[L'enfanTerrible]

And what are some of your favorites? (out of ones that you own)

I own around 50, give or take, made up of novels, philosophical books and classics, collections of poetry, and class texts. A lot of these are books in .pdf format heh heh

Some of my favorites are:

Ishmael, The Story of B - Daniel Quinn
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Hitchhikers Guide collection - Douglas Adams
The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
1984, Animal Farm - George Orwell
The complete works of Edgar Allen Poe
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
LOTR - JRR Tolkein

How about you?

[El Pre$idente]

About 500.

[Mulattabianca]

about 800 to 900...

in a cd



on paper..

no idea. some ar at my folks..
maybe 50 each in italian, spanish, english / portuguese..

[maxelson]

Last time I moved, There were about 30+ boxes of books. Big boxes. I have not counted, but there are a LOT. 4 book cases in the guest room. one wall in the Den. One in the master bedroom. We are having three more built. Gezz, I dunno. A lot.
Favorites- I have a large antique Complete Works of WS collection. Ditto Kit Marlowe. Moby Dick is a favorite. Lots of older books. First eds. Got a great book about the Sox called Red Sox Century. That's up there. Hm. If there were a fire, I'd just start heaving them out windows. After the kid, wife and dogs, that is.

[nealconner]

oodles.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

[Xaositect]

Database query...total records....

23,492

All deadtree editions. And I haven't put the last couple boxes I got in the system yet.

Worse, I have read over 95% of these books and can give a condensed overview of each - from memory.

Database query...periodicals...653.

So 650 magazines I plan on keeping.

Database query...RPG...5,124.

(The last was for AlbertWu, and any other RPG players out there!)

[Korv]

I own A LOT of books. I don't have a clue how many, but last time I moved (10 months ago) I shipped them all media rate and the Post Office wieghed them all. I have about 15 cubic feet of books that weigh just short of 500 lbs.

The heavy ones are textbooks from college, and art books. Lots of art books. The light ones are novels, with plenty of sci-fi. There's all kinds of stuff in there though. Its a lot of books.

Can't say what's favorite, though they are very important to me. When I moved I took my (1) books, (2) DVDs, and (3) artwork. Everything else was sold, given away, or thrown away, including most clothes and furniture.

Oh, and cooking utensils, I took the good knives, pans, and whatnot, too.

[V]

I must have 700 -750 books,including the Encyclopedia Britannica, and my gf around 400, but I have read most of the books at the library. I am a bulimic reader.

[Montanan]

I keep buying and buying books; the shelves are full, and now there are stacks of books on the floor. The last time I counted, which was a few years ago, I was past 1,000. Reading something on a screen still doesnt compare with curling up on a leather sofa with a real book.

My favorite novel is definitely All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. Number 2 on the list would be A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. (Both books are far, far better than the movies they inspired.)

[Mulattabianca]

Ok..

Some classics in italian, english and spanish...

..ssh!!

[Mastrap]

No idea. Tons. Cookery books in the kitchen. Novels in the bedroom. Everything else in the living room. Iain Banks, everything. And Iain M Banks. Erich K�stner, collected works. Oscar Wilde. Berthold Brecht. Gibson, of course. Trash reading I've bought at airports but can't bring myself to throw away. Roald Dahl, everything. Photography books, design books, architecture books. Old stuff from jumblesales. Miss Smilla's feeling for snow. The shipping news. The crowroad. Philosophy, religion, politics. I love my books.

[Chuckmcd]

Originally posted by Mastrap:
No idea. Tons. Cookery books in the kitchen. Novels in the bedroom. Everything else in the living room. Iain Banks, everything. And Iain M Banks. Erich K�stner, collected works. Oscar Wilde. Berthold Brecht. Gibson, of course. Trash reading I've bought at airports but can't bring myself to throw away. Roald Dahl, everything. Photography books, design books, architecture books. Old stuff from jumblesales. Miss Smilla's feeling for snow. The shipping news. The crowroad. Philosophy, religion, politics. I love my books.

]

not sure how many, two floor to ceiling book shelves full. three dozen art, design, and art history books, a few novels and a bunch of books on religion(theology, worship, doctrine, etc), with a couple of philosophy books thrown in for good measure.

oh, and like ten different Bibles, each make a different tone when you themp 'em

[ringo]

More than I feel like counting....I've got four bookshelves filled to capacity and extra stacks starting to form on the shelves and on top of the cases...an assortment of politics, philosophy, fiction, RPGs, and reference.

Favorites:
Life After God
The Job
1984
Brave New World
Neuromancer
Snow Crash

[Nai no Kami]

Not counting encyclopedias and things you don�t actually read, I have about 200. Them main problem is that I am a very selective reader (I worked in a bookstore and, believe me, you can safely trash 95% of the paper). The topics of my books are novels, stories and essays on philosophy, art and politics. Also, most of my books are in Spanish, some in English and some in Portuguese (well, 1 or 2 in French too). Therefore, most of the books I read are translations into Spanish.

The best book I ever read is a novel by Umberto Eco: "El P�ndulo de Foucault"
Other really good books I have read are:

Jorge Luis Borges: "Ficciones" and almost every other he wrote
Michel Houellebecq: "Las Part�culas Elementales"
Thomas De Quincey: "Confessions of an English Opium Eater"
Giovanni Papini: "Gog"
Eric Hobsbawm: "Gente Poco Corriente"
Michel Foucault: "Los Anormales"
The three other novels of Umberto Eco: "El Nombre de la Rosa", "La Isla del D�a de Antes" y "Baudolino"

[arrested502]

I'm a movie person myself, not that I'm "illiterate" or anything

Do software manuals count? I probably have about 20, and a few "art/graphic design" books from college. Some of the art/design books I sold back to the college bookstore, but some I just wanted to keep. I love my "Art through the ages" book. It's a huge hardcover book which was required for art history classes. It's a great reference book, so I kept it (also the most expensive book I had to buy).

[Face Ache]

One 7ft bookcase crammed full.

[Justin W. Williams]

1 15ft book case filled + a bunch of magazines, etc.

[funkboy]

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. You'll learn something or be inspired, guaranteed.

Essays of E.B. White, wonderful columnist.

Calvin and Hobbes, any collection

And, I'm not sure how many books I own, but I don't get a lot of time to read them.

[juanvaldes]

I don't know, maybe 15 or so of my own choice.

[awaspaas]

I have probably around 100 or so, but most are chemistry books. :-/

I have 217 DVDs though!!

[malvolio]

A couple thousand. And I've had to sell or give away thousands more in order to have room to move around in here.
So many good ones. Off the top of my head:
Any Tolkien
George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and its sequels
Joseph Campbell's The Masks of God
Collected works of Emerson and Thoreau
Any Glen Cook, especially the Black Company series
Any Larry Niven

[Sven G]

Originally posted by Mulattabianca:
Ok..

Some classics in italian, english and spanish...

..ssh!!

MB, do you know about the small (Milan-based) editor el�uthera...?

I think they publish some of the best books available on this planet (albeit only in Italian, original or translated from other languages).

In general, I think that small book editors should be encouraged, as they often have some very high-quality titles in their catalogues.

As for the thread question, I probably personally "own" a few hundred books - I never counted them, however...

[Mulattabianca]

no i dont know that wditor yet...
the last books i read were abouts...

2 of d.goleman's 400 pages boring psico stuff in brasilian portuguese
il libro tibetano dei morti
some book of brian weiss in spasnihs..
trying to read neuromancer... boooring...
yea. am i having a look on your bookshelf?

<tip>eau�..!!</tip>

[fearman111]

I have over 17000 comics, dating back to June 1957 (the first appearance/origin of Brainiac), most of the Justice League of America, and almost every 80-Page Giant and 100 Page Super Spectacular.

The Watchmen (Moore/Gibbons), The Killing Joke (Moore/Bolland), and Superman Annual 11 "For The Man Who Has Everything" (Moore/Gibbons) are pretty good reads.

fm111

[Timo]

Last time I moved, we moved something like fifty book boxes. There's a couple of bookcases in the living room for fiction, and we turned the master bedroom into a library.

Favorite books would include Musil's The Man Without Qualities (got two copies since I gave one once to my then-girlfriend), Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, Gustafsson's Death of a Beekeeper, Simon's The Flanders Road. And Ibsen, Smilla, Salinger, Mann, Kafka, Shultz, Richard Ford, Carver. And twenty books by Pierre Bourdieu. And all the Harry Potters in Finnish.

[daimoni]

.

[mrtaber]

Way too many books. Now that I've reached middle age, I'm thinking of imitating Montaigne and choosing 1000 books, and mastering some small percentage of those. Now I just have to choose 1000 of them.

Mark

[Timo]

Originally posted by daimoni:


:: scribbles furiously :: (well, okay... I just copied and pasted).

I don't know how many boxes our books take up... but we certainly don't have enough shelf space for them. Our childrens book library is the fastest one growing in the house these days.

I've worked at a few bookstores in my day... and I used to own far more books, but I recall a bad winter many years ago where I had to sell my possessions (that means books, music) for food.

dai, have i mentioned lately that your the bestest most upright cool dude that I have the pleasure of only tangentally knowing in one way but knowing quite well in another?

Oh, and I forgot Austin. Jane Austin. Oh, Austin. Cheers to you, your lady and oskar! (and the other sprogue, rowan, right?)

[Timo]

Originally posted by mrtaber:
Way too many books. Now that I've reached middle age, I'm thinking of imitating Montaigne and choosing 1000 books, and mastering some small percentage of those. Now I just have to choose 1000 of them.

Mark

Very cool idea. Very difficult tho'.

[Cipher13]

Hundreds. Easily.

Both of my parents are teachers (history, english, etc), my mother is an avid reader, and I am too, when I have time...

[PorscheBunny]

As of today, 1090.

[Mac Zealot]

Around 300 here from the last time I checked a few years ago.

Since then we've had nowhere to put them, I used to have a big bookshelf for them and all too!

Oh well, eventually!

[alphamatrix]

3000+ in Digital form, far less in good old paper.

[DaKiwi2788]

Probably about 150 or so at school, but who knows how much I have in my closets at home. Probably 800 or so.

My favorites:

1. The Great Gatsby
2. A Separate Peace
3. To Kill a Mocking Bird
4. Summer Sisters
5. A Catcher in the Rye
6. The Stranger (if you are into exestensilism, this is a great book)
7. Anything by Nicholas Sparks

[CaseCom]

I have lots. Some that spring to mind:

"The Power Broker," by Robert Caro. It was published in 1974 but I just read it this summer. Caro writes from a point of view but man, does he do his homework.

"The Great Bridge," by David McCullough. I have most of his books; he's a marvelous writer. "John Adams" was OK, but this is my favorite.

"Mac OS X: The Missing Manual," by David Pogue. Pogue rules.

"For God, Country and Coca-Cola," by Mark Pendergrast. A corporate history you can sink your teeth into.

"Harmon Killebrew: Baseball's Superstar," by Wayne J. Anderson. I get a kick out of worshipful sports biographies from the '60s; there's a quaint innocence about them.

"Live From New York," by Tom Shales. Sort of an oral history of "Saturday Night Live" as told by the players themselves. I couldn't put it down. (Cliche, sorry, but it's true)

"The Control of Nature" by John McPhee -- I really need to read more McPhee. He has such a gift for writing intricate detail using such simple language. Marvelous.

"The Elements of Style," by William Strunk and E.B. White.

Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition; Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage; the Associated Press Stylebook; the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage; the New Fowler's Modern English Usage ... yes I'm a word geek.

"The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien.

"A Wizard of Earthsea" and the rest of the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin.

"To Your Scattered Bodies Go" and the rest of the Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer.

Mostly complete collections of Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes books.

OK I'll stop there.

[edit: OK one more: "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman.

OK one one more: "Titan" by Ron Chernow. Fascinating biography of John D. Rockefeller Sr.]

[Mulattabianca]

... about 50 programming guides more since the last post in this thread
(now just need to learn them..)

[Zimmerman]

I think its more important to ask, "how many books have you read?"
ME: "Gosh, I dunno. Probably thousands. Not so many since I started College. I can't partition my brain well enough these days to handle both Managerial Accounting, the Economics of Finanace and Banking, and the Economics of the Firm, and Business Law in addition to whatever pleasure reading I might enjoy. "

But to answer your origional question, probably around fifty. The thing is, I've read all of mine. I have a friend who's about 19-20 who has nearly 800, but has only read about 25% So book collecting is much different from being well read. He, incidentally, is both (a book collector and well read).

[Timo]

Originally posted by CaseCom:

"The Power Broker," by Robert Caro. It was published in 1974 but I just read it this summer. Caro writes from a point of view but man, does he do his homework.

Slogged through the whole thing, eh? That book was quite a read. Back when I was in college, after leaving Minnesota, I signed up for some summer school in New York where the prerequesite was reading Caro's Power Broker before arriving. That book did more to introduce me to New York and this whole region than anything else I can think of.

Still, with Caro's wordiness, I haven't been tempted to bite into LBJ, even with the current fascination for Presidential biographies.

[Fyre4ce]

See for yourself!



I don't have a whole lot of books, mostly because I have nowhere to keep them! My room here is very small. The other part of the reason is that I don't have a lot of money!

The picture got really grainy when I added the notes, so here is the picture originally.

[wdlove]

I've never really counted guess ~200 cooking, miscellaneous, nursing, psychology, & religious.

[dcmacdaddy]

Probably about 300. Read 'em all at least once. Mostly English Lit. major type books and art books, not much contemporary literature. Favorite book is "B]The Moor's Last Sigh[/B] by Salman Rushdie. Currently working through a spate of works by 14th-century medieval mystics (Margery Kempe, Bridgid of Sweden, Julian of Norwich). I read them all in translation although I have read some of them in the Middle English. In addition to the aforementioned work by Rushdie, other favorites include:

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Divine Comedy - John Ciardi translation
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
Calvin and Hobbes - Any of the collections
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
One Hundred Love Poems and a Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman

[chris v]

I probably fall into the just under 1000 category-- the Wife was an art history major, so she's got tons of cool coffee table books on French Impressionists, B&W Photography, what have you, and I read a lot of history. Spent a couple years on Native American stuff, then European history and early American exporation then exploration in general. Polar exploration particularly fascinates me lately.

Right now, I'm trying to get started on Heart of Darkness so I can read King Leopold's Ghost, then The Poisonwood Bible. Everyone says Poisonwood Bible is incredible (My uncle was an African missionary who took his 3 kids off to Kenya for 10 years) but I need to be able to put it in context first.

Dog Years and The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass will always be my two favorite books, though A Prayer for Ownen Meany isn't too shabby, either.

I read a lot of music-related biographies as well, and I've got two shelves solely dedicated to caving.

I keep all my Smithsonians, Harpers and Natl. Geos as well, so there's 15 years of all three of those out in the storeroom.

CV

[Fyre4ce]

Originally posted by dcmacdaddy:
Probably about 300. Read 'em all at least once. Mostly English Lit. major type books and art books, not much contemporary literature. Favorite book is "B]The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. Currently working through a spate of works by 14th-century medieval mystics (Margery Kempe, Bridgid of Sweden, Julian of Norwich). I read them all in translation although I have read some of them in the Middle English. In addition to the aforementioned work by Rushdie, other favorites include:

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Divine Comedy - John Ciardi translation
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
Calvin and Hobbes - Any of the collections
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
One Hundred Love Poems and a Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman [/B]

I LOVE Bill Bryson! A Walk in the Woods was fantastic; I've also read I'm a Stranger Here Myself, which is a very humorous look at the state of America.

Also, Carl Sagan is one of my favorite scientists and authors- and he was also a personal friend before he died. But that's another story. Anyway, Cosmos is one of the few books I chose to bring with me to school. I'd order the complete set of TV episodes on DVD if I could spare the cash.

[Phanguye]

i have about 1000 i think... favs are 1st Ed. LOTR, and all my Dirk Pitt novels

[red rocket]

Somewhere between five and six hundred. That's fiction, with a bias towards SF, horror and fantasy. Around fifty non-fiction titles, pop science and philosophy mostly. Around three hundred magazines I plan on keeping (American Cinematographer, Analog, Asimov's) and something short of forty manuals. Got to start cataloguing the stuff..