Have You Read All the Books?
Have You Read All the Books?
You may or may not know but I recently moved house and one of the biggest challenges – aside from finding a van big enough to transport all of my furniture – was packaging up and moving my most precious possessions; my books! Unfortunately I was moving from a fairly decent sized flat to a very small box room and thus had a horrid task of reducing my book collection. It was tough. I had to decide very harshly which books to keep and which to get rid of.
Most importantly, I got rid of a lot of books that I had read but wouldn’t re-read or at least, wouldn’t re-read any time soon.
Some I had to ask myself if I was actually going to read the book and if I was leaning toward no then it went into the get rid pile. It was tough but I had to do it.
Thus, when I finally got to my mum’s house and we’d transported the books I had decided I was keeping, my sister asked me a very important question, Have You Read Them All?.
Obviously there was a big no in return (my sister is not a reader, she does not understand book love), but it did get me thinking and so I decided to create a book database collating what books I owned and finding out just how many books I had read compared to how many I had not.
The Statistics
Looking only at my physical books that I currently had in my possession, I was actually more than a little alarmed at the final statistics but at lease I know I will never run out of reading material!
I own 1097 books. And this is the total after getting rid of about 300 before the move!
I have read 98 of those books.
Meaning I have 998 unread books in my possession. Nine Hundred and Ninety Eight.
I currently read one, sometimes two books a week – but let’s go with two for this – which means that I read a maximum of 104 books a year which means that I basically own ten years worth of reading material.
And that is only my physical books. I don’t even want to go diving into my e-books, nor mention the fact that I also have library books out and keep receiving books in the post as well.
The Conclusion
I will never say I have too many books but I will admit I do have a lot. And now I well and truly understand why the most common thing I say is…
I have it but I haven’t read it yet!
Honestly though, I’m still so in love with my book collection and wouldn’t change anything about it for the world!
How many books are on your TBR pile?
17 Comments
Amy
Don’t think I’ve ever counted mine (but I don’t think it’s quite as many as you have ). Amy x
Faye
I am appalled at myself Amy, appalled. xD
Caroline Taylor
WOW!! I have a ton of books, wouldn’t like to guess how many but possibly around the 1000 amount but I have actually read nearly all of them, I have under 30 unread physical books. As for ebooks, that is a different story all together, I probably have over 100 on my kindle unread.
Faye
I have a bad book obsession. I read a book so treat myself to ten new ones…
But my shelves do look SUPER AWESOME so that’s okay. haha
Jo
This has really made me think about my book collection Faye as I’m about to move soon and am also down-sizing! I’m not sure, but I think I’m probably about a 50/50 split on read and not read. Maybe I’ll do the statistics and write a similar post. Thanks for the inspiration and good luck reading them all! X
Faye
Downsizing is SO HARD. I basically just got rid of lots of books I had read and wasn’t 100% sure I’d read again and some REALLY OLD books that I’d had in my collection since I was a teenager but had never read and would probably never get to!
I hope you move goes well x
CharlotteB
Oh Faye. This makes me feel so much better about my 308 unread books! I feel like every other thing I say on Twitter is “I have it but I haven’t read it yet”. Loved this post
Faye
It has literally been a problem ever since I started blogging. Would you believe that when I started I barely owned ANY books (maybe 30?) and the rest have been added to my collection over the last six years? Honestly, I started blogging and only used the library!!
Hollie
I’m pretty sure “I have it but I haven’t read it yet” is one of my most commonly used phrases ever haha. I haven’t got a 1,000 books (yet!) But I feel like my percentage of read to unread is probably quite similar to yours, especially as I did a full of my books recently and the only books I kept that are already read were firm favourites. Anything I wasn’t sure I would read again went. Brutal but necessary.
Faye
Yes! This is exactly what I did. And in my defense, my firm favourites haven’t been included in this ratio but there are probably only about 20-30 in that box so it wasn’t going to change the stats that much!!
I may have to downsize again at some point but I’m holding out hope I won’t have to!
Sarah
I honestly have no idea how many books I have, the vast majority of them are still at my mum’s house in Devon, I have a really limited amount in my current flat, but they certainly keep increasing! I definitely have more to read than already read on my shelf too, although my hardbacks are generally a healthier ratio of read to unread, I have a bad habit of picking up paperbacks on 3 for 2 type deals though…
Faye
Yes! That’s exactly the problem! The sales are SO enticing and I used to live near The Works…
Maybe one day I’ll get around to reading them all…. you know… as long as I stop buying and receiving new ones!!
Beth
Great post! I’m not sure how many books are on my TBR, it might be around the same as you But like you, I wouldn’t change it for the world! Makes me so happy to see them all stacked up there.
Faye
Yees! I love waking up and seeing my perfectly full bookcase. I’m not so thrilled at seeing the few piles I now have on my floor but you know… maybe I can fit in a new bookcase sometime soon…. *gets ready to beg my mum*
Darque Dreamer
That is a lot of book! I don’t know how many I have, but I aim to have a room as a library in the future, lol!
Jordan @ The Heart of a Book Blogger
This is really interesting! I’ve been curious about my own physical library and what the ratio of read:unread books is. I’m definitely going to try to figure it out now!
Olivia Roach
Wow… that’s a lot of unread books! I can understand how reducing the collection might be a bit more relaxing and easy going for you…. I know I have a lot of unread books but the number is nearer 250 or something :D