacabunch]

Books everywhere here. I have no idea how many. 5 or 600. I thought we were paring down! We have about 2000 e-books as well. My kids keep a few things in their backpacks that they drag with them everywhere: umbrellas, granola bars, some kind of electronic game, sweatshirt, and about 10 books. LOL!

[Seeking Squirrels]

I can't imagine having so few books. Last time I tried counting ours I stopped when I got to 1,000. Sadly many are now hiding in boxes in storage because we can't find room for another bookcase. But I do believe it. I don't think I've ever seen a book at my mom's house. Except text books when she was going to school. She did support my love of books growing up, though, so I didn't go without. And she read to me a lot when I was little. She just isn't into it for herself.

[Mommy22alyns]

:lol: 100 books?!?! Hilarious. I'm afraid to even count ours, and DH has a t-o-n in storage.

 

I have to say that I'm probably not surprised that so many houses have less than 100. Think about what our society emphasizes.

[Pawz4me]

But, the question has to be asked--are the books not there because the interest is not there? Is just adding books going to make a difference? Maybe we're assuming that the books will cause interest in education but maybe the lack is just a symptom. I'm not explaining myself very well, but maybe you'll see what I mean.

 

:iagree:

 

If reading isn't valued as a useful activity in a given home, then adding a library's worth of books might not make any difference.

 

Since our boys are older and long past the picture books and easy readers, other than textbooks and reference books we don't have all that many books in our house. But our Kindles and iThings . . . . oh my goodness, they do have quite a lot. :001_smile:

[Pippen]

If you do not count non-fiction, I have like maybe 30 story books which are all my boys.

 

We borrow a lot from the library and buy very few. That is because we have very limited space and we have moved quite a few times. Also my boys, me and hubby read fast. Unless it is a book then we will reread many times, it does not make monetary sense to buy it in our case.

 

One of my good friends has very few books in her home, and most of those are keepsake books, such as copies of the volumes written by either of her college professor parents or those given to her as gifts. She's frugal and minimalist in her lifestyle--reads extensively, only from the library.

[stripe]

I wouldn't assume just because someone doesn't have any books, that always means they don't love books or don't want any or wouldn't read them if they appeared in their lives. And even if the parents wouldn't, a child often would.

 

Here's some proof I've seen recently.

 

I saw a lovely story this week (but bittersweet because it was affected by Sandy) on the PBS Newshour about how a program to give children books at their doctors' appointments from 6 mo to 5 years, is working at a hospital in NYC, which would be ten books. It's called Reach Out and Read.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec12/reading_11-08.html

 

You'll notice that the director of the program points out that some of the parents were never sent to school at all. I loved the idea of having reading volunteers in the waiting room instead of tv screens!

 

I've read some research that having only a few books in a home can make a tremendous difference.

 

I tried to find it. I found this

When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children's books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains. (Bridging the Summer Reading Gap, by Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington)

cited at http://www.scholastic.com/readeveryday/facts.htm

 

And I managed to find this one from 2010 that I remember reading, from David Brooks, "The Medium Is the Medium" which cites the same Allington study:

 

Recently, book publishers got some good news.Researchers gave 852 disadvantaged students 12 books (of their own choosing) to take home at the end of the school year.They did this for three successive years.

"]¶

Then the researchers, led by Richard Allington of the University of Tennessee, looked at those students' test scores. They found that the students who brought the books home had significantly higher reading scores than other students. These students were less affected by the ''summer slide'' -- the decline that especially afflicts lower-income students during the vacation months. In fact, just having those 12 books seemed to have as much positive effect as attending summer school.

"]¶

This study, along with many others, illustrates the tremendous power of books. We already knew, from research in 27 countries, that kids who grow up in a home with 500 books stay in school longer and do better. This new study suggests that introducing books into homes that may not have them also produces significant educational gains.

 

[UrbanSue]

A quick way to count books in your house is to count the number in three feet of shelf space and divide by three to give you an average per foot. Then measure the number of feet of shelving in your house and multiply by the average. Not precise but libraries and used book stores use this technique all the time when doing book buys and such.

 

We have almost 3000 books in our house and dh has about 1500 more in his office (he's a professor). Dh lives in a bibliophilic bubble and thinks our library is small! He has forbidden me to ever mention in conversation that we have a lot of books. This article gives me much validation. But it is sad.

[lisamarie]

We had a great program when my babes were all little funded by the Dolly Parton Imagination Station that gave each child in your household under five a book every month. We have many multiples but it was such a great program when our finances were oh so tight.

 

 

I did this for my youngest and she was so excited to get HER book in the mail every month. But now she's 5 and no more books.

 

They took me to the library every week. Just because I didn't have them in my home, doesn't mean I didn't grow up with books.

 

I grew up with the library right across the street. While I didn't own many books of my own, I read thousands upon thousands of books from the library. I probably went there 3-5 times a week to get new books. Now I take my kids every week and don't limit them to how many books they can check out. The girls average 8 books a week, DS probably 3 because he reads novels.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

Why would there be such a marked difference between francophone and anglophone families? In number of books and aspirations?

 

Ah, tricky question... How much time do we have to go through Quebec history? :tongue_smilie:

Basically, in a nutshell, it comes down to the fact that francophones were conquered 250 years ago. And were pushed out of lucrative trades, and power. This has developed a mentality of "we can't", especially with the Catholic Church's attitude (and I'm Catholic, so I can say this.) We've had generations of people who believed they couldn't better their position in life. No American Dream for us. (In reality, many did do great stuff, but there's a pervasive attitude to bring them down "so you think you're better than us, we're not good enough for you" kind of thing)

 

I see stats like that, and my first thought is, "Within reach?"

I just asked my daughter to stop and take a look around her. Without taking more than 2 steps, how many books could she reach? We estimated it at a 100. Within 2 steps! :lol:

[momtoamiracle]

Ah, tricky question... How much time do we have to go through Quebec history? :tongue_smilie:

Basically, in a nutshell, it comes down to the fact that francophones were conquered 250 years ago. And were pushed out of lucrative trades, and power. This has developed a mentality of "we can't", especially with the Catholic Church's attitude (and I'm Catholic, so I can say this.) We've had generations of people who believed they couldn't better their position in life. No American Dream for us. (In reality, many did do great stuff, but there's a pervasive attitude to bring them down "so you think you're better than us, we're not good enough for you" kind of thing)

 

 

I just asked my daughter to stop and take a look around her. Without taking more than 2 steps, how many books could she reach? We estimated it at a 100. Within 2 steps! :lol:

 

I am in Cajun country and I see that mentality very pervasive, especially among the older ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a friend come to my house, she looked around and said she had never seen a home where there were books in every room, even in the car. It is so normal to me, grew up that way. When I look at houses to live in, I look for places to put my bookshelves. There are times I've only had room for one, and the rest in storage, but I am going to have at least SOME of my books out.

 

 

I couldn't rely on the library alone. Our library isn't that great. Plus I don't care for many new modern books. I have many many old favorites that I have read over and over. I have my collections of Pearl Buck, Josephine Tey, James Herriot, Janice Holt Giles, Anya Seton, and others I couldn't find easily at libraries or in ebook form.

 

 

I love my books, just handling them, sorting them, and arranging them gives me peace and satisfaction.

[stripe]

My parents have tons of academic books and some fiction, but we never had many kids' books. Some, but not what I would say as a lot. And we almost never went to the library.

 

Then again, my mother was always encouraging me to read books like King Lear, Light in August, and Heart Of Darkness when I was a young teen.

[jrn]

Out of curiosity I had my dd count the books in our smallest bookshelf. She counted 346. We have 3 bigger bookshelves in that room plus books stacked next to our beds.

[Murphy101]

Someday when I have nothing to do I will count our books. I think we have at least 1000, probably more.

 

Me too. But I grew up with almost none. I used to miss lunch because on the rare occassion I had lunch money, I'd horde it to buy a book from the scholastic flyers. Eventually though my parents would get annoyed by something I did or did not do and throw them away or sell them as punishment.:glare:

 

I make up for it now.:lol:

 

If a pp poster was right and one bookcase holds approx 100 books, I have at least 2000. I bet I have more than that though.

[kubiac]

We have almost 3000 books in our house and dh has about 1500 more in his office (he's a professor). Dh lives in a bibliophilic bubble and thinks our library is small! He has forbidden me to ever mention in conversation that we have a lot of books. This article gives me much validation. But it is sad.

 

You should manufacture this "bibliophilic bubble" of which you speak, and homeschooling moms could buy them for installation on their skeptical husbands' heads. :)

Edited November 11, 2012 by kubiac

[Mimm]

My husband laughed and said, "I have more than ten textbooks from college that I'll never look at again."

[LisaKinVA]

We have over 3,000 titles (not including my dh's woodworking/project/computer/software/whatever they may be books). We easily add 50-100 books a year, and my kids make use of the library. My mother has many more.

 

I also got rid of nearly 200 books this past spring.

[Mrs Mungo]

I counted the books on a shelf (one shelf, not a whole bookcase) that looked sort of average (bigger than paperbacks, smaller than art books) and it had 35 books. I have about 45 shelves with books, some of those are double stacked with paperbacks though. And the picture books? One shelf (not bookcase) holds about 120 picture books.

 

So, probably 1,500-2,000 physical books (we also have multiple ereaders with their own accounts and books) on bookcases in the house. I have college books in boxes in the garage.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Mrs Mungo

[Giraffe]

It is entirely possible that I have more than 100 English language books here. I've lost count of how many we have back in the US, and that's after the great purge of 2012!

 

That being said, I do know lots of families that have few to no books in their homes. When I give their kids books as gifts the kids are usually thrilled and the parents blasé.

 

ETA: this doesn't count my Kindle which has gotten completely out of control!

Edited November 10, 2012 by Hopscotch67

[CookieMonster]

and 20% have 10 books or less? One household out of every five??? TEN books???

 

Books are like vegetables. You have to develop a taste for them.

 

Really worthwhile books are like gourmet cooking, you need some experience and a guide.

 

I grew up in a home with very few books. The adults in the house preferred the entertainment of television and movies or the softball field or family gatherings. It was just their preference.

[melbotoast]

I saw a lovely story this week (but bittersweet because it was affected by Sandy) on the PBS Newshour about how a program to give children books at their doctors' appointments from 6 mo to 5 years, is working at a hospital in NYC, which would be ten books. It's called Reach Out and Read.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec12/reading_11-08.

 

We had something similar (I'm pretty sure the name was different, but same idea) when we lived in upstate NY. We loved it! Very nice book choices.