I couldn’t pass up reading an article on Lithub of 10 Famous Book Hoarders. Have you read it? While I was surprised to read that Karl Lagerfeld has a collection of more than 300,000 books, I think what was more surprising was to see Oprah’s collection is only 1,500. I always imagined that Oprah’s collection would be huge.
In the article some celebrities had collections of 400 books while the largest were in the thousands and it just made me think about some of the collections. Some people seem to collect books on subjects that are near and dear to them but some I wonder if it’s just for the aesthetics. And, while books are beautiful, I hoard them because I love to read.
I think most of us collect books because we are bookworms. When I was in my 20s I couldn’t imagine getting rid of any books and started amassing quite a lot. Over the years, I’ve written about how that has significantly changed for me. I trade books with friends, give away books to the library and sometimes I take books to Half Price Books to sell only to use the money to purchase more new books.
When I buy books, I buy them because I fully intend to read them. Granted, a lot of these have become shelf-sitters but that’s why I do cull the stacks every once in a while because I know my reading tastes change. Still I’m always hopeful that I will eventually get to all of those books on my shelves.
My house has a lot of books. My husband’s office has a full wall of shelves and most of the shelves are filled with his books. And, of course my studio/library also has a full wall of shelves. My shelves are double-stacked and have now spilled over onto the floor. I don’t know how many books I have but last time I counted my collection was at a little over 1,000 books.
Do you consider yourself a collector? How many books do you have and/or do you keep books?
Have a wonderful weekend! I think I will spend some time with my books and maybe try not to add more books to the shelves this weekend. Haha.
I’m definitely a book hoarder. I’ve been cutting down on buying books lately and visit the library instead, but I’ll still buy books if they are from my favourite authors. And of course there’s always this satisfaction of owning books, don’t you think? 😉
By any definition I’m a hoarder! But I’m a very happy hoarder. My book collection is very important to me, and there have been so many times that I had a book in my collection (sometimes for years), sitting there unread, but it was right there at the moment I needed it. I saw that article too, and I’m in pretty good company, overall. Thanks for a fun post. We book lovers have to stick together!
I used to own so many books, but in preparation for our move (and a major downsizing), I got rid of a lot, as did my husband. I know have a single bookcase in my “office” and another in our bedroom. Oh, and a couple of shelves in the den downstairs. My husband’s “collection” is down to one bookcase. We probably got rid of 50% of our books before moving. In some ways it’s nice to only have our favorites and those we want to read, rather than every single book we’ve bought over the past two decades. Now to make time to read all those in my TBR stacks! And why did I go to the library?! 🙂
Melody – I totally agree! I love looking at my shelves and feel such comfort in knowing I have all of those books. I’ve tried cutting back a bit on buying books as well but one month I may do really well and then boom, next month I’m off my budget 🙂
Lisa Sumner – You are absolutely right, we gotta stick together. That’s the only one bad thing about the growing collection, the number of shelf sitters keeps growing but I do like knowing they are waiting patiently for me 🙂
Les in OR – Oh I love the new name 🙂 I bet it must have been hard to get rid of the books for your move but that is a great way of looking at your current collection. These are the keepers!
I’m not a serious book hoarder, and yet my shelves are full and so are tables, and oh, yes stacks on the floor. If it is not a book that I’m not likely to read again or want to save for someone else’s pleasure, I try to donate to Goodwil, the library, or a nearby retirement home. I give away about 30 at a time and usually at least twice a year, mostly ARCs that come in the mail. I still have 100’s of books that I probably won’t read again, but can’t get rid of–nothing like what I see on other’s bookshelves!
I am an awful book hoarder though I know I need to downsize my books along with all the other stuff I do not feel so attached to. I have several boxes I need to get rid of from my last weeding project and really do need to think about another weeding project this summer. I wonder what Karl Lagerfeld’s books are like? I picture him as having loads of art books and coffee table books–imagine storing all those!