What does middle class mean to you?

mm true, but I still think that they are not as snobbish as the UK

Haven't you ever watched 'Frasier', Jadey? Frasier and Nils are huge intellectual and cultural snobs. Do such people really exist in America? They do here.

Have you never watched Real Housewives of whoever. Most of the are the most terrific snobs. Even admonish their friends for talking to staff. Terrible

I seem to be always reading comments from people in the States about how the British "worship" royalty. Their attitude to Presidents and their families is pretty like worship.

In the states they worship money and are snobbish about those who have not succeeded in acquiring stacks of it.

Pretty keen on our "royal news" as well I'd say.

my husband must be middle class then. We have over 5,000 books on shelves in lounge or is it living room or parlour? we have boxes and boxes of the things in his study and on shelves in same. Falling down the side of the bed Oh and laying sideways on bookshelf, apparently another sign of middle class.

I do think that middles class is due to the profession one in rather than how much money one has. and saying one all the time is probably middle class.

correction to above, the lying sideways pertains to the books and not oneself on shelf!!!!!

Agree Elegran re some worshipping money and being snobbish about poorer people. ie trailer trash etc and such comments.

I cannot see the point of having loads of money and not sharing it . Surely there is only so much anyone can spend and let's face it none of us know now long we will be here on this earth, so why spend your time examining your bank balance? Just wondering that's all.

5000 books! I thought my house was rather 'book dominated' never counted them but at a rough count 500-1000! For heavens sake, how big a house do you have?

Over 5,000 books on shelves in one room???
Sorry - I find that unbelievable.

Perhaps they are on 100 kindles Ana

I too have a "lot of books" haven't actually counted them but there are certainly hundreds. Blimey you would need a hell of a lot of Billy's for 5000 books!

When were were first together 30 years ago my daughter counted his books on shelf in livingroom, lounge, whatever and there were 3,100 They are still there, different house same shelves. Its surprising just how many books can fit on a shelf, try counting yours. I can't be bothered to count them - maybe 4,000 but we have many in large plastic boxes in spare room I have asked him to get rid of them but like many men he's a collector. have just done a guestimate by counting in roughly tens on bookcase in lounge and there are 2,000 plus. DH has worked as a countryside officer and natural history curator for over 40 years and along with studying wildlife, lecturing and giving talks he has written papers studied and written books himself re wildlife. Many of these books, in fact most, are to do with Natural History. His other collections are World War 11, RAF, Trains, Biographies, the majority of the books are non fiction. Then there are my books, mainly non fiction, cookery, gardening and wildlife.
We have a moderate sized house Galen but a long lounge of which one wall is taken up with bookshelves. I love them and love it. I was amazed when I first saw his collection but fell in love with him anyway. Try counting like I say and those with large collections of books with be surprised. It doesn't take so many bookshelves to house 2-3000 books. Like I say I have just guestimated and there are over 3,000. If I could I would put a pic up, feel unbelieved but hey, I know the truth and I would never use Kindle. Love the feel of books.

guestimated 2,000 plus not 3,000 plus just on lounge bookshelf and they were the ones standing there are at least another 200 lying on side.

I was only joking about the Kindles Flowerofthewest Blimey that really is a lot of books !

Mind you I too love the feel of books and there are some books that do not transfer well to the Kindle. However I love the fact that if I am out and about I can have an entire library (well almost) in my handbag. I love my Kindle and wouldn't be without it.

Thats ok Gilly, understand. I'm a bit frustrated by the amount although I do love to see them. One of my DD's has no books on display at all - cookery book or two yes. Her children read and the girl seems to enjoy reading. Always have a book in hand before going to sleep. Just seems strange not to see them around the house. All of my sons have bookcases and my other daughter. Not taking up living room wall but in the living room all the same. All my children except the one without books on show seem to love reading.

Kindles do save use of paper therefore help to save rainforest I suppose. Maybe I should consider it.

I do recommend the Kindle Flowerofthewest. I do still buy special books though and have a small study with 2 Billy bookcases crammed full (nowhere near 5000 though). But just get my every day reading via kindle as it saves on the space, and "the rain forest" too. I particularly like the fact that once loaded up with books you can carry it around with you easily and have hundreds of books available to you without having to hump a case load of books around with you.

Go on give it a try

Flowerofthewest - don't worry about the rainforest. It's a common misconception that paper comes from rainforest trees, but paper manufacturers have huge managed forests mainly in Scandinavia which can hardly be described as rainforest! I use the Kindle a lot too and am hoping I can persuade myself to get rid of the books I will never, despite my best intentions, read again. Not quite 5000 though! I feel guilty about independent small bookshops.

I love our garden gnomes x