mom2bee Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 Home school curricula do not count. Educational and books about education count, the books don't need to be marketed to kids, but how many books do you OWN (not borrowed from the library) and how do you store them? Nonfiction, reference materials,board books, baby books, story books, childrens books, adult literature, fiction, basal readers, literature and how-to-guides count. Cook books, self-held and living books count. Books used to supplement or enhance a textbook count. Workbooks do not count. PDF's do not count, no matter what they are or who they are targeted to. Any clever ways to store books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 9 floor to ceiling bookcases plus at least 10 cases of books that don't fit on the shelves. How many is that?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ficbot Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 I have the Billy bookcases from IKEA. One neat my desk which has two shelves of beloved paper books and two shelves of teaching books; and two in the kitchen which serve as a pantry and have one shelf each of cookbooks. Also have one little shelf on the BF's desk of kiddie books. His son is not local, so he reads to him over Facetime and we take them with us when we visit. BUT...I am a huge ebook junkie and have over 2000 sorted, tagged and categorized ebooks on my computer :) That's why I love ebooks. I just don't have the space to store all that paper. So I save the paper-storing space for pretty ones like cookbooks and poetry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smfmommy Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 We have about 1100 books. They are all on two 6x4 foot book shelves plus Nancy Drew series and Hardy Boys series on a shelf each in another room. We keep it fairly trimmed down - I go for quality over quantity. Although we hit the library almost weekly and the librarians often tell me if I have something waiting for me through interlibrary loan as I walk through the door. :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I think we're around 3000, but that doesn't include board books. We have lots of book cases, but the books aren't sorted on the shelves. Most of our bookcases were purchased from closed bookstores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda S in TX Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 We have lots of books (3000+ at last count) and prefer owning our books since life is too busy to go to the library. They never seem to have what we want anyway. We wallpaper with books and have IKEA Billy bookcases, Besta cabinets, and Expedit cabinets everywhere. We also have several cases of books that won't fit on the shelves so we rotate books a couple of times a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 4837 Lots of bookcases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingyhag Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I thought my 600-700 was alot............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Lots. I have 5 bookcases with the books two deep ad stacked on their side plus boxes and boxes more. I got rid of about 500 books 3 years ago. The book cases are cheapies and I used gorrilla glue to hold them togeher but they are about to go. I have a wall that I am planning to build shelves. 12 feet long 10 feet high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Thousands. I don't know how many thousands. The kids' books that they are currently using are stored in several places in their play area / bedroom. They have a good-sized dresser with hutch that has a fair amount of shelf space, and it is all full of books. They have one of those bookcases that looks like a dollhouse. For little books I have a CD shelving unit that sits atop another shelving unit. And they have a table with a shelf under it, that holds tall-ish books. That's all in their bedroom. In the play area / dining room, we have a buffet & hutch, which has dishes behind the glass doors, but the buffet part is a closed cabinet that is full of books. The basement contains a number of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Cheap fiberboard ones that I bought back when I was poor. ;) These bookcases are used for books the kids have not yet grown into yet / surplus that doesn't fit in their area, as well as some grown-up books, old college texts, and some reference books. As my slower reader develops more skills, books go into bags for my younger nieces. We hand down hundreds upon hundreds each year. We also have a cupboard full of cookbooks in the kitchen (which we don't actually use), a floor-to-ceiling bookcase in the upstairs hall, and bookcases in each adult's bedroom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 4 6 foot tall bookcases, 2 small ones, 1 large tub of board books, assorted others scattered about. Maybe 200? We're library goers, we download audiobooks, and my Kindle has over 1000 books. I donate when I'm finished with a paperback. I'm just not crazy about storing hardcopy books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahj Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I would guess roughly 1200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 14 German, 14 French and 32 Chinese books in an Expedit 2 x 2 cube. About a hundred English books in two bookshelves that are 32" tall by 35" wide. ETA: I counted. Its about 120 books with more than 20 being science non-fiction children reference that my kids bought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 6743. Doesn't include cookbooks and the books in my mudroom that aren't yet entered in my software. Doesn't include duplicates either. Oh, and I don't catalog piddly kids books. So it's inching toward 7K when you get everything total. Where? Everywhere, lol. Um, we have some bookcases. About half are on shelving dh made with brackets into the masonry wall. It's sorta the ultimate, because then you don't have a weight issue. Not everything fits, so I have stuff in boxes that isn't being used. I'm rearranging right now, putting out dd's books for high school into a case. Everything that had been on that case got double stacked way up high. I keep picture books in laundry baskets so they're on the floor beneath the wall shelves. When I started homeschooling, the stories I read were of people with 14K books. I keep trying. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I had 13 bookcases full. Now I have 11. My goal is to get down to 1 bookshelf as soon as possible. I truly regret buying all these books. I don't know what I was thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Thousands. And more arriving by mail weekly. We are having new shelves built in our living room this month because we ran out of space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 It *was* about 4,000, but we just did an enormous purge of about half of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I had 13 bookcases full. Now I have 11. My goal is to get down to 1 bookshelf as soon as possible. I truly regret buying all these books. I don't know what I was thinking. Awww, really? I love how enthusiastic you are when you find a new book or curriculum. It gets me excited and makes go buy and check out the things I think are interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiac Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 It looks like we have at least 2,000 in the house. There are more in the garage. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlight Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 3083 as of today, but I have gotten rid of at least 250 books! ,,,,I am not trying to go to 1 bookcase, but I do want to cull it down to books that we might get to! Can we link to each others library thing accounts? I love looking at what books everyone else has. We have bookcases everywhere, but I do want a more structured organization system... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I have enough books to fill our 3 bookcases and 4 huge bins in our basement. In other words....to many. I should really get rid of some but I get attached to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chava_Raizel Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 We use Delicious Library to track our book collection. So I know exactly how many books we have: 2,680. We have bookshelves in every room - one in the kitchen for school materials (workbooks, binders, etc.), 3 in the living room, 2 in the girls bedroom, 1 in the boys, and 2 in the master bedroom. I did a purge a few weeks ago, to make some space for the incoming books for this school year, and I was able to get rid of 120ish books - 2 crates worth. Our schooling is very literature based, and I love reading and want to pass that love onto my children. So having a good home library is important to me. I hope that someday, I can pass some of these books on to my grandchildren. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Between 3,000 and 4,000. They are stored on open shelves throughout the house; we have wall-to-ceiling bookshelves in the living room and all bedrooms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Adult books - about five metres in length, floor to ceiling. Children's books, two shelves, each about twelve metres. L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I ballpark ours at about 1,000, but I think I have more in storage. It feels like more in our small house, even with selling a bunch off. There are small shelves in the kids' two rooms, a tall shelf unit on my staircase landing (definitely not fire code approved!) and three Boarders bookcases, though one has some curricula materials. And then boxes everywhere. We're planning for three Billy cases to replace two Boarders cases, giving us more width and height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Ours are definitely in the thousands. My DH is a pastor and was given many boxes of books from a retired pastor. We homeschool mostly with living books, so we have tons there! And on top of it all, DH and I love to read and have a large selection of mystery/thriller books. We currently have 3 large bookcases upstairs, filled completely. In our schoolroom, we have a large bookcase and 2 small ones (all filled as well). I keep some books in a closet with shelves and unfortunately there are boxes still in our basement and garage that need to be stored somewhere! :leaving: Cookbooks are stored in a cabinet in the kitchen. Art books are stored with art supplies on a closet shelf. Board books are stored in the toy room in a milk crate. DH's books are stored in the upstairs office along with adult fiction, free-reader books for the DC, picture books, and reference books I'm not planning on using for the coming school year. Our homeschool room contains curriculum (that we'll be using this year), reference books (that I'd like to use this year), living books that I'd like to use/have available this year, and living books that are used with this year's history and science programs. Basically, if there's a chance we'll need it for the coming school-year, it's downstairs. I also keep FIAR books/manuals and read-aloud literature options downstairs. The books in our basement/garage are mostly adult fiction or DH's church books. As far as clever storage, I knew a family that made a "room" in their basement out of bookshelves. It basically had bookcases on all 4 sides of the "room" (with empty space for a doorway). I think they had a small gym in the middle. They did not have small kids, so I'm not sure if they were anchored at all to the floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I have about 1000 books. I store the little kids books on 3 shelves in no particular order. I store the more educational ones, both kids and grown ups in dewey decimal order. I have several shelves in the living room for books we use often. I have an additional 4 entire bookshelves in the basement where the remainder are kept. I have them all listed in LibraryThing so I can find them easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I had 13 bookcases full. Now I have 11. My goal is to get down to 1 bookshelf as soon as possible. I truly regret buying all these books. I don't know what I was thinking. Well I *know* what I was thinking: I want her to read. She reads. Anything else beyond that is hind site. Usually I pay 25 cents for my books, and I can surely sell them for that or donate. Really though, dd wants 'em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil' maids in a row Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Probably around two hundred. Most are picture books, I own maybe 15 adult books. I place a high value on living in a clutter free home. We have wonderful access to several libraries and several used bookstores nearby. If I want to read a book, it is very easy to borrow it or purchase it cheaply (and then quickly resell it). Maintaining, organizing and storing books is a poor use of the limited space in my home. There are some books that I will always keep, but most I enjoy and then pass on. Right now my kids bookshelves are getting a bit crowded and it is making me twitchy. I need to purge. I also find that when the kids don't have to dig through a bunch of books in order to get to the treasures, they read more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Don't worry, I've just moved on to hoarding ebooks. :D And many of them are free. I'll still be posting lots of interesting things. :lol: I'm just too mobile and unsettled to have many physical possessions right now. I knew it was a mistake to get so loaded down, but I do love books. The iPad mini was the final bit of technology that made me fully comfortable with ebooks. I actually like it better than a hardcopy, believe it or not. There are a few books that I really like and are not available as ebooks and will take too long to scan. I'll keep one bookcase full of those, and everything else is going. Awww, really? I love how enthusiastic you are when you find a new book or curriculum. It gets me excited and makes go buy and check out the things I think are interesting. Hunter, on 11 Aug 2013 - 10:50 PM, said: I had 13 bookcases full. Now I have 11. My goal is to get down to 1 bookshelf as soon as possible. I truly regret buying all these books. I don't know what I was thinking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I don't have a highly organized system, because I find that the kids enjoy their books more if I move them around from time to time. Except that I do keep nonfiction stuff like science, geography, religion etc. on certain shelves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I've never counted. I have well over five thousand but less, I think, than 10,000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pollo_la Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 WOW... and my family thinks I have a lot of books. I've actually purged a lot, in favor of only having books that I think are AWESOME!!! We have about 5 full bookcases... not sure the exact number. I actually have a "library" for them - a small cabin like building next to our house - that we keep the books in. We don't keep too many books in the house. My kids are allowed to have 6 books "out" at a time. They can have these in the house. When they want a new book, they take an old one back to the "library." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ficbot Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Hunter, have you heard of Calibre? It's free software you can use to manage your ebook library. You can tag books, sort them, there is even a plug-in to make reading lists. It's fabulous. As you say, it's digital hoarding instead :) But this way, I am not constrained by the size of my physical home, and if I have to move again, there is almost nothing to pack up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Easily 500+. If we count school books (living books types) I can probably top 1000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeritasMama Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 We have about 1,000, I've started converting to ebooks instead, though I do actually prefer hard copies, we've run out of room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Well we had near 4000 when we moved last year and I have added about another 1000 since then. So definitely near 5000. Oh and if you count DHs books, nearer 6000. Each kid's room has a large basket (on wheels from target made for toy storage) that they keep current reading in or books they want for bedtime. Our classroom has 2 1/2 walls of built in shelves floor to ceiling. I also have some books "stored" away in the classroom closet in rubbermaid bins for when we get to that topic (history, science, geography, picture books for the twins). I like them to be "new" to them. Our local libraries are horrible 9including their ebook selection, so buying makes the most sense. I also have ereaders and got some books there (hundreds) , but it still (for me) doesn't replace curling up with a paper book in your favorite spot. And like yesterday my nook ran low on battery and I was out so no place to charge and suddenly, I couldn't read what I had planned to read. Plus I get used books 90% of the time and you can't do that with ebooks, so the savings is just not there. I only get new if I NEED it for lessons, DC really wants the next in a series, or it is a present. I will be adding some shelves to the DC rooms as with the twins wanting more of "their" books in the room, they need more room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 2,000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Hunter, have you heard of Calibre? It's free software you can use to manage your ebook library. You can tag books, sort them, there is even a plug-in to make reading lists. It's fabulous. As you say, it's digital hoarding instead :) But this way, I am not constrained by the size of my physical home, and if I have to move again, there is almost nothing to pack up. I looked at Calibre once before and forget why I didn't use it. I'll have to look again. Thanks for the reminder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hannah Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 After some serious purging recently, down to about 3500. We have wall to ceiling built in shelves in our study/schoolroom, a large built in bookcase in the living room and smaller bookcases in each of the bedrooms. All shelves now have only a single row of books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratford Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I wish I knew. We had a flood last fall with hurricane Sandy and lost several big boxes of books that were stored in the basement. (We were in the process of getting more bookcases when it happened....the timing made me very sad.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRAAB Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I have 2324 entered at LibraryThing. There's probably another 100 that aren't entered. That's not including any curriculum. I have one huge, floor to ceiling bookshelf that covers one entire wall of a bedroom plus 4 other bookcases; I'm guessing about 3' X 6". Books are double stacked on all these. Plus there are stacks of books on a couple end tables, by my side of the bed, next to the couch. Dh can't believe anyone has as many books as I do. I keep telling him that I don't own nearly as many as other homeschoolers. Now I can show him this thread. I have purged my books several times over the last few years and gotten rid of probably 200 books. When I win the lottery I will have a library complete with one of those roller ladder thingys for the floor to ceiling shelves, old leather chairs, fireplace. Forget the jewelry, fancy cars and clothes. I want the library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 It had never occurred to me to count our books. We have 8 bookcases and some of them are double-stacked. If I had to guess, then maybe between 500 and 1000 books total. Now I want to have the children count them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I have Bookpedia on my Mac to track it all and Pocketpedia on my iPad, but still don't know for sure how many we have. I know it's in the 400s all told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smfmommy Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 When I win the lottery I will have a library complete with one of those roller ladder thingys for the floor to ceiling shelves, old leather chairs, fireplace. Forget the jewelry, fancy cars and clothes. I want the library. Skip the fireplace. We have a wood stove and it creates a lot of dust. Unless you can also pay someone to dust all those beautiful books I wouldn't bother with a wood fireplace. :) I pay the kids to dust our shelves twice a year. It gets the books clean, lets them earn some money, and reminds them of what we have on the shelves. Otherwise they ask to go to the library because they have "nothing to read" (kind of like Barbie having nothing to wear). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 It had never occurred to me to count our books. We have 8 bookcases and some of them are double-stacked. If I had to guess, then maybe between 500 and 1000 books total. Now I want to have the children count them up. Don't count them, hehe. Enter them into library software. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I don't have as many as most here. I have a lot of kids books but not a ton of adult books. I have an in and out policy. I don't tend to read things over and over again. I can't do the library because I never can remember to return them in time and lost a book before and end up paying an arm and a leg. I buy interesting books used and when I read them I just return them to the thrift store or a used book store for credit. I do have quite a bit of kids books. I have a an area for learning type of books and an area for other books for the kids and both are busting at the seems. I may add something else for the kids but even with their books I try to rotate stuff out that they don't like or isn't a good quality. I need to read more books again. I enjoy reading but it harder when I have constant interruptions and when the kids are in bed I am mentally exhausted. I want to get an e reader eventually. I like reading actual books but I don't like clutter. I like the idea of having lots of books available but they don't take up lots of space. For kids books though I prefer actual books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Probably around 1500. Almost all of them are mine, mostly paperbacks that I've had for years and reread often. We have two Billy's with shelves connecting them in our living room (we have a vent we can't block) with books in boxes and stacked all over, then two bookcases in ds's room, one in the girls' room that has the Dr. Seuss level books and some of older dd's books. More of older dd's are in a plastic garage-type cabinet in their room where she keeps stuff she wants to be able to lock away from her sister. I have about a dozen bins of books in the garage. I did just get rid of a bunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainforest mama Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 About 4000, and I purge them regularly. I don't have many clothes, and my furniture is very minimal, but I've got to have my books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 55 boxes full. I have 20 boxes left to unpack. I don't like moving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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