Happy Book Lovers Day! (and a poll)

[Nonny]

Happy Book Lovers Day!



I had a random thought the other day when thinking I needed to do some house cleaning/purging (and shortly after watching the horrible rendition of Fahrenheit 451 on HBO), if something catastrophic happened and you could only read the PHYSICAL books in your home, how well off would you be?  Would you have a lot to read?  Barely anything at all?  How long could you go before you went crazy with lack of new material?

Assume in this hypothetical you can listen to any audio CDs or tapes you have - provided you have a way to play them - but you can't listen to digital files or read any ebooks, and you can't get any more books from the library.

I get probably 99% of my books from the library these days (98% of them as eBooks for my Kindle), but I'd actually do OK in this scenario for about 3-4 years before I got bored.  I don't have all of my favorite Stephen King, or any graphic novels (so no re-reading Saga), but I have a bunch of books I've never read (for various reasons), and even when I purge books I've read I keep things I know that I'd like to re-read.

[bex]

I would do okay. I have a lot of books in the basement I'd have to dig out, but I feel like I could probably make it a year or two with the books I have. Of course I'm assuming I would have a lot more time to read so maybe I'd go through them faster? And some would be re-reads. We have several boxes in the basement that are full of books, and then I have books scattered throughout the first floor, so yeah, probably a year or two?

[pumpkin]

I could probably go a few years with the books I have on hand, though some would be re-reads and I'd have to dig some of the books out, but that's why I'm working on cleaning up the garage anyway.

If I could share with my local family we could all probably go several years between what I have and what my parents have that I've never read (some of which I've never had interest in).

[travella]

I wouldn't last very long without the library. Most of my books are on Kindle, but I buy a few books here and there from the library book sale so I have a couple books at home that I need to read. I don't really keep a library for myself because we move too often, I don't reread books, and I hate clutter. I could last a lot longer if I started raiding my kids' libraries. Each of my kids have huge home libraries. For some reason I have no problem moving my kids' books. :/

[rootbeerfloat]

I don't like to keep a lot of physical books, and most of what is in the house are kid books or awful self-help garbage courtesy of MIL, so it would be dire.

[monkeyfeet]

I’d be okay for 3-6 months. Like Travella, I use the library 99% of the time, read on my kindle, and rarely reread books, so once I’ve read them, I pass them on. I do however have HP (waiting to reread when my kids are old enough), a handful I’ve collected over the years that I’d like to read, some non-fiction that are low on the list. My kids have a large collection. When we moved this summer, I actually got rid of a lot. I was all, “they’re books, even if he doesn’t like them now.” I’ve trained my husband well. He replied, “if you have to ask the question, you should probably get rid of them.

[msmerymac]

I have probably two decently sized bookcases full of books, about half of which would be new to me either because I haven't gotten around to reading them yet or because they belong to my husband. So it's heavy on literary fiction, historiography and fantasy/sci-fi (a lot of Octavia Butler). So I could last at least a year, if not 2-4 years, without knowing how much time I'd have to read. We have probably 200+ books, maybe 300 if you count cookbooks, coffee table books, how-to stuff.

[snshne322]

I've definitely collected a lot of books over time, about 3-4 large shelves, but most of them are read. I still have plenty of new ones, maybe 50? I do use the library for most books, but I can't resist adding to my wall of books.

I'm also a serial re reader and collect my favorites, so I'd be pretty happy for a long time.

[tacokick]

I’d be floundering. I own virtually no fiction or nonfiction that is not a cookbook or a craft book. I have a few 1930s reissue Nancy Drews and some of my college civil rights/history books and that’s it pretty much. So like a week or less? I normally read about 25-30 books a month.

I’m a heavy library user. If I could use my kindle I’d probably be good for a year because I have a ton of Netgalley/free/Kindle Prime books on there.

[mrspez07]

Happy Book Lovers Day!
Even though I get most of my books from the library, I think I would be ok. We have nearly 2 bookshelves full of books and the boys have a lot of books too, including some not too painful kid books and fact-style books. Most of the books in Our shelves would either be re-reads of stuff I brought to the marriage years ago or reading DHs collected books which aren’t really my style. I still have quite a few of my college history books I haven’t been able to part with as well, and those would almost be like reading new, as it’s been 20 years.
I am the type of person that when I’m bored, I read anything I can see, I could do that and be ok.

[aurora]

Most of the books I have at home I've read and then decided to keep for potential re-reads. I actually don't know how many I have, but I think more than 100.

So yeah, I'd be good for quite a while re-reading books I like.

[CheeringCharm]

I'd be really lucky! I buy physical copies of all my favorite books. I have a ton (too many really, not enough space for them).

[rainbowchip]

Most of my books are digital and I don't really buy physical copies anymore because I like reading on an ereader better and my house is too small so I don't have a lot of space to store books.

I do have the Outlander series in paper books so that would keep me busy for a while.

I have thought a lot about the apocalypse and there's a B&N about a block away from the Sam's club so I would definitely be hitting up both of them at the cusp of the end of the world.

[abs]

I have quite a few books. Most of them are kids books but hey. I could re-read all of the Chronicles of Narnia and Little House on the Prairie and Harry Potter and be quite happy. I bought a ton of books before I converted to an e-reader though and still have some that I might want to re-read one day.

[dorothyinAus]

I'd be fine. I moved over 900 books with me when I moved to Australia in 2011 and while I have donated some, I've added many more, not including my husband's library. Many are books I've already read, but there are some on the to be read list as well as some I have just in case I ever want to read then or because they were gifts from friends or family who don't know my reading tastes well enough to select "good" books for me.

And I'm a re-reader so I don't think it would be any trouble at all if I had to exist with only my physical books.

[Nonny]

I think dorothyinAus is definitely winning at this hypothetical little game. LOL!

Also, you can totally count your husband's and kids' books in this, those are books in your house, right? My own H's contributions include about 3/4 of the Wheel of Time series, two from Joe Hill, a collection of Edgar Allen Poe, the books based on the Myst video games, and a bunch of outdated (but still moderately useful) college texts on computer programming and software design. 

[ally]

Aug 10, 2018 9:47:47 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

I have thought a lot about the apocalypse and there's a B&N about a block away from the Sam's club so I would definitely be hitting up both of them at the cusp of the end of the world.

I would also be hitting up Panera (all the carbs & sugar), the liquor store, and then heading to B&N in the event that the world is ending. 

If that is not an option - - My husband says that he could last many years with the books in our house. I, on the other hand, feel our books would last only several months - and that is rereading everything. I have a ton of books for the Nook and now tend to mostly borrow ebooks from the library. I would be very sad to lose those as options.

[expectantsteelerfan]

Interesting, as we have a small room with a built-in desk that we moved our super cheap target bookcases into (after our 4th move with the military) and they are literally falling apart and the books are basically holding them together. We have 2 tall bookcases and one short one filled with mostly fiction (dh's medical textbooks are somewhere else, but I have a few 'teaching' books that wouldn't be my choice to read unless something like this really happened), so I think we'd be ok for a while. But dh was recently talking about cleaning out that room to make it more of a work from home room for him, and I ok'd it as long as he donated the books and other stuff in there instead of tossing it.  Although, as a former English teacher, I kept copies of all the books I've taught with my hand-written notes in the margins, so I definitely want to keep those too.
I think I could probably cull what I actually would want to keep to the small bookcase because I don't tend to re-read anything except series that I really love, and 99.9% of what I read comes from the library (either e-book or physical book, depending on how long waitlists are).
And my kids are definitely ok.  They both have their own bookcases in their rooms (and books that spill over into any nook and cranny), so although we go through and donate books as they change reading levels, they quickly get to overflowing again because that is one thing I can't say no to...I order from every single scholastic flier that comes home!  Ds has the Harry Potter series, so I'd make him share that too!

[ufcasey]

I own very few physical books, 99% of my reading is ebooks and/or library books. So yeah, I would be out of reading material very quickly. However I have been pestering my husband to get bookcases installed in our living room which of course I would then immediately have to fill with books. Which is probably why he is resistant to the idea - it'd be expensive haha