How many books do you possess?

[Perseus]

How many books do you possess?

 

[zxc]

Probably around 500. although most of them are in boxes in the attic (I only have so many shelves!). I only have about 100-200 on shelves.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

So, option number 2 is completely redundant to number 1... not that anyone is going to pick either of them.
​

 

[Duty]

25-100

I just buy essential books for my interests, and use the internet for much of the rest.

 

[Nightingale]

I'm sure I have over 500. Possibly over 1000, but counting that high doesn't sound like fun. That is just my library over the past three years. I ended up giving my first library away when I moved out of the country for a year.

I could afford to have fewer though. Somehow I've ended up with a lot of titles I don't particularly care for.

 

[Ermine]

I know how many books I'd like to have, but have only about 15 I got with my own money, 30 I borrow from my parents' bookshelf, and all the books I get at the library.

I don't really have the means to buy every book I want.

 

[GarmGarf]

I don't read much.

If I had a book in one hand, a video game in the other, and then also a computer where I can go foruming and/or design games, well, reading the book is the lowest priority.

The only books I own are like the ones I had to purchase for English class. My sister has a good few books though.

People criticize me and state that I don't read enough, and that "reading is educational" or whatever, but hey, I don't see the fact that I think for myself instead of being influenced by authors as a fault.

I love video game lore though. Video games have something on novels. There are many ways to make the reader feel sympathetic for people, but video games can make you play as them; make you have to adjust your morality and ideals for success in the game. Novels can't do that.

I'm alright at composing bodies of lore, but my words lack flavor, and this is why video games are my favorite medium of lore.

In short: one isn't a great person for reading books; write books if you want to be great.

 

[Kidege]

Okay, so who's the guy with the regular library?

If we put together my parent's books and mine, we'd probably get a regular library, but my books only make a small one. I love getting books and have read most of those I own. Sure, sometimes they're expensive, that's why I don't own a lot of contemporary literature. It's easier to find cheap editions of classic works. My folks indulged my habit when I was a kid, and back in highschool I saved my meals money to get more books. Now I buy mostly them used.

I have an emotional tie to my books. It's not just what I learn from them, the enjoyment of reading a tale or of getting the nuances of style, it's a sense of comfort, of familiarity. When I have to move and leave some behind I really feel the loss. Quite frankly, I like them more than people.

Yes, the Internet is great. I surf a lot too. But it is not the same kind of experience. I've fallen asleep clutching a book and it was alright in the morning. My laptop might not survive it.

I don't think I'm smarter or have better empathic skills due to my book reading habit. I do think I'm better equipped to deal with complex situations -theorical and practical- with lots of variables.

 

[GarmGarf]

Okay, so who's the guy with the regular library?

Click one of the figures on the poll.

I have an emotional tie to my books. It's not just what I learn from them, the enjoyment of reading a tale or of getting the nuances of style, it's a sense of comfort, of familiarity. When I have to move and leave some behind I really feel the loss. Quite frankly, I like them more than people.

I got that with the His Dark Materials series. It felt like a part of me died when I tuned the last page. Lyra's Oxford did not purge the pain!

I don't think I'm smarter or have better empathic skills due to my book reading habit. I do think I'm better equipped to deal with complex situations -theorical and practical- with lots of variables.

I'd say the video game players are better equipped to deal with such situations. I just played a video game and I had to choose which one of my followers gets to live, and which has to die.

See, the reader can't make any decisions in the novel, unless you play one of those RPG book games. :P

 

[grey matters]

I have 500+ books I could have more, but I try to keep the number of books I own down to a minimum of just my favorite ones. To do this I get rid of a lot of them. I have a family that reads a lot so I can pass a book onto them when my husband and I are done with it, and I can also sell my books to a used book store.

I might get lynched for saying this but one can actually have too many books. I have 6 bookshelves that are filled to overflowing.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

I'd say the video game players are better equipped to deal with such situations. I just played a video game and I had to choose which one of my followers gets to live, and which has to die.

See, the reader can't make any decisions in the novel, unless you play one of those RPG book games. :P

It is an interesting point, and I find that I have difficulty truly being callous and embracing the cruel paths available in some games, so it's interesting in that regard. (Perhaps this deserves a thread of its own.)

There's another angle to consider here. I was tallying the word counts from the Final Fantasy VII script, and it looked like there were about 75,000 words to the whole script (when you account for the action descriptions on the version I found first). That's roughly equal to a 300 page novel. But how much time does it take to play through it all? If I can remember right, somewhere between 20 and 25 hours, add another 5-15 if you go after the optional challenges of Ruby and Emerald. I know I can read a 300 page novel in six to eight hours, easily.

There's also the question of what games are being played, in the sense of how much time goes in and how many different experiences are provided in turn. Unfortunately, many games are filled with repeating experiences that are only slightly different in each iteration.

Personally, I enjoy RPGs and Strategy Games a lot, but this comparison doesn't really work out. Books and games function too differently to compare rightly in this way.

Also, on the making choices question - when playing a game, you can feel your own reaction to a choice, but reading will let you watch the consequences of someone else's choice. And the reason why they picked it, and how they felt about it, etc.
​

 

[Perseus]

I'd guess there are about four thousand books all over the damn place and I cannot move.

 

[Waterstiller]

People criticize me and state that I don't read enough, and that "reading is educational" or whatever, but hey, I don't see the fact that I think for myself instead of being influenced by authors as a fault.

Reading is the only thing that really helps me not feel so alone. It's a one-way thing, but I consider myself lucky to sit down with some of the greatest minds in all of humanity and just listen to what they have to say. It's forced listening. It's getting a chance to peek into someone's mind and experience what they perceive through their own unique narrative. Being influenced by authors helps to better shape your world-view and they might introduce you to perceptions you would have never had otherwise.

I'd recommend this Mental Floss book for someone who doesn't particularly see the merit in reading. It's a lot of fun to go through and you can use it to figure out what you might be interested in studying or checking out. What it does is pretty much sell you on a particular subject, book, author, artist, ect. Like having a friend suggest you things but there isn't that sense of guilt for not taking their recommendation.
__________________________________________________________________

I'm inclined to read more non-fiction and philosophy than fiction; probably 3-1. I've given away a ton of books over the years and about 50+ christian books when I went atheist. Presently I have near 100 or so in my collection.

Currently reading a book recommended from here: Solitude by Anthony Storr. I'm only half-way through but I definitely approve. (however I must express my annoyance at him only using masculine pronouns. Pet peeve.)

 

[Vrecknidj]

If I count my wife's, we have well in excess of 3,000, probably close to 5,000. There are so many boxed up in the attic that I'm not really sure.

Dave

 

[Kidege]

Also, on the making choices question - when playing a game, you can feel your own reaction to a choice, but reading will let you watch the consequences of someone else's choice. And the reason why they picked it, and how they felt about it, etc.
​

I couldn't have put it better. It's how I learned to analyse situations and motivations. I could have learned it elsewhere, but the books had an advantage: I tend to be pretty clueless about my own motivations. It's the whole "I have no feelings" issue. But when I see a character doing something I could have done, it's like getting a new pair of eyes.

 

[Jesin]

There are many ways to make the reader feel sympathetic for people, but video games can make you play as them

Yes. That's why PMD2 was so potpourri-opening effective.

But I cannot allow your dismissal of books to go unchallenged. To do so would be a disgrace to the name of Terry Pratchett.

Read the Discworld books.

You might want to start with Guards! Guards! or Going Postal, but really there are lots of good places to start.

 

[Kidege]

Books also help improve your grammar and vocabulary.

 

[NoID10ts]

Do sticky magazines count as books?

 

[Anling]

100-500. Unfortunately half my books got thrown away when my parents moved while I was at college. Luckily I had most of my favorites at school with me. Unfortunately the ones that were lost were most of my completely random reference books. So very sad. I love my books. So that's what my family usually gives me. I just got four for Christmas, and then I also get to borrow all of my dad's books, too. Come to think of it, I frequently give books as presents too.
A regular library is a goal of mine. Some day I will not only have the space to keep it, but the resources to acquire that many books. And hopefully I'll be able to read most of them too. At least use them for reference now and again.

 

[Perseus]

PS: I lost 2000 books and my record collection in a fire. Needed rebuilding up to 4000 odd, all over the place and getting in the way.

Eventually, everything grinds to a halt!

 

[Perseus]

Do sticky magazines count as books?

Not if they are under the bed.

 

[Madoness]

I guess.... the number doesn't matter.... I possess books that I've read or plan to read. There is no use to have books that I don't have no interest in.
I don't own much books..... maybe max 100... but as my parents and also grandfather have huge libraries with different materials, there is no point to buy ones they have, I just visit them if needed.
Recently I found out huge advantage of audio books... I listen them only when I'm at work, these are books which are either hard to get or no use of obtaining, since I plan to "read" them once. This is an advantage of using time rationaly... work on a job and "read" the book at the same time.

 

[GarmGarf]

Yes. That's why PMD2 was so potpourri-opening effective.

But I cannot allow your dismissal of books to go unchallenged. To do so would be a disgrace to the name of Terry Pratchett.

Read the Discworld books.

You might want to start with Guards! Guards! or Going Postal, but really there are lots of good places to start.

I've already started. I've read Feet of Clay (but yes, I read it for an English class assignment). It was good, yeah, but I've had tons more fun playing video games.

I didn't come out of the blue and attack books. It's just a counterattack, stimulated by the challenging of me IRL for not reading books.

 

[Jesin]

I've already started. I've read Feet of Clay (but yes, I read it for an English class assignment). It was good, yeah, but I've had tons more fun playing video games.

I haven't read that one yet. Hmm. Seems I missed two Watch books (Feet of Clay and Jingo) between Men at Arms and The Fifth Elephant. I'll have to read those sometime.

I seem to have gotten the sequence of the Rincewind books right, though.

I didn't come out of the blue and attack books. It's just a counterattack, stimulated by the challenging of me IRL for not reading books.

I know. I like video games, too. But some books are really worth reading.

I don't see the fact that I think for myself instead of being influenced by authors as a fault.

My only problem with that sentence is that it says "instead of" where it should say "as well as".

 

[Spaekle]

I'm the sort of person who goes out and buys a bunch of 'classic literature' in an effort to become more well-read and then ends up never reading them. :[ I'm not sure just how many books I own, but if we're counting informational books, books on drawing techniques, and so on, I might have around 30-50. If we're counting comics I have a hell of a lot more, but somehow I don't think that counts.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

If we're counting comics I have a hell of a lot more, but somehow I don't think that counts.

Depends on how many of them would qualify as 'guilty pleasure, indulgent escapism'.
​

 

[Linsejko]

I try and keep my material valuables down to an absolute minimal, and so I've been able to keep books fairly low... I indicated 250-500, but that's not true anymore. I just sold several, several boxes of books to my local half-price books a couple months ago, keeping only the ones most important to me.

Where I currently live, there is a small library available to me. Still, I have acquired another 50 lbs of books already, and am wondering even now how I will handle bringing them/parting with them when I leave the country.

---

Thinking for yourself instead of being influence by an author? This is terribly naive. I am inherently of the same mindset, the "Beautiful Mind" concept of not wanting to taint your ability for original thought by being influenced by others. (I remember even thinking this way as a child.)

But in reality, except for fringe abstract fields, reading and studying others' work in any field allows you to come up to their level so that you can eventually move beyond it. You handicap yourself by not informing yourself as much as possible. INTPs thrive on masses of information, and make beautiful, original connections between new data when they are performing well... So inform yourself, and get some good books.

Video games, at their (quite rare) very best, are as good as a good movie. You speak in theoretically generous terms when you speak of video games demanding a moral response to the desire for success... the thing is, there's no real consequence in video games. At worst, it desensitizes the player. I've never become a fraction as attached to a video game character as I have a character in a novel. While it sounds in theory like actual involvement would help that, in reality, playing a video games makes me unable to take the characters themselves seriously. There isn't the suspension of disbelief that one experiences in a movie or book, because you are too consciously involved in the process of playing.

You also neglect that video games lack the poetic element of high quality writing. Prose can be used to awe and arouse a sense of majesty and depth that I've never seen touched in a video game...

And the richness of reading from authors of different time periods, with different styles. The idea of playing different 'genres' of video games doesn't begin to match the significance of the diversity within the realm of books.

As far as art forms go, Video games cannot compare--at least not present day, for sure, and even if some beautiful game has passed me that I would compare to a fine book in quality, it is obviously a much more rare occurrence than an intellectually/emotionally engaging book.

I still remember the beauty of playing Ico, but really... there was no depth to it, just abstract mystery and landscape. Thinking back on this, perhaps books require too much power of imagination for most people to properly appreciate?

K

 

[sagewolf]

I have, I dunno, between forty and seventy in my room here-- I can't be bothered to count. Mostly fantasy and sci-fi, although there are quite a few reference books and some drawing reference on anatomy and perspective as well. I'm not counting textbooks, which are tools of dominion of the eil School. ...Well, okay, the math book can be counted because I like it.

I'm the sort of person who goes out and buys a bunch of 'classic literature' in an effort to become more well-read and then ends up never reading them.

"A classic is a book everyone wants to have read but which nobody wants to read." I don't remember who said that, but I thought it was funny. I'm with you there, though, Spaekle. My knowledge of classic literature is basically Great Expectations, Macbeth and Hamlet. Journey to the Centre of the Earth is somewhere around here, but I've never read it yet.

I love RPGs, strategies, and comics, I really do, but books have something they don't. Books don't have save points. You don't ever have to read the same part over and over because some b*stard killed you. You never have to figure out which panel is next because the artist picked a really weird layout for the page. Beyond that, it feels like I'm investing part of myself in a book every time I read-- nobody sees or hears the same things that I see and hear while I read. It's not just the author's world, it's mine too, in a way.

 

[loveofreason]

I have not nearly enough books. I've moved too often and given many away. I regret it now. What I have left are all packed in boxes from the last move, but I'm guessing they number in the several hundred.

I love second hand bookstores, just breathing the atmosphere is a delight. And a beautiful book... *sigh*

When I finally build my home I'm building a dedicated library and it shall be my sanctuary.

 

[Waterstiller]

I love second hand bookstores, just breathing the atmosphere is a delight. And a beautiful book... *sigh*

I like them too, but usually the non-fiction sections are really depressing. "So this is what my neighbors have been reading?!"

I'd guess that half of the damned books there have a picture of the author smiling a ridiculous smile on the back.. right next to a claim that the book offers the x steps to happiness.

 

[grey matters]

Used bookstores are a necessity otherwise I would go broke. The trick is to find a secondhand bookstore that has more then just tacky love novels (Those books are only useful if you run out of toilet paper).

When I lived in Pennsylvania I had access to bookstores that had books that were 80-100+ years old. They're fun. You get 1st hand exposure to the atitudes and prejudices of the time that are completly uncolored by today's interpretations.

 

[FusionKnight]

I inherited most of my library from my dad who began collecting books for me before I was even born. I've got a very sizable science fiction collection (Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Bradbury, Burroughs, del Rey, etc) as well the complete works of Shakespeare, a bunch of Wodehouse, and a TON of reference material, some saved from college, and a number that just seem interesting. I am not a collector of things, except for books. I can't get enough of them.

My dad has a large collection of leather-bound classics which is really nice, and still has boxes full of books in the basement and attic.

 

[severus]

I don't have many books currently, but I have always wished to have a mini-library in my future house.
Rereading is a dilemma. Do you reread, gain more insight, pick up on more details? Or do you move on to something else, new, fresh? I usually pick reread, which is why I now buy books instead of going to the library. Hopefully I will gain immortality, and time won't be an issue.
!

 

[anemian]

Well I won't be buying fake books for the decor any time soon...

 

[Tyria]

More than 2000. E books take up less room on the shelves.