Books in the house? Where is the limit?

[Anonymous]

If your husband wants to sit around watching TV in his stained wife-beater, you should try to do a better job of meeting his needs.

How are you going to make him sandwiches and bring him beer if you are sitting around reading?

And you remember what happened last time he thought you were getting uppity with all your book learning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your husband wants to sit around watching TV in his stained wife-beater, you should try to do a better job of meeting his needs.

How are you going to make him sandwiches and bring him beer if you are sitting around reading?

And you remember what happened last time he thought you were getting uppity with all your book learning?

I know you are joking but before I settled down with DH, I dated a guy who was irritated with my "book learning" and uppity-ness. He also made me re-state myself to use shorter sentences and fewer grandiose words. ("hard words" was his phrase)...his body was like a playground tho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot fathom limiting books. I mean really, I've never heard of someone having an issue with this.

Ok. Over the shock. Most people who read on tablets read regular books too. The total migration to e readers never happened and likely won't ever happen. Particularly with children's books.

I wouldn't budge in having a decent main bookshelf somewhere. This is not a ridiculous request. Does he have hobbies and gear? This is your gear....

We are both huge readers and we absolutely limit the number of hard copy books we keep. We also both use kindles but get books as gifts or sometimes ones we want to keep and pass around, etc. the Kindles have helped us declutter a lot actually because between birthdays and holidays we end up seriously getting about 20 new books as gifts a year before we even get any on our own. We have done "sweeps" every few years and given away any books we don't want to absolutely keep.

We live in a 2 bedroom condo in N. Arlington with a baby now, so unless we want to pay storage fees for books, we have to limit!

But we are also not fervently anti-kindle or anti-paper, I think some balance might help you guys out a lot here

[Anonymous]

I love your husband's slippery slope comment.so funny. OP, how many shelves are you talking about. There is a wide variation in "few."

[Anonymous]

Hostile poster one more time.
There are books in the guest room nightstand and obviously all other nightstands.
There are books in the guest closet (which is where, I think, extra sheets, blankets, and towels should go. What's a guest going to need more, an anthology of southern literature between 1890-1925 or a handtowel?)
There are books surrounding the tv. There are three book shelves in the living room, one in the bedroom, (one in each child's room which doesn't count) and I can't even tell you how many in the basement.

I content my husband has a problem. The books are stacked so that there are books behind books!

This, I argue, is a slippery slope.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like 2 dif extremes in your house. Can't you compromise? Like use the library so you have your books, but return them when they're due so they don't take up space (and save money).

[Anonymous]

I reread books all the time and prefer paper books (although I do have a kindle and use it to download free books from Amazon). I have 3 book shelves for my books. I have a bookshelf full of books at my mom's house too....

[Anonymous]

So glad to read this thread. I have too many books. I have been watching the show Hoarders and reading Minimalist websites to inspire me to just get rid of stuff. It has been great. The less clutter the better I feel. We have a small house. The entire first floor is down to the basics. We have lots of toys in the basement though and my small master bedroom closet is overflowing with books. I just can't part with them. I have donated many books to the library but I always seem to wander into the bookstore and buy more. I try to convince myself I should donate more to the library because they will always be there if I need them. My kids are big readers and they are overflowing with books also. I guess we all have things we can't let go of!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hostile poster one more time.
There are books in the guest room nightstand and obviously all other nightstands.
There are books in the guest closet (which is where, I think, extra sheets, blankets, and towels should go. What's a guest going to need more, an anthology of southern literature between 1890-1925 or a handtowel?)
There are books surrounding the tv. There are three book shelves in the living room, one in the bedroom, (one in each child's room which doesn't count) and I can't even tell you how many in the basement.

I content my husband has a problem. The books are stacked so that there are books behind books!

This, I argue, is a slippery slope.

Hey... that's my house... honey, is that you?

Well actually we have more bookshelves than that. Twenty, to be exact. And yes, many of them have books lying flat and books behind other books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hostile poster again. Forgot to mention that my child has a great big set himself which I am now starting to divide with his little baby sister. Maybe 200-300. Most of those are temporary, i think.

I also read a lot. I read 1-3 books a week depending. I usually read actual books but sometimes read e-books. Don't get me wrong; I like books, reading, and want to instill that in my children but I thhink my DH is a book hoarder. I think he has a problem. My basement is filled with a set of 1997 modern literary criticisms...you know how big that is? !@#$%^& Big.

I do think you could actually burn the set of 1997 modern literary criticism at no loss at all to civilization. And I was an English major. Honors.