The BIG question: Why do you have a personal library?

This question has arisen on Twitter recently, which means it couldn't really go far enough. 140 characters is not conversation, it's declaration.

So I ask you. Leaving LibraryThing to the side, do you have some books around, or do you think of yourself as having a collection or personal library? What does that mean to you? What is your personal library for? Does it have books you haven't read? May not read? What does it cover and why?

My goal is to hold specific books I love and will re-read, or expect I may read soon, of course. But beyond that, I want a "well-rounded" personal library. I want to be able to say "I think I want to read about Australian history tonight" or "What do we know about asteroids?" or "I think I'd like to read Flaubert" (whom I've never read), and have that desire satisfied in my own home.(1)

This desire for roundness is also fractal, extending to roundness in subjects I'm interested in. I have a strong interest in Greek and Latin literature, and obviously have copies of my favorites (Herodotus, Sallust, Longus…). But I've also spent many years rounding it out. I'm not planning to read Lucian or Vitruvius, but I've got them, if I want them. (Doing this without spending too much requires constant used-book browsing.)

This attitude has been shaken a bit by instant availability. Twenty years ago, a personal library was important to settling a debate at dinner—my family kept a dictionary near the table for just that reason. Now we Google it. But it's still my goal.

So that's me. I know other people don't collect, or collect for very different reasons. How about you?

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1. This is, I admit, a privileged attitude. I can afford books. For what it's worth, however, this was how I worked when I was a poor student. (See Erasmus "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.") I don't have a lot of money vices.

As my husband and mother noticed the other night, My first reaction is still to look for a book when a question comes up that I want to research. Only when that fails do I grab my iPad.

I have spent a lot of my life living in a non-English environment, so a lot of my library is to be able to read, reread, research .. on topics that are hard to get English language books on. Also, just to have books to read. I am reading an increasing amount of German, but it is a lot more work.

I think I have the ultimate privilege because I work at a big research library. If there's a classic I need to consult, I have access to it every day. I don't need to fill my home with debate-settling books.
My personal library is made of books I keep because they bring me some kind of joy:
- Art/design books I just simply want to own and would roll around in if I could.
- Books that stretched my brains. These are mostly books that I could easily get from the library if I wanted to re-read them, but I keep them around because I want to be reminded.
- Nostalgic books I've been carrying around for decades and can't part with, and boy howdy is there some dreck in this bunch, but I don't care.

Both aul and smith have had problems in our younger days with books disappearing from libraries/book stores that we planned to read. We now hoard books that we might want to read that look likely to disappear. For the most part, we've dumped the classics that the public library keeps (though this recently backfired on us -- we had to re-buy Bleak House because it was too long to read on the library's check out period).

So our personal libraries are our fiction collections (mostly science fiction), smith's linguistic books, aul's wide ranging research interests (mostly queer/gender/women's studies), and an eclectic mix of books that look really interesting, or did when we bought them.

We have research libraries nearby, but can only mostly access them through cranky reference librarians at the public library (my latest request for an Interlibrary Loan was met with "Why don't you buy it on Amazon. It's only 79 cents." They did finally order it for me.)

But I have to say that 6000 books is too many for people in their sixties to own, especially if they are planning on moving to smaller quarters, and we've also started dumping books we're unlikely to re-read no matter how rare and reading more online.

Jerry and I are in our sixties and down to about 5,000 after 4 moves in the past 20 years. And I really miss some of those I gave away.

I don't know if I call my books a 'library'. I assume they are.

My books are my most valued possessions, and I want them to be a mirror to my self. I want people to discover who I am by looking at my shelves, so not that interested in having a 'well-rounded' library. The books I have are the ones that make me happy, as well as a reflection of my past life, when books in english were really hard to get hold of.

I'd like my books to be the starting point of discovery... to be honest, the easiest way for me to go on a date would be to show them my books, and get them asking questions :) Easiest way to discover compatibility hehe

I have nothing like the numbers mentioned in previous posts, none are rare or valuable, but I take enormous pride in my books :)

>1 timspalding: do you think of yourself as having a collection or personal library? What does that mean to you? What is your personal library for? Does it have books you haven't read? May not read? What does it cover and why?

I have a personal library, most definitely. It's something that has been years in the making, and you could say my choice of career was driven by my love of books and reading, so that I've always to some extent gravitated towards a state of existence that includes rooms full of books.

As such, my library serves several purposes -- it allows me to indulge my curiosity about things (I like to learn stuff) and it allows me to indulge in the pleasure I feel at the well-expressed thought or beautiful phrase (I love language). Every book is to some extent an open door to a wider world. It's sort of TARDIS-like in that sense.

And yes, there are books in it I haven't read, although very few I haven't at least perused or paged through. The books I won't read (I do get sent a fair number of these) I now pass along to the neighbors in my Little Free Library. But mostly, the books I have represent me -- my life, my thoughts, my ongoing evolution from then until now. So they are a kind of portrait, or the book-version of a photo album documenting who I am. And in that way my library is a series of touchstones that remind me what it is to be me.

Plus, if armegeddon happens, all the knowledge in the world will not be lost as long as my living room stays relatively intact.

While we do make extensive use of the public library, our personal library is one of the last things we will give up. It's a reminder of where we started and who we are now and a lot of my reading at the moment is from our shelves. Out of the last eight books I started six were from our collection and only two were borrowed from the public library. We don't buy books as often as we used to but we probably will continue adding them occasionally.

I tried hard to use libraries but I always forget to take the books back. I think of my books as a library. There are so many I haven't read but that's the great thing because I can usually find something on most subjects at the drop of a hat. That's not why I choose them though - I buy what I'm interested in and there's not a lot that I'm not interested in. Having spent a number of years living in Eastern Europe in the early 90s when it was so hard to get hold of English language books and when there was not a lot of choice in foreign titles translated into Polish (it's very different now!), having a 'savings account' of unread books saved me. In recent years, I've been trying to exchange classic & much-loved books for fine press editions because they give me pleasure.

Not a day goes by that I'm not grateful for being privileged enough to own this many books. Someone once described me as fundamentally incredibly contented, as long as I had my books. With the obvious addition of health of family and friends, that pretty much sums me up.

I must have a lot of reasons for wanting a personal library, and they have evolved throughout the years. My college education was science and engineering oriented, so I had to embark on my own private liberal arts curriculum. I began my library by buying Geat Books of the Western World, and embarked on the great ideas reading program. To fill my literature gaps, I subscribed to Franklin Library' Greatest Book series. I loved the physical beauty, the leather, the illustrations, etc. I also had in my mind that I wanted to surround my children with books, music, and art. I later, developed a large nonfiction collection in areas of interest. They tend to cross-fertilse each other. If I am reading a new book on Tuscany, a particular topic may prompt me to take down other books that discuss the same subject. They also are wonderful resources for travel planning. Being surrounded by books also makes me simply feel good, like the companionship of old friends. I also have troubles getting rid of books that no longer serve their purpose, and which I have not touched in years. Maybe a touch of OCD or simply keeping a roadmap of where I have bee.

I love and use my local public library and the library I work at. But I also maintain a personal library. I want to be able to pull books off the shelf and browse them, or show them to someone else. Sometimes I want to pull off a small set of books I've previously read and flip through them to find references or quotes or discussions I remember, so I can write something. The format is better to do that with books than computers. I also keep a lot of fiction, and poetry, and art, and graphic novels, which are nice to look at and not as nice electronic. And reference books of various sorts on hand. All of this is because of format preference -- there are just situations in which it's preferable to me to have a print copy on hand.

I use my computer -- books.google.com, electronic copies, amazon's "look inside" feature, straight-up google, library databases -- all the time to figure out information, and I'm delighted to have those electronic resources.

I am increasingly using electronic book lending for certain categories of books: Quick fiction that I read and don't expect to re-read, or to pass along. Ideally this would, once read, be indexed in a comprehensive full-text database -- so that when I am plagued by some memory of a passage I can figure it out. But it wouldn't be the same thing as the books that I want to "own".

I will still buy from thrift stores, for example, extra copies of books that are out of print but that I highly recommend and want to be able to pass along to people. I buy these copies solely to give away!

Asking me why I own books is like asking me why I breathe: I can't help it.

Actually, in my mind, I don't "own books." I "have a library."

I'm not trying to replace the public library, which tries to be all things to all people. (This is both a fact and a criticism.) My library tries to be all things to me. If I had more money and more space, it would be more than what it is now. Because of the whole money thing, I usually borrow books from the library, and then buy my own copy if I like it well enough to want to reread it.

Some of what I do is collecting: I'm trying to get a full run of Agatha Christie without paying more than $1 for any individual book. I collect first editions of authors who were part of the Golden Age of Indiana Literature. It's an obscure enough interest that the first editions are cheap, particularly since I'm not picky about condition.

Otherwise, I have the books I have because I like them. For the most part, anyway; some I haven't read yet and others are holdovers from college classes that I'll probably never reread, but don't want to get rid of yet. Most of the books I have yet to read are ones I've heard good things about and found at the library book sale on half price day. For $0.25, I can afford not to like something. Sometimes I can take it down to the Half Price Books and sell it for more than I paid for it.

And then the public library has a nasty habit of selling off the books I'm interested in so they can put in more computers. (Or inferior books: I went into the philosophy section of my library branch looking for Plato, and all they had was Oprah and some "inspirational" book by some football player.) I think the city should just open some public computer labs and leave the libraries for the books. Where else can you get access to the best and brightest minds in the world for just a few dollars in taxes each year?

My books are a library to me. Sadly I do not follow any consistent or rational acquisition policy although my spouse has made the reasonable request that I stick to a more appropriate retention policy (baldy: start clearing the rubbish). We have about 8000 books in the house; of which some 40% are catalogued here.

I've been reading the responses to this all morning. I've tried to decide the answer to *why*, but as is true with other things, it's complicated. Before I retired, my personal library probably numbered in the several thousand. Even now, less than one fourth the books I own are cataloged here on LT. I really have (and had) several distinct libraries.

There are those technical books I still find useful. In some cases, I know that I could not replace them (the full series on X Windows is a good example). I left many technical books behind, or gave them away, or even tossed them out. Some technical books remain useful forever (or nearly so); others are outdated in a year or two. I'd say I've cataloged about 20% of that part of my library. I do those as I think about it.

There are children's books that my daughter loved when she was small. Some of those were my books when I was small. They're nearly all packed away. Some of them (the most precious) are in my cedar chest. I've given a lot of children's books away (to libraries, and to relatives).

When I first showed up here on LT (November 2013), I'd already pruned my very large paperback collection of science fiction. I believe 90% of what I still have has been cataloged here; perhaps more. I got rid of nearly all of what I'd kept over time, keeping only those that I couldn't bear to part with, or that I knew I'd read over again (those are often the same thing, though).

Then there are those books that I buy because they're rare, or beautiful, or both. Many times I buy those books not because I intend to read them, but out of a certain responsibility to keep them from the hands of those that would cut out pictures to frame them (I've seen this often enough that I now automatically rescue books that are candidates for this). Could I let a copy of The Bible Gallery be destroyed?

I love books. I know that, all too often, things simply fall out of fashion, and disappear. I know what most modern libraries have become, and how little space they have for most things. Digital books are too ephemeral, and every time a book I like is published only in that format, I die a little inside.

I have books in nearly every room in the house (and it's not a small house), except the bedroom. There's a stack I'm currently reading in the living room, cookbooks in the kitchen, music books and a few rarities in the room in the music/writing desk room. There's a room which is nearly all books (including those that are packed away). There are sewing and needlework books in the sewing room, and most of the very old books live in a room that has a book case made of glass. Books are wonderful.

Libraries saved me when I was younger. I got to read side by side copies of translations of Voltaire, and Tolstoy (and a hundred others), because people had willed their collections to the libraries. Libraries no longer have room to keep such things, which is quite sad.

Books really are wonderful.

Interesting question, Tim. I’ve always had books around me and so it’s just my natural habitat. My books are just that though; books. Not a library in the sense that there’s anything to be accomplished with it. I’m not trying to amass any specific type of book or collection, aside from some authors whose work I do follow and thus buy. And some of my interest areas such as the flora of New England, mostly as a complement to my photography work - I like to know what I’ve shot and so have a lot of books for ID. Other than that, things wax and wane as my interests do. Mostly books remain with me because I hope they’ll entertain me someday; either again or for the first time.

Lately I’ve been feeling less sentimentally attached to my books and I purge or prune them often. Not just because of lack of space, but because I am changing. Hanging onto books just because I was once interested in them isn’t something I need to do anymore.

The small answer: Because when I need a book, I need it at my fingertips, now. I've never been bookless, and I'm not going to start now!

I have a personal library, and I always will.

In theory I keep what I love and know I will re-read or need to refer to. In practice there's a lot that I'll never read or use again and occasionally I admit this to myself and have a little purge. Or I actually do re-read something and discover that the suck fairy has got at it, so out it goes.

I am less likely to buy books these days, due to space limitations and trying to be a bit more realistic about what I'm likely to re-read. I'm a big library user and almost always have a pile of library books to hand. However, sometimes I just want to be able to re-read something I already know I love - for comfort or because something has reminded me of it and that sparks the desire to re-read.

Oh, and a room lined with full bookshelves is my definition of a cozy, happy place :)

>6 ScarletBea: said, "I don't know if I call my books a 'library'. I assume they are."

I think that is intriguing. What is a library? Does the meaning of it go beyond a personal collection of books? I don't know.

Books have always been a part of my life, but I never started saving them until I was in my twenties, apart from a few of my beloved children's books. I have photos of a lovely and large oak bookshelf I bought at a yard sale before I was married and it only has about twenty books on it. Now I have rooms full of bookshelves which are full of books. 32 years of purchasing, reading and collecting.

I have books which I love, can't bear to part with and know I will read again. I have books which I have read, enjoyed, they were excellent and although I may never get around to reading them again, I save them on the chance one of my friends or children will want to read them, or I will want to refer to them.

I have lots of books I have not read. Bookshelves full of them. Some inherited, some picked up here and there at a bargain price because they either looked interesting or came highly recommended.

I have many reference types of books which we used when my children were home and being home-schooled. Yes, they had the internet for a reference, but we all found that digging into books together and pouring over them was more satisfactory in the group learning mode. And the pictures. We love the pictures. Also, it's easier to flip back and forth to check things in a book.

Will I keep all of these? Certainly not. However, there are some I will never part with because they are a part of me. I can't imagine living in a place without books. It wouldn't be a home for me.

I moved from Cape Elizabeth, Maine, to San Francisco, California, on January 4, 2007. It was my first cross-country move, and my first permanent move 1) that crossed county lines, and 2) for which I was entirely responsible, my previous moves being either temporary or as a dependent (of my parents). I did so with 3 checked pieces of luggage, one rolling carry-on, and one under-the-seat-in-front-of-me carry-on. I shipped my desktop computer and a couple of boxes of belongings I couldn't be without, books included.
Then I discovered San Francisco's independent bookstores and thrift stores with incredible book departments.
And I got a job with a pretty hefty salary.
I went crazy.
I bought armloads and stacks and bags and boxes of books. Community thrift had a special where you could get as many books (as much of anything really but who cared about anything but the books) as you could fit in a paper bag for $2 and I went religiously, heading straight for the "new arrivals" shelves because you never knew when a first edition or a signed copy or just your favorite book would land there before one of the volunteers saw it for what it was.
When I decided to move back to Maine for several reasons, I refused to part with any of the books I had collected. I would bring them all, dammit, because I had worked hard to amass these 1,000-ish works, and I would have them to show for my time in SF, at least.
I'm glad I did that. I truly am. Because when I got here, and got settled, and got to the point where I could really think about the books I owned - I could let them go on purpose, and not because I felt like I had to.
So now, finally, yes, I do feel like I have a personal library. Am I shitty at culling the stacks? Absolutely. But I know that none of the titles I give away or swap or turn into art or otherwise remove from my library will come back into my collection, because I have consciously decided that I do not want or need them. I track them in my LT catalog because I feel like, if they DO make it back into the collection, there's a reason, and I should look at that.

I have a passion for re-purposed trees.

My library started before I knew it. Bugged Nana to buy as many Scholastic Books. From there it just grew. All or most free too. At the college I found a few, but the best event is my Internship at Cony High School Library. They were building a new school and our esteemed Superintendent told Mr. Small to get rid of all old and ugly. I picked up a lot there and I do mean a lot. Plus a buddy from school was doing her Internship at a small elementary school that had a public library. She weeded out all inappropriate books for Grades K-8. I WILL positively not buy a brand new book. By the time I read what I have I'll have acquired it most likely will be in there. Thanks Tim you ol' Maniac!

Why have a personal library?
- Tradition & upbringing: I grew up in a house full of books and was made to look things up whenever I had a question
- Providing for the mythical rainy day: living in a foreign country makes you want to gather English books
- Image: I want to imagine myself as an 18th century gentleman in his library, I probably also want my friends to look at my shelves and see how sophisticated I must be
- Because I can: I can afford to buy books and make space in my home for them. There is nothing forcing me to prune.

Why not?
- At least half the books I read these days are ebooks of various kinds
- Any reasonably obvious book I need is obtainable either on paper or in digital form within a few days
- Most casual research enquiries can be resolved by googling
- My employer provides access to more databases than I could possibly need for my work
- I have a national library, at least two large university libraries and a very good municipal library within a few km of where I live
- You can't take it with you: one day someone will have the job of dispersing my library

What would I keep if I were serious about turning the accretions of years into a proper library?
- Things I'm likely to take off the shelf to consult or dip into, things I want to re-read, things that look nice on the shelf.
- In the first category poetry, some reference books, history, literary/musical biography and some critical works.
- In the second category a few treasured novelists (P.G. Wodehouse, Barbara Pym, ...)
- In the third category Folio Society editions, a few modern firsts, and some pre-1914 science and engineering books

I think I could throw out 90% of my novels and without a serious qualm.

>1 timspalding:
Do you have some books around, or do you think of yourself as having a collection or personal library? What does that mean to you?

How did I get to have 'too many books'? What does it mean?

My dad was a born-again reader. He was raised reasonably poor in depression-era Pittsburgh, was kicked out of Catholic high school for threatening a priest, and when he returned from WWII he ran numbers for a bit when he couldn’t find work. But then there was the GI Bill, which changed so many lives. Not well-educated, but smart, he earned a degree in psychology at Pitt, inspired by the psychiatrist who treated him for his WWII nightmares (not yet called PTSD). He started a family and became a True Believer in Education – bigots and criminals were not ‘evil’, they were ‘ignorant’, and if we could only educate them… Eventually he earned two more degrees (in epidemiology) and my sisters and I were raised to value books and reading. Our rec-room had a wall of bookshelves, filled with his college English texts, book of the month club selections, airport paperbacks, and the Airmont Classics we bought at Toys R Us. “Hi honey, I’m home!”

When I was four years old I asked my mother how to write “My” and I went and wrote that one word in all my storybooks -- and I still have a few of them, so I guess it worked. I was fortunate to have a great reading teacher in 1st grade (thanks, Mrs Gonano!). I spent as much time as I could in the school library and the neighborhood library. Libraries were at the same time safe, ordered places, and sites of boundless, even dangerous, potential. When I was eleven I took all of my books (several dozen!) and taped labels on their spines to create the “Gruenther Library,” named after the street where I lived. Needless to say, I was this particular library’s only patron. English classes (and English teachers -- Hi Miss Baker! Hi Miss Breault!) were my favorites in junior high and high school.

At one time I thought I was going to be an actor, and then I was going to be a poet. I studied Speech & Drama at Catholic U. and English at UMCP and got my B.A. and about a third of an M.A. But somehow I ended up in retail. I managed record stores for ten years, but all along, even when I was peddling Led Zep platters, I was accumulating books, and spending most of my time reading or studying (not necessarily the same thing). I developed a strong interest in Shakespeare and English Renaissance theatre, and since I no longer had easy access to university libraries I began to put together a ‘working library’ to support my studies. (Today my working library of medieval, renaissance, and restoration drama is about 4000 volumes on LT; this does not count related poetry, prose, and history, and drama of other eras.) Eventually I switched to managing bookstores, then became a Buyer for one of the best indies around -- Olsson's Books & Records in the Washington DC area. I stayed there for twenty years, mostly at the Bethesda MD store, until in 2008 Olsson’s bit the dust after 36 years. Before and after Olsson’s I worked at a couple other bookstores.

Being at Olsson’s created a kind of imperfect storm which fed my already ingrained tendency to surround myself with books. As a buyer I was barraged with ARCS (advance reading copies) – I have about 1000 of these in my LT library, and probably another thousand or so in storage. This may seem excessive, but if you figure that’s only 2 arcs a week every week for 20 years you see it’s a very modest selection of what was thrown at me. Then there are “strips”: at some point (at least by the 1980s) the book industry decided it was cheaper to destroy and write off ‘mass-market’ paperbacks than restock them from returns, so every new-book store is constantly tearing the covers off unsold mass-markets (to submit for credit) and tossing the books themselves into the dumpster. When I first began working at bookstores this horrified me and I scooped up as many as I could. Pretty soon I had a basement full of boxes of coverless paperbacks I didn’t really want to read, so I bit my lip and became pickier about what I saved. I have close to 1000 strips (25+ years, remember) in my LT collection, many of them mysteries or other ‘genre’ paperbacks, though not a few classics and misc as well. Finally there was the bookstore employee discount, combined with being surrounded by books at work, and the occasional opportunity to trade books I’d been given for books I wanted: my walls of books just kept expanding.

In addition to the arcs, strips and the working library and its annexes, I began to treat my other interests in a similar fashion, accumulating a critical mass in the area so that I could have the right books at my fingertips when I was pursuing a thread – hence the quantities of books on poetry, language, Arthuriana, baseball, music, history, religion (though I’m at best a vaguely spiritual agnostic), etc. There are also some areas that at different times I began Collecting with a capitol C -- prominent among them certain fantasy authors (James Branch Cabell, JRR Tolkien, Arthur Machen).

So. Is my library a library? Mos’ def. It more than fills the finished basement, the unfinished basement, and one of the extra bedrooms; it’s more or less organized; and I inhabit it, use it like a library. I pull books I need, stack them by my desk, I have piles to re-shelve. I have it catalogued (thanks, Tim!). And is it a collection? Yes, that too. I Collect books with signatures (& bookplates, etc) of Shakespeareans and theatre scholars; signed and/or firsts of a few contemporary authors who, working in the bookstores, I grew to love; the above-mentioned SFF writers, and etc.-- especially etc. Back in the early '70s, when I was in college, instead of getting high and going to a concert I would get high and roam the library stacks, browsing. I still hang out in the stacks but now they’re mine, and I’m too old to get high.

Do I have too many books? OK, yeah… but (getting defensive) I mean, No! I don’t have too many books, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t hate the South! (oops, slipped into my audiobook there…). Will I read them all, even if I live another 30 years? (I’m 62.) Of course not. But I’ll certainly read a heck of a lot from this library. I read constantly, and am finally retired. I read some stuff on the web but I can’t adapt my habits to e-readers. This library is where I feel comfortable, comforted, at home -- it's where i live. OK, too dramatic, yeah? I do get out and see real people, love my forbearing wife, and family; but to quote Samuel Butler: Lord Macaulay has a passage in which he contrasts the pleasures which a man may derive from books with the inconveniences to which he may be put by his acquaintances. "Plato," he says, "is never sullen. Cervantes is never petulant. Demosthenes never comes unseasonably. Dante never stays too long. No difference of political opinion can alienate Cicero. No heresy can excite the horror of Bossuet." I dare say I might differ from Lord Macaulay in my estimate of some of the writers he has named, but there can be no disputing his main proposition, namely, that we need have no more trouble from any of them than we have a mind to, whereas our friends are not always so easily disposed of.

But that’s a little raw. If Dante were to approach the Gate of my Book Hell, the inscriptions he would see above the portal would be:

I have made a heap of all that I could find...
-- pseudo-Nennius

These fragments I have shored against my ruins.
-- T.S.Eliot

I would say I have a collection of books I've enjoyed. I have a read pretty much all of the fiction, and as much of the non-fiction as I'm inclined to. (although there's a lot of books I wish to read that I haven't yet owned). I re-read frequently, and hate the thought of not having favourites to hand, which is sufficient reason for me to own a 'library'. These days my collection is maybe 50/50 ebooks vs pbooks. Either are bought depending on what I can find, but ebooks for preference in fiction and pbooks for reference.

My library is probably 90% fiction, not a lot of reference value to be had. Although a huge chunk of it is classics and well reviewed modern stuff, I don't want to mount a defence along those lines. I've read about 4/5ths of my collection, so I don't have much to stand on there either.

It's an identity thing; like a singer identifies with songs and his/her voice, as someone who is first/foremost a reader I identify with what I've read.

It's also a memory room. Like the George Martin character says, you only live once unless you read. I feel like I've lived all of these additional other lives, and I rarely want to part with a token of those experiences.

The smaller portion I haven't read is there to build anticipation, a quality that should not be underrated.

Neither of these reasons gives my library much value beyond my own mortality, so I don't much care what happens after I'm gone. So long as I'm here though, I'll treasure it.

I'm hoarding knowledge in preparation for the zombie apocalypse. Also, if I can't sleep I want to read the exact book I want to read, and not have to wait until the public library is open.

If the zombies don't arrive, I hope the people who come to my estate sale after I die get the thrill and excitement of finding treasures they didn't know they wanted.

For many years I was nothing more than a hoarder of books. I kept what I bought or received as gifts. When my first wife decided that some had to go it was no big loss. Years later I became focused on collecting first editions of mystery writers first books. I called it my retirement fund only half in jest. Since about 2007 I have really focused on US history. My fiction has gradually gone to Half Price Books and the history has gotten to the point that I have to be very careful about titles I buy, chances are I already have them. Now I consider that I have a library.

Amassing a personal library is the closest thing I have to a hobby. I’m not nostalgic, so all the books from my childhood are gone (will I regret that one day?). Also, I’m not a re-reader, so what I keep must have some value to me. I want my personal library to mainly be a working library. And it sure is fun acquiring books for it.

Thanks to LibraryThing I can tell you that I buy one fiction book for every 11 non-fiction. This doesn’t really reflect how I read (I read more fiction than that), but it does give you an idea of what I’m building at home.

The first questions I ask before buying a book is: Does the public library have this? How hard would this book be to find again? Is it a fair price? On my phone I have home-screen shortcuts to LibraryThing, my local public library’s catalog search, and abebooks. I can arrive at an answer pretty quickly.

That being said I am targeting my home library. I am collecting books about books. I am lucky enough to work for a small book publisher. I started a few years before ‘ebooks happened’. So I was buying every book and essay about the shifting publishing industry, etc. that I could find. That’s what got me started. At work, I make ebooks, apps and online resources. It’s great fun. You can add lots of value to books, research and content this way. But it is not the same. I make ebooks all day, but there is no inspiration in them. Due to my work, I am fortunate to get to think about the future of publishing and reading. My personal library helps me organize my thoughts and plans in a way that digital resources can’t. Ebooks are certainly useful, but they could never motivate me the way my shelves at home can.

Also, I have two kids now. Filling the house with books was a must when they came into the world. There is no doubt in my mind that they will be better off for having grown up in a house surrounded by books. Books hit them in a way, during those formative moments, that not even the most award-winning education app can.

I guess I've never seriously considered not having a pile of books. As a kid I was given books, as a teen and adult I've kept buying books that weren't available from the local library or Gutenberg (which, given my interests, are most books I want to read). I occasionally give away or otherwise get rid of books, especially in the last few years, but mostly they just accumulate with little thought as to whether they'll ever get opened again. Many of the history books do get used again for reference, but hardly any of the fiction.

I've got no ambitions to have a well-rounded library, or one representative of anything. Some subjects I've read a fair bit of are absent simply because the local library is well-stocked therewith. In this sense it's more of an accumulation than a deliberate collection.

An increasing proportion of what I read is e-books, which last year I took to cataloguing next to the dead tree books on LT, but the prevalence of DRM on non-fiction has as yet kept it to a minority.

"Why do you have a personal library?"

Why, to impress potential partners, of course.

(Why does anybody do anything?)

>31 AsYouKnow_Bob:
Any tips you can share? :-)

Apart from putting your collection of suitably battered Lonely Planets, cookbooks, and car maintenance manuals somewhere prominent and hiding the Harlequin/M&B collection and the science-fiction paperbacks, of course...

I have been weeding my personal library, so this is a good question for me to think about now. Since I read so much on my Kindle, I like to own physical books that are both meaningful to me and beautiful to look at, that spark joy in my heart when I hold them. I'd also like to have a well-rounded library so that when my son is bored and looking for something to read, he'll have a great chance of stumbling onto something terrific. I've been trying to acquire really nice editions of classics, not just the traditional classics, but also in the genres of science fiction, crime, horror and some fantasy. The caveat being that they are classics I really enjoyed reading and are not just for show. Harper Perennial Modern Classics has been putting out some beautiful trade paperback editions that I can't help buying when I see them in the store. I've become very picky about what I keep in my library, but I also have limited shelf space.

I do consider my book collection as a library. If I want to read a certain book at 3AM I can because I have it. The only problem I have not knowing where the book is located. Also I don't know what I own. Thanks to LibraryThing, I can catalogue my books. I love the many features. I have use other database software but end up losing the information somehow. I find I don't use the public library system as I am not sure if the book I want will be there in the future. I buy a lot of my books at book sales(many run by libraries themselves!). I have purchased many discarded books from libraries. I collect some authors and most likely the library my not have the book in their collection.

I consider my books a collection more than a personal library. It's mostly fiction, too specialized in genre and too haphazardly collected for the title of library. I don't particularly care about being well-rounded or thorough, or whether the books are "important" to anyone but me. I only keep books I've liked and may want to revisit, and unread ones that I think I'll like at some point in the near future. I'm lucky in that I have access to several public libraries, two branches of the (huge) county system and one independent run by the next town over, and yet I haven't utilized them much in several years. I find it hard to enjoy a book when there's a limited timeline to finish it, and if I really enjoy a book I want the option to keep it--both of these things are obstacles to regular library use. I balance the expense of owning everything I want to read by buying cheap, and buying used whenever I can.

As to why I have this drive to collect books, I don't think I can answer that in any concrete way. I love books. Collecting books, surrounding myself with them, makes me happy. I love the way they feel and smell and sound when I turn the pages, the way they look lined up on my shelves. I grew up in a home with a lot of books and wouldn't want to live in a house that didn't have any, or had only a few.

Collecting books, surrounding myself with them, makes me happy. -- That's almost verbatim how I phrase it when people ask.

I think part of it is the way I grew up. I didn't have many toys. Printer paper, colored pencils & crayons, some VCR tapes, a few stuffed animals, but mostly books. A few dozen on a small white shelf in my small bedroom that sat on the floor with my stuffed animals sitting on top. I didn't have friends, I was neglected and in an abusive household, books were my solace and some days, all that I had. So I'm very attached to books as a source of comfort.
Then there's part of me that since I collect old books, I feel like I'm appreciating and saving things that have been forgotten, that I hope someone somewhere will appreciate once I pass on. Some of my books I think have not been read by a single soul, except maybe when it published. I feel like a literary archaeologist. Also I think it's a nice feeling to always have things to read on hand. Some of my books are multiple editions of something I've already read, or something that was on my "to read" list that I'm saving for a rainy day.
I enjoy books aesthetically too. Leather and marble and design. And I think that's why I collect different editions of books. When it comes to fairy tales, it's more about illustrators over design. One book, Old French Fairy Tales by Comtesse De Segur, I even have two of the same edition. It's considered rare I believe. In my first copy, some of the illustrations fell out, so I wanted to get a second. Now I'm looking at a third. Copies are sparse and it's an old book that I don't think many people are aware of, and it's a dear favorite of mine, so I have the impulse to hoard it.
I enjoy having something that's unique to myself. I feel as though, aside from online, there's not many people my age (20s) who are involved with books to the same extent. I have a friend David who thought it was interesting that I not only read buy also collect books and my knowledge about books. I suppose it feels good to be known for something, to have something you're "good" at, to an extent.
This is probably too long now but some of it might have to with my autism. Books and anything involving them, became my Main Special Interest at a very young age. I love my books, so I know a little about repair, and still am learning. I enjoy doing research, discovering, the history of bookmobiles. Bibliographies are one of my favorite kinds of books. Hyperfocusing on a topic of interest or a goal or cataloging gives me comfort, it's my leisure time when I'm not reading. it's what I do when I'm listening to an old radio show. At the very least, books are my hobby.

My pain consists of try+ing to donate, give away but lately I can't give them away not even the VA. It isn't the va fault its my husband I box them up for him to take and they sit and sit asn sit in the front hall; Now when I finish abook I sadly throw it away. You all understand that feeling. My home library consisted of free books from Somerville School, Maine; free books from Bennet Katz library. W whole National G. Bound editions. I too am in my 60's; Now to answer the question. I am a bibliophile since I was about 4years old. I still have my original Little Women, etc. I just don't have the room anymore to store about 4,000+ from 5,000 plus. My son and his wife have moved in I lost two rooms right there. As Charlie Brown would say "Arrrggghhhh"

>38 Cheryl50: I understand your pain. My husband is the one who buys all the books. There are books piled on the floor of almost every room and many closets. These are professional books, so the likelihood of being able to donate them is small. In defense, I purchased a kindle and will only use that so that I do not add to the incredible pile of books. My husband bought another bookcase, but it needs to be assembled, so maybe 4-6 months for that.

I am a retired school librarian, and I loved my libraries (media centers). My own library here at home is not as organized as I was at school. My books are more "grouped" than organized, although when I packed up everything to move halfway across the state of Nebraska (I'm in Iowa now) I did manage to tag my books with which totes they were in so they can be located. So, yeah, a library it is. I tell people that it is my vice...I just can't help it.

Why? Books make me happy. I like to know I have them. I have added titles from my school libraries that I loved, so I can have my own. I have added old favorites from the past that connect me to my roots, my parents, my siblings, my memories. I have added books that belonged to grandparents and great-grandparents, to connect me with them. I like knowing that they held them, wrote in them, passed them on to me.

Books are, I suppose, a reflection of me. I find myself in my shelves. I am reminded of who I am, who I was, and who I want to be.

Probably for the same reason I have a crapton of yarn scattered around the house -- they're My Precious and I Wants Them.

Seriously, we've had to severely trim our personal libraries due to space limitation. (Ditto the yarn collection.) Currently, we have maybe 300 volumes that are favorites, things to re-read (often on an annual basis!), and research books. Yes, most of them could be found online, and/or through ILL. But ... there's a certain ... security? ... to having them within arm's reach.

I have an e-reader. I use it mostly when traveling and for material that's only available electronically. But I will probably go to my grave preferring a "real" (i.e. paper & ink) BOOK. I like the heft of it. I like the ease of paging back to take another look at something or remind myself who that suddenly-appearing minor character is. (Oh, yeah -- the cab driver.) I like the **smell** of books, and the weight in my hands.

The public library is a boon and a blessing. But what if it's closed? What if My Precious is an out-of-print jewel that's never been digitized and would cost $$$ to be replaced -- assuming a copy can be located at all. What if Civilization As We Know It collapses and all techie miracles disappear? How will I know when to plant my subsistence garden? Dig a privy? Deliver a baby?

I'm tellin' ya, After The Fall, I'm going to be knitting and reading, while my e-book friends are shivering in the dark and reduced to telling each other as much of "Game of Thrones" as they can remember.

After the fall, I'm going to have to get a few sheep so that I have wool to spin to weave and knit. If you are worried about that, I strongly recommend learning to spin now.

This is a great thread. Between my wife and I (me?), we have around 4,500 books in our house. My personal LT collection is right around 3,000. While the books are broken out somewhat into fiction, history, memoir, etc., I must say I can't really bring myself to think of the books as a library. More a collection. But, on the other hand, other than a few antiquarian exceptions on the shelves, I think of myself as a "reader" and as a "book lover," not as a "collector." Having a lot of books around me brings me comfort. That's why I have them. Plus, I have acquired most of my books used, from used bookstores, garage sales, thrift stores, etc. So I consider each of these books to have a story of its own, above and beyond the content of the book itself.

I used to joke that I had to have a lot of books because my biographers would want to be able to go through them, to learn about who I was via the books I'd chosen. So my book buying wasn't an indulgence, you understand, but my contribution to posterity. (Same story with my LP collection, by the way.) The older I get, though (pushing 65 right now), the less that seems a funny joke.

Here's a story I do like, though: When I met the woman who became my wife, I was already 47. I was living alone in a large San Francisco apartment that I'd originally shared with two roommates (rent control!). At 46, I looked around at all the books and LPs and thought, "Well, that's it. I guess I'm a bachelor for life. Anybody who moves in here now is going to want me to clear all this stuff out, and I'm just not going to be willing to do it."

So then I met this great woman at a party and things progressed nicely. Finally, it came time to talk about living together. My apartment, rather than hers, was the obvious choice. One night she looked around the apartment and said, "Well, where are we going to fit my books in here?" Jackpot!

I've realized I have a simpler answer to the question of why I have a personal library: because I buy faster than I read! ;)

The wife and I have a library because we are confirmed bibliomaniacs. What else is there to say?

Because I can? :)

Growing up (Eastern Europe, 80s), getting the good books required either connections or getting a few undesirable ones as well - and what was published was... limited. My Mom loved to read so she was buying all the good books - and I was just wishing that more will be translated and published. Cue the changes in Eastern Europe in the early 90s. Suddenly, the books were there but most people could not afford them.

So when I was in a position when I had access to books and I could afford* them, why would I not have a personal library? :)

*Afford is relative. I sold out my first library when I was without work for awhile. Took me forever to track down some of the books I lost back then. I like nice editions but when money are tight, I am as happy with the cheapest available.

I love this topic. I see myself in pretty much every comment. It is so nice to know there are others out there who can “see” me and my bibliophile ways when most friends and family members don’t!

>47 Penske:, amen to that.

I look at my library as security. If all else fails I can drink cheap coffee, talk to my lovely wife, read, and be happy! Nice windows help as well.

I want to apologize to anyone I offended by listing my book about private libraries here. I did not mean it to be an advertisement for the book, but rather a pointer to my admittedly very lengthy discussion of why we care about our libraries so very much. In short:
"We build our library because we want to live with and care for the books we love. We build our library because it reflects our values and tells us who we are. And we build our library so that we can know that there is always one place in the world where it is possible for us to be happy."

>51 reidbyers: It is not a matter of offending people, but of disregarding the Terms of Service. Pointing people to your book is advertising.

>51 reidbyers:, maybe just about everything in my house reflects my values and who I am, that doesn't feel unique to my library. Similar for caring for what I love. But ... I feel your point about a place to be happy. There's no picker-upper like a shelf full of well-loved friends to wash away stress, even if I'm doing nothing more than taking a title or two off the shelf and admiring the cover.

But about half my library is research for other projects, not stuff that reflect my personal values. Not sure I care a lot about research.

>1 timspalding: Do you have some books around, or do you think of yourself as having a collection or personal library?

I have a personal library.

What does that mean to you?

For me, a place cannot be a home without a physical personal library, even if that's as small as shelf with a few select books on it. I learned this living in very scarce conditions.

What is your personal library for?

Books... and movies, music, pamphlets, etc.

Does it have books you haven't read? May not read?

... hundreds? If we count ebooks along with the paper books on my TBR shelves, I'm guessing I maintain close to 600 unread books.

Not all the books are mine and might never be read by me.

What does it cover and why?

My collections, my child's collections, and my partner's collections, plus completely shared works. I keep works close that I care about and know might not be available if I don't have copies years from now.

My child's books are some of her primary companions within isolation as well as educational materials that don't require any of our limited internet data. Hers also includes works our public libraries won't offer.

Just joined this site, so I don't have my profile and library up yet, but I definitely consider it a personal library. Unfortunately, I've been in flux for the last 5 years or so with grad school, moving, and starting a new job during covid. I'm also currently renting because of California property prices. So everything is packed up in boxes for the time being.

With all that said, I knew I had to limit myself in some way or I would spend way too much money on books, so I did the irresponsible thing and decided to mainly focus on 1st/1st of authors I enjoy. The caveat is that I don't buy sight unseen online. I have to trove through used bookstores and book fairs to get them. And yes, sometimes I buy a book of an unknown (to me) author just cause the book cover or premise is interesting, but this isn't common. So it's really more of an adventure than just a collection (but it is also a collection). I tend to not re-read books cause I remember most of them, but I do now have additional memories of finding a book from my "to purchase" list after long hours sifting through numerous bookstores.

I've probably got around 2,000 in the library right now. Most of the 1st/1st are hardbacks with some being paperback if that was the true 1st/1st. With things settling down a little I've started branching out into some more limited/special editions of certain authors. I'm not sure how far I'll delve into the limited edition rabbit hole just yet.

At the end of the day, no self respecting professor (of which I am one) should miss having at least a bookshelf full of decent books. And I definitely have more than a bookshelf.

This is such a great thread. Thank you to everyone who's responded. As I've been reading, I 've kept thinking, "Yeah!" or "I should should just cut & paste this." You're all reading my mind. So, in forcing me to think about my books in a way that hasn't been talked about but feels true, you've made me realize that rather than my self or my character, I think I feel like it's my brain spread across my walls (gross, I know), as if by picking up any one of these books -- even if I haven't read it yet -- you'll have insight into a whole current of my thoughts. It feels that intimate, like each one is bit of a diary, whether it's on my shelf for work or entertainment, it's there for a reason & you & I could probably have a whole conversation about it.

Which brings me to this question: I heard someone remark that looking at people's bookshelves is nosily intrusive. Is it? I always do that. Have I found yet another way to obliviously offend?

>57 susanbooks: "I heard someone remark that looking at people's bookshelves is nosily intrusive. Is it? "

No! Would anybody say that about the art on someone's wall? Or the ugly lamp someone got as a conversation piece? They would not. Seriously, I think either people are happy to have someone peruse their bookshelves (anyone who loves books) or they don't care. Intrusive is opening drawers or looking in closets to see if your host is using the correct hangers for their shirts and dresses.

>57 susanbooks: I heard someone remark that looking at people's bookshelves is nosily intrusive. Is it?

Yes, possibly, but the answer depends on why you're in their home and the relationship you have with them.

Like one of the people rocketjk described, I used to want visitors to look at my bookshelves. Too many visitors were rude about the books they saw. I now try to keep most everyone from so much as facing toward any of the bookcases in the front rooms or going anywhere near the office where most of my books are kept.

>57 susanbooks: "I heard someone remark that looking at people's bookshelves is nosily intrusive. Is it? I always do that. Have I found yet another way to obliviously offend?"

If someone is invited in my home and in a specific room, I expected them to look at my shelves for the most part... and my friends know that if I am visiting, I am going to check on their books.

Now, pulling books out without asking may be a problem (I am usually fine with it and if there is a fragile book in there, I will just tell people to be careful around it).

If someone decides to be rude about my books? They may never get to see them again (or my home... or me). But it depends on who it is and what they say of course.

>59 aspirit: "Too many visitors were rude about the books they saw."

That's really rotten that you had to experience that.

My own experience is pretty much the opposite. We've got multiple bookshelves in our living room and dining room and almost nobody ever takes a look and I find that frankly disappointing. Sometimes I want to say, "Look! Books! Don't you want to check them out?"

Isn’t that how you find kindred spirits?
There are two highlight memories I have.
1. Stepping inside the home of a prospective landlord. A retired teacher and his wife, a librarian. Shelves nailed to the walls all the way to the ceiling. I ended not renting from them, but we spent such a joyous afternoon talking books.

2. Daughter’s high school classmate visited our house for the first time. After a first glance around, his grin pegged him as my kind of people.

Oh, another one
3. Family friends called late one evening (this was before the internet) and explained their son had just announced he had an assignment due the next day; did I have a book on Greek mythology. Yes, come right over.

My books are friends, and they help me discover friends.

I've a nephew who's said he wants to have a library himself someday after seeing mine. I feel like my work here is done.

I sometimes comment on people’s bookshelves, and they never seem to take offense. Of course, I try and be polite, and not say anything negative about people’s tastes.

Visitors here often remark I have a lot of books - it’s very rare they comment in more detail than that. I don’t think anyone’s ever been rude about it.

>61 rocketjk: "Look! Books! Don't you want to check them out?"

I am physically incapable of walking past books without checking them out.* When neighbors sail past my little free library with never a glance inside, I marvel at their book-blindness. How do they DO that???!!!

Years ago, as a starving graduate student, I went to a professor's home for a party. His spacious living-room was wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling books. I had never seen the like, and I thought he must be the happiest man. My book-obsession didn't begin till 30 years later, but I think back with gratitude to my professor's kind invitation.

Edited to add
*If the books are on a bookshelf in someone’s home, then I look but don’t touch.

The most frequent comment I get is "have you read all those books?"

>66 john257hopper:, such a frustrating question for me, since my read and unread are shuffled together, so that all I can say is something general, else it becomes "Well, not this one ... or this one ... or this one over here ..." And when I say "Mostly," there comes that knowing look of ah ha, you've only read one or two. Or maybe I just imagine that part, lol.

>60 AnnieMod: "Now, pulling books out without asking may be a problem"

Well, see, there's where I go wrong, cos I can't look at books without pulling at least one or two out -- even if it's exactly the same edition I have at home, just to say, "Didn't you love/hate this about this book?" There's a Courtney Love lyric, "I got a blister from touching everything I see." That's me with books. Sometimes I just need to stroke the spines of ones that I particularly love. It's like unexpectedly running into beloved friends.

>68 susanbooks: In which case I tend to point to whatever shelves have a fragile book (or one whose cover gets spots and smudges by just looking at it - I hate it when books are published that way) and just mention to be careful around it (or I have something in front of it which makes it harder for someone to pull it out). I always ask if it is ok to pull out books to look at them... although I understand when people assume I am fine when I am fine them exploring.

Books are to be handled and read, not to stay in a bookcase. Which does not mean that I don't take care of my books or don't expect people to have clean hands around them but... it is not a museum :)

>68 susanbooks: It's people tendency to judge others on the books they see that's a problem. Some people are offended by book collections or ____ organization or ____ type of book or by the usual damage from usage (especially by a hyper child) or by books that don't show signs of wear or by any indication that a person reads unassigned books. And, you know? I won't change what's on my shelves because a friend hates paperbacks or a relative believes no one ever needs more than a few books in their home.

But I do worry about someone who taking extreme action against my family because of a controversial children's book that was left out. I'm still not clear on whether or not the books we own that are banned in our state's public schools make it illegal for my homeschooled child to participate in state-funded educational activities. That law is horrible and intended to punish families like mine. So maybe?

In general, I try to avoid visitors altogether.

Someone offended by book collections or the thought that someone reads unassigned books would be very unlikely to be invited to my place, or for that matter to want to go there.

So sad to visit someone's house and see books on the shelf but realize they are merely there as decoration; you are no more welcome to touch/more/inspect them than the curios positioned carefully around them. Posing as my people, but not my people!

>70 aspirit: "Some people are offended by book collections or ____ organization"

I know this isn't what you meant, but it immediately made me think of people who organize their books according to the color of the spines. To me it says they aren't really book people, but some people have entire walls like this. Do they just buy them by the pound -- or color? Or do people who really care about books & their contents actually organize them according to such an arbitrary, & I would think unworkable, system?

>66 john257hopper: Hopefully not! My collection is somewhere between 40-60% read. I've been collecting for the future, when I have more time to read. And that time has arrived. Retired, winter, no other obligations... I've already read 30 books this year, most of them from my shelves.
And the thing is, I love pre-1950s books. Those are hard to find affordably now; at least in my neck of the woods. The second-hand bookstore in my town closed its doors permanently during the shutdown. Before that, the old books were chiefly used as decor, up above the regular shelves. I had to borrow a ladder in order to browse them.
The Half-Price store does have a corner for them now, but prices them too high.
Fortunately, I used to be able to scarf them up by the box-full at 50 cents each at an annual booksale and yard sales. Dipping into those shelves now is so rewarding.
I started one by Maria Thompson Daviess yesterday, and find I want to read her entire oeuvre.

>74 2wonderY: 30 books so far this year is impressive. I don't think I could do that even if I were retired. :)

>73 susanbooks: It may be weird to you and the system may be unworkable for you but organizing by color is a valid way to organize and may not always mean that they are not book people. There are publishers who use only a few colors. And sometimes, you have enough books to be able to organize by color just because you have a lot of books. Or you have a catalog that tells you where the books are and you like the esthetics. Or you think in colors and actually remember the color of the spine of your books.

>76 AnnieMod: "Or you think in colors and actually remember the color of the spine of your books."

The one time I organized my work books by color, that was the reason. (Thank you, Springer Verlag.)

>76 AnnieMod: The old Penguin coloured spines and covers for example (at least in Britain, not sure about elsewhere)

>70 aspirit: "I'm still not clear on whether or not the books we own that are banned in our state's public schools make it illegal for my homeschooled child to participate in state-funded educational activities."

That may be the most chilling statement I've ever read.

I don't want to get into a debate here about home schooling, but I always thought one of its basic tenets was that it gave the parents more -- not less -- control over the kinds of materials being presented for study.

>75 john257hopper: Admitting that a third of them have been YA and children's chapter books. I don’t have children reading from my shelves anymore, so there might be opportunities for culling.
Though I have A LOT of bookshelves, I still have piles of books on the floor.

>76 AnnieMod: All valid points. Thanks for pointing them out.

>71 AndreasJ: Lucky you. (I mean that. Please appreciate your luck.)

In my experience, even avid readers tend toward rudeness when looking at someone else's bookshelves without being prompted. I went only for the more frustrating examples because I was in a bad mood about big issues at the moment of my writing.

>73 susanbooks: My child prefers to organize by color when the books on the shelf are close in shape, because she's one of the people who does remember the dominant cover colors of her books. That seems to help her more quickly find a book she's looking for at home. Meanwhile, I order by subject or author name. Our brains work differently.

>79 LyndaInOregon: Homeschooling generally does give parents more control. That doesn't mean any government is happy with parents (or, really, any teachers) disagreeing with what the politicians want everyone else's children to have access to. This desire to control access is also tied in with my earlier mention of "works our public libraries won't offer." The growing censorship movement makes me see personal libraries as even more important, even if they might pose increasing risks in marginalized households.

Ooooh so many people like me! I also can't walk by a bookshelf without checking it out!
And yes, people should look at mine! That's why I've got most of my books in the living room instead of a separate hidden room...
And what about stately homes? When I visit one, my favourite room is always the library, usually with loads of old books. Once there was one that was still used by the family and it had a mixture of old and recent books: I was surprised so I actually asked the guide in that room about it, haha

Back many years ago, I was in a favourite bookstore when this kind of discussion came up, and the bookseller said that once he had had a customer come in to say that he needed x shelf meters of books. His new apartment had been furnished by an interior decorator who had included bookcases in the living room. On being asked what sort of books he wanted, the customer could name the main colours, and that he wanted hardbacks. (Cost was not an important issue.)

The bookseller finally put together a set of the books he felt every German language household should have, but I could tell he wasn't happy about sending them to a home where they would probably never be read.

>84 MarthaJeanne: I think if I'd been that bookseller, I would either have put together all the unsellable books that fit the conditions, or a collection of the weirdest books I could find that fit. Or maybe both. To visiting readers, it would have been obvious that the customer either didn't read or had very strange tastes. That would be fun!

>84 MarthaJeanne: >85 NorthernStar: I think there might be a pretty big overlap between “the books he felt every German language household should have” and “unsellable books”. I’ve been in so many German homes of my parents’ and grandparents’ generation, all with proudly-displayed and never-opened sets of Goethe, Lessing and Schiller on the shelves, probably bought on subscription from a door-to-door salesman…

>86 thorold: The only books my parents bought from a door-to-door salesman war a set of The American Educator encyclopedias. Along with a bonus set of Book Trails. We read the heck out of those books. The most common answer to any question was “Let’s look it up.”

I still have both sets.

>85 NorthernStar: "I think if I'd been that bookseller, I would either have put together all the unsellable books that fit the conditions, or a collection of the weirdest books I could find that fit."

Or maybe 50 copies of one book.

I would have provided books in any language except German, just for the thought of anyone actually pulling one out.
"Have you read all these books?"
"Of course!"
"Wait, what language is this?"

Although i suppose the spines would give it away. Then again, maybe they would add to the aesthetic.

I like the idea or organising by colour, although i'd never be able to find a book i wanted. It would be chaos disguised as order.

The Danish author Jørn Riel has a short story "Palarssuaq" where one of the persons buy books by the meter and even shortens the height of them to make them fit the book shelves.

There's a famous company in the US that specializes in selling large amount of books as decorations. Selecting by cover color is one of the options. By type (such as law books) is another.

The company was rumored to have become more popular at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, when wealthier workers went to working long-distance fulltime.

A bookcase of actual books makes for a less glitchy background than the defaults do in Zoom.

>91 aspirit: D’you mean like this pretty convincing wallpaper in Ronan Farrow’s home?

>90 bnielsen: I read something not long ago in which the author/narrator talks about his father having a library of books-for-show that had been cut down like that to fit a standard binding, and the odd experience of reading books that were missing a few lines on the top of each page. I think it might have been Alberto Manguel.

My husband is colourblind. Shelving by colour would be very unkind.

A few years ago, I was appalled to see a Restoration Hardware catalogue where they had TORN THE COVERS OFF old cloth-bound books to make them all "match"; it still makes me cringe!

>82 aspirit: Thanks for explaining -- that makes sense :)

I love to look at other people's books although since COVID I haven't done a lot of visiting. I would never comment negatively on someone else's books, it is theirs and they should do/have what they want with them IMHO.

To harken back to the original inquiries:

do you think of yourself as having a collection or personal library?

I don't think of myself as having a collection or a library, but I have a lot of books on various shelving units in multiple rooms in my house. I guess I always think of libraries as either public institutions or rooms completely dedicated to books alone, and collections feels like too fancy a word for me LOL.

What does that mean to you?

Having books means security, my parents raised me as a reader, and I love having easy access to something I can look at if I want too.

What is your personal library for?

My books are for me, they make me happy.

Does it have books you haven't read?

I have a lot of books I haven't read usually ones that caught my attention at one time or I thought sounded interesting but I just haven't gotten around to them. I have a few classics around that I always feel like I should read but haven't forced myself to do it yet.

May not read?

Yes.

What does it cover and why?

Probably some of the classics and some of the reference books.

I re-read my favorite books regularly so I do like to have a personal library. I do find that most new books I now buy as ebooks as it is often hard to find all the used books in a series.

Also, that way the ebooks will still be with me if I ever have to move into a senior's residence. But to replace all my existing favorite print books as ebooks would be very expensive.

>58 rocketjk: Whenever I visit someone's home or work place and see books, my attention is immediately diverted. I could be in the middle of greetings and handshakes: I stop talking, continue to hold the person's hand, and will turn my attention towards the books. I can't stop it. I usually apologize, "Sorry, I am a bibliophile. I hope you don't mind;" while thinking, "I don't care if you do mind, I will look anyway."

Knowing others peruse my library; the books I don't want visitors to see are in a closet with the other "skeletons".

Thank god you put quotation marks on that.

>98 MavenMatilda: I usually apologize, "Sorry, I am a bibliophile. I hope you don't mind;" while thinking, "I don't care if you do mind, I will look anyway."

Amen!

i love the smell & look of books, especially old ones, and the history of them: inscriptions, bookplates etc.

It feels comforting to have them around, though i do use a kindle for more modern books so I can spend money on my antique ones.

I used to keep a stack of books on my desk in my office, extracted from my library, but all of them were books I hadn't read yet; it was part of building the anticipation. Nobody ever commented - nobody else in the office read much of anything - until one day a visitor said "Irving! Vonnegut! You have some good reading there!" Instead of appreciating the subject being raised, I found myself unexpectedly afraid of spoilers and became tongue-tied, lol. No more displaying books from my TBR pile, lesson learned. Partly to avoid that fear, but also so I don't miss out on an otherwise desired conversation.

I finally packed up the last books from the old house. One box still headed to the new house, another box of specialized material to pass on to another vintage button collector, and a car-full of discards to my favorite library. Only, one of the boxes hid under the other recyclables and refuses to leave.

>101 toast_and_tea: What you should have said is, " I love the smell of old books in the morning....it's the smell of knowledge...." :-)

Sharing a related article from Tor.com, "Building Our Personal Libraries, and the Books We Leave Behind"
https://www.tor.com/2023/05/11/building-our-personal-libraries-and-the-books-we-...

"You don’t have to keep books to be a reader. And you certainly don’t need a reason to keep them. But if you grew up on stories, if your memories are infused with what you read where and when and who you talked about it with, books aren’t that different from photographs. They remind you how, and when, and why, and what you did with that knowledge, and how it fits into your life even now."

>105 Cecrow: Fantastic quote. Thanks.

>46 AnnieMod: Thanks for sharing - I recognize myself in your story story (minus the eastern Europe thing, though)
Libraries only had translated works back then, and very little Science Fiction and fantasy got translated, so I had to read in english. Expensive and difficult to get early on, so even though I have more money, and online shopping is a lot easier, I still have a scarcity mentality about books, and tend to hoard.

>105 Cecrow: lovely article, thanks for sharing!

>108 amberwitch: You have seen that we're bringing Martha Wells to Sweden in a few weeks' time? You seem to be a fan of hers.

https://eurocon2023.se

Perhaps a little off topic in this thread, sorry about that. I'm sure she has a magnificent personal library, though! We'll have to ask her.

>109 anglemark: That sounds amazing, thank you for sharing.
There is also a Diana Wynne Jones session on the agenda! I'll have to see if I can make it