Who lives in a house like this? On a couple of my bookshelves

Who lives in a house like this? An interesting woman!

Mine’s like yours Grandmasue, or at least it was until I took around 200 books to our library and emptied the rickety bookcase out before someone took it away.
I’m waiting for a new bookcase to be built then I will have another sort out. Mine aren’t in any particular order though the one in the bedroom is full of the newest purchases awaiting reading ??

Had a big sort out recently in anticipation of the decorator coming. DH was never a reader, so difficult to know why people bought him books! They’ve all gone, many back to the giver and all that’s left is DD1s collection of Harry Potters and a couple of odd ones of DD2s.
I’ve dozens of paperbacks but keep them in bags in the airing cupboard on a read one, put it in a separate bag to recycle to a friend basis.

We have masses of books in several bookcases - some of the shelves are double stacked! - and not in any sort of order, except size, if shelves are of different heights.
They all need a really good dusting!

I regularly take paperbacks to charity shops, but often end up buying a couple more. A lot nowadays is on my Kindle, though - it’s dh who will keep buying more - much of it relatively heavy non fiction and he’s a very slow reader with a huge TBR (to be read) pile already - piled up on a desk since no more room on the shelves!

I’ve given up saying anything though (e.g. ‘Why not just read the ones you’ve already got first?’). Might as well not bother.

I think bookshelves are a signifier of the middle-class. I used to have hundreds of books (English teacher) but when I moved about 10 years ago, I got rid of everything that I hadn't read in the last 10 years. I've kept the basics that I'm likely to use in my work, which still amounts to about 100 books, but I haven't missed the rest.

My mum also had hundreds of books when she died. I kept 8 of them. The rest either went to charity shops or were recycled. Very sad.

These days, if I get a new book, I read it and then pass it on.

One of the hardest things I ever did was to get rid of my floor to ceiling bookcase and the contents therein. Many years later I've absolutely no regrets but boy was it painful at the time.

GrandmasueUK, you wouldn't be Susan Hill by any chance?
(Howards End is on the Landing)

Kim19

One of the hardest things I ever did was to get rid of my floor to ceiling bookcase and the contents therein. Many years later I've absolutely no regrets but boy was it painful at the time.

Exactly. They're not missed, which does mean that they serve a different purpose really. A friend I had years ago, a very intellectual woman, only owned about 10 books. She was a big library user and did what I do now. Read them and passed them on.

eazybee

*GrandmasueUK*, you wouldn't be Susan Hill by any chance?
^(Howards End is on the Landing)^

? I have both the Susan Hill book and Howard’s End upstairs, but not on the landing.
I do need to cull, but a lot of the books I have downstairs I re-read. I’m especially fond of the Beverly Nicholls book, The Tree That Sat Down. It has a witch in it called Miss Smith and I was convinced that it was a description of one of my feared primary teachers who had the same name. ?

eazybee

*GrandmasueUK*, you wouldn't be Susan Hill by any chance?
^(Howards End is on the Landing)^

I read Susan Hill’s book and then tried to do the same thing the next year. I did buy a few books on Kindle but didn’t buy any physical books. It was fun, actually! It made me rake though the shelves to find something to read.

I’m currently reading an old paperback children’s book that I came across while decluttering - an E Nesbit title - and I’m really enjoying it. I don’t know why I’d never read it before, The House of Arden.

SueDonim
'an E Nesbit title - and I’m really enjoying it. I don’t know why I’d never read it before, The House of Arden.'

As a Nesbitt fan, I had to find this. I got the Kindle edition and am now about a quarter of the way through it. I've got an actual Kindle and Kindle apps on my iPad and my android phone. I'm trying to limit my book buying. Last week it was 2 paperbacks, 1 hardback and 2 Kindles, so I'm improving

We have one set of shelves in an alcove which has reference books, which I suppose are superfluous with the internet so readily available, a full size bookcase whose contents were culled during the lockdown, leaving favourites only, and a library shelf which generally has about 10 books on it.

We sent loads of books to the charity shop when we moved but then invested in a large oak bookshelf for the recess in the hall. It's now full of husbands spy novels, my cookery books (lots of Jamie and Mary) and miscellaneous reference books. I read on a Kindle.

We now only have one bookcase and it contains mostly “books for dipping into”; many are large reference books; quite a few on photography, painters and painting; some history and natural history. There is also poetry, some fiction and biography, and both the Anglo Saxon and Plantagenet Chronicles, which are my favourites and much thumbed for both their illustrations and their content. The whole of the bottom shelf is taken up by a set of encyclopaedias that are handsome but totally redundant. We bought them fifty five years ago. The children got some use out of them pre internet, but now they are just taking up space. Who on earth wants encyclopaedias these days?

I think we have 16 bookcases plus additional shelves. We're having a sort out so there are now piles on the dining room table [thankfully we can eat in the kitchen!]. We also have a music cupboard! I'm trying not to buy novels now but I can't get rid of the classics - just in case the grandchildren want them but I suppose they get theirs via on line and not in books. We have books on all sorts of subjects - including old encyclopedias. [encyclopediae?] which I think are fascinating

I finished The House of Arden last night, Grandmasue and went to sleep with a happy sigh. I think I need to read more children’s books.

Good luck in ‘curing’ your book habit.

I do like the look of books in a house but do not have any myself, if I lived somewhere bigger there would be bookshelves with books on but just for the look of them.

I read three books a week on my kindle and do not feel the need for reference books as anything can be looked up online.

I probably have 4 or 5 books somewhere in my house,