Do you own/collect books?

[31FordA]

I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a little kid. Over the years I’ve managed to accumulate a whole lot of books. Most of the books are military history, plus lots of aviation and maritime books. The horde also includes all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and lots of Agatha Christie. I’ve also got all the Far Side books. There is a small collection of books autographed by their authors or subjects. Among them are Ernest Borgnine’s autobiography, books by local authors, and books autographed by groups such as the Tuskegee Airman, the W.A.S.P’s, Doolittle Raiders and the Blacksheep Squadron. I’ve even got a book autographed by Philadelphia children’s TV host Captain Noah. I’ve had to slow down my book buying in the last few years because I’ve pretty much run out of space. I still buy several a year, and re-read a bunch of the older ones.

They’re used to a huge bookstore outside West Chester, Pa called Chester County Book Company. If you enjoyed books it was a magical place. I could, and did, literally spend all day there roaming the shelves. A lot of the books filling my house are from there. It was a said day when they closed. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time at Marlo Books in the Roosevelt Mall in Notheast Philly. They’re long gone too unfortunately.

 

[YeshuaIsa53]

I only keep the ones I may look into again for reference and such.

I do have a few magazine collections, though.

 

[pmanton]

Wife and I both love books. We are buried in books. However, since we discovered reading books on our iPads, our printed books gather dust.
We can't bring ourselves to get rid of the paper books. :-(

 

[rwsmith]

We love books....

...and accumulated quite a collection over the years. Many were dusties. Some were re-read several or more than a few times in whole or in part. The collection finally reached critical mess. Now we give all the dusties to the library. If I want to read it I'll just go borrow it back. The important ones I keep. I know Moby Dick and Siddhartha, The Art of War and Tao Te Ching are in the keeper stack. There are a bunch but my brain is fried right now.

 

[Rustyt1953]

When the power fails.

 

[lkabug]

I just gave my son several hundred books complete with bookcases.
I don't collect books, but have (had) many. Mostly read once and collected dust.
I do have 30 or 40 history books that I refer to often. My son will have those in several years.

 

[Smoke]

I've always been a reader. The second year I worked at FedEx they moved to their new facility and I became a Night Watchman in an empty warehouse.

I decided to put the time to use and read all the books I'd been meaning to read but hadn't had the time to. I've carried that over into retirement.

I seem most interested in History. Most of my reading comes from The University of Nebraska Press.

I've read a lot of books by Mari Sandoz. Michael Wallis, Hampton Sides and Tom Clavin. I'm currently reading "Blackhawk Down" and Stephen Ambrose' "Undaunted Courage" an account of Lewis and Clark and The Journals of Lewis and Clark.

I've got a biography of Buffalo Bill on the to be read pile and the first two Hopalong Cassidy novels by Clarence E Mulford.

 

[Golddollar]

I started reading at an early age. My dad had a collection of Gun Digests. Now I have my own set. I learned how to field strip a .45 from reading his copy of Small Arms of the World. As time went on I managed to acquire books relating to about every gun I had.

After watching the old Perry Mason TV shows I learned that there were actually books written featuring Perry Mason, and I managed to acquire a copy of almost every story. A little later in life when I became interested in Finnish history I started acquiring books about the Winter War.

And now I have books written by the president of a seminary in Philadelphia. What is my connection there? We have known each other since we were 8 years old. And one of his books he inscribed to me as his "oldest childhood friend."

 

[Jeff423]

They’re used to a huge bookstore outside West Chester, Pa called Chester County Book Company. If you enjoyed books it was a magical place. I could, and did, literally spend all day there roaming the shelves. A lot of the books filling my house are from there. It was a said day when they closed. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time at Marlo Books in the Roosevelt Mall in Notheast Philly. They’re long gone too unfortunately.

Often during my visits to Portland I would go to Powell's and frequently bought books there. But I realized that if it was not a reference book I probably wouldn't open it again so I decided to stop buying.

 

[mtgianni]

I confess to having 6 bookcases about 4'x6' in what my family calls the library. Another 12' of shelf space in the reloading room. I also volunteer at the library and serve on the County Library Board. I usually read about three books a week between my stuff, library print and kindle. Listen to podcasts and books on the phone when I travel.
I own books from each of my grandparents and parents. I don't have a book in my inventory I have not re read at least once and others I go back to when they strike my fancy.

 

[desi2358]

I fell in love with books and reading at a very young age.............. Over the years I have managed to accumulate a rather large number of books (including many from my childhood and dads books inherited after my parents had passed). I read a lot of fiction when I was younger, not so much any more. Always loved history books and still buy and read any that catch my eye whether new or old but unread!

I also have quite a variety of reference books, mainly gun related but a number on cars, airplanes and ships. Still make regular use of the gunsmithing books I have as I often find and buy broken or mistreated firearms and fix them up for my own enjoyment. The books come in handy when I run across one I am unfamiliar with (or simply don't remember well enough) and am trying to get it apart (or back together LOL, more than once I have bought the classic "box o' parts" from someone who shouldn't have taken it apart!)........

My wife says it's fortunate we don't live in an earthquake zone as we would die under the mound of books in a quake LOL! At the moment there are 8 full (and fairly well sorted by type) bookcases as well as the shelves above my workbench, the main closet shelves and a number of totes and boxes filled up as well................ I may have a book addiction.

 

[K.38]

Absolutely love books. Don't even know how many I have. Mostly non fiction and reference type books. Like others have said the internet is nice but books are better. Use to see great used books all over now about all you see is fiction and low quality type books. Hopefully all the great old books are not being thrown away in estate clean outs.

 

[rockquarry]

Absolutely love books. Don't even know how many I have. Mostly non fiction and reference type books. Like others have said the internet is nice but books are better. Use to see great used books all over now about all you see is fiction and low quality type books. Hopefully all the great old books are not being thrown away in estate clean outs.

It's refreshing to see there are still a number of people who like to read paper print and realize it's advantages over Internet material, though the Internet has it's uses.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The pages on some of my books have wear marks from my thumb and forefinger trying to expand the page.

Tablets rule.

 

[Dave_n]

I went through the UK education system in the late 1940s to mid 50s and was part of the 11 plus system. So at 13 having skipped a year in an academic high school, I had to make a choice between "arts" and "sciences" for the next four years or so. Though I loved history and the biological sciences I could only take one "side". I realized that the only job that a history major could really take was as a teacher in those days, and also that I could always read history later. So I elected biological and chemical sciences and since those early days I now have over 2000 books related to economic and military history with a much lesser number of scientific books (mainly those I either edited and/or have chapters in). Like my wife I am also a trained librarian (both of us have MLS degrees from Drexel) so I simply use that excuse when "SWMBO" demands that I "cull the herd"!! Dave_n

 

[pasound]

I've been buying books since I was 15 years old - almost 60 years now. Most have gone on to free libraries, or friends who wanted to borrow, with the covenant that they be passed on and not brought back. I still keep buying books, and have way too many for my small apartment. But that's ok. No better way to learn, or escape. Modern technology reading is good, but it has a big problem - you can't open them the same way, they are not something that you stick a bookmark in when you stop reading.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The bulk of my reading is using my Kindle app on my tablet. Every page offers a bookmark flag.

Three taps on the screen and I am reading right where I left off.

 

[pasound]

Rusty1953, I too have a Kindle - my third. I've run 600+ books through mine, and wore out the first two. I read a lot, all day, mostly ignore tv as "all" information and entertainment. I love both, but nothing compares to the smell of the paper and ink when you open up a new printed book.

 

[JohnRippert]

I probably have 600-700 books all told. Mostly fiction, especially military science fiction. Some of my favorites are the faux leather bound hardback Louis L'Amour set that belonged to Dad. Only missing four out of the whole set.

I went through my 5th grade readers in 3rd grade, and was placed in a speed reading program. That ended up turning books into my most expensive habit by far. I have donated around 1000 of my books over the years, mostly to the MD Anderson Cancer Center library for the patients.

 

[pawngal]

Books.......too many reference books for the many things the hubby and I collected years ago. Him, guns, knives, cigar cutters, pocket watches, duck decoys, duck calls, ice fishing decoys, Stetson hats, smoking pipes, Hopi pottery and jewelry, anything Ducks Unlimited. I collected antique/vintage jewelry of all kinds, real, costume, special designers, and Native American, vintage purses and compacts, Zippo lighters, and cookbooks. Have reference books for all of the stuff but most are 20-25 years old so if values are given they can be way off in todays collector market. Glad I never got into glassware!!
As far as being a reader, yes. Growing up there was no TV so weekly trips to the library. I soon became bored with children's books and was soon on to Jack London, Steinbeck and others. Had an early interest in WWII, read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich when I was 12 or 13. Nazi Germany remains one of my main reading interests. Have read at least 1 or 2 books by most the biggest selling authors of the past 20-25 years. My favorites have been John Grisham and Patricia Cromwell. But have never read any Stephan King or J. K. Rowling.
I read books in every form, hardcover, paperback & Kindle.
I'm trying to downsize the accumulation selling, donating, and a freebie box at the shop. When the weather cools off I need to get up in the attic, I'm quite certain there are a few hundred books up there, most likely several boxes of long forgotten cookbooks.
The cookbooks were the only ones I ever considered I was collecting, everything else just happened.
Heading to bed to read... current Kindle book is about blue grass music, mainly Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart. Next will be a historical fiction about Nazi Germany..