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Given the space they consume versus the information they hold, books are a pretty inefficient storage medium by today's standards.

That said, nothing beats the character and warmth of a nicely-stocked library, and books are a great way to express one's tastes and interests. Great to have if you have the space.

Inefficient? Archival paper with good-quality ink or a plain old #2 pencil will last you easily a hundred years, if not several hundred years. Regular desktop hard drives have a life span of 2-5 years. Magnetic tape lasts 30-100 years. Books use no electricity (and you don't need much to print a single book), are biodegradable (PCs aren't very), they make no noise, are easily portable, have excellent contrast... Having several books will indeed take up more space than a PC, but not many people read that much or keep books for long. (I do... at 2,500 books and counting...)

It another extension of the clutter discussion. Books are the ultimate clutter. Once read, I prefer to share rather than hoard them.

I generally hate clutter but I don't think you can ever have too many books. I dream of when I own my own place, the ceiling-high bookcases I can build-in, and where I can control the humidity to protect my collection. Then again, I'm a huge dork.

If I were to pick out one thing that annoys me the most on AT, it is when people start ragging on others for their books collection (or really any collection, to a lesser extent) and calling it clutter. Perhaps books in your space are present themselves as clutter, but for many of us a house is not a home without a hearty collection of our favorite books, and they can also present a beautiful design element. Nothing beats a gorgeous book-filled wall of built-in bookcases! And lastly, many books are wonderful as objects of curiosity, as well!

Feel free to keep giving away all of your books and living as starkly as you desire, but let the rest of us have and love ours!

I don't trust anyone without books in their home! Well, I'm not really that extreme, but almost. Books are meant to be read and re-read, to have their margins marked up with one's reactions and ideas . . . . For me, keeping them is no more hoarding than keeping one's personal letters or a journal would be. Books may seem like "clutter," but they're way better clutter than, say, the ceramic skeleton keys or cutesy owl figurines with which some litter their empty bookshelves.

Feel free to keep giving away all of your books and living as starkly as you desire, but let the rest of us have and love ours!
By: Trygve


I don't trust anyone without books in their home! Well, I'm not really that extreme, but almost. Books are meant to be read and re-read, to have their margins marked up with one's reactions and ideas . . . . For me, keeping them is no more hoarding than keeping one's personal letters or a journal would be. Books may seem like "clutter," but they're way better clutter than, say, the ceramic skeleton keys or cutesy owl figurines with which some litter their empty bookshelves.
By: Ediebennett

BRAVO!! I will ALWAYS think of books as 'love' and 'warmth'. Never as "clutter".
Bravo & Kudos to you both.

(i think i've fallen in love with both of you)

To me, keeping a lot of books around isn't just a wonderful comfort (which it is!) but a great resource. As a writer, I'm always pulling down books from the shelf to re-read or quote passages, fact-check, etc. Definitely useful, and most of what I have isn't digital, at least not yet. (Count me as 700 books and counting...)

I agree that books are wonderful. Perhaps they're not for you, but most hard-core readers I know have a pretty extensive collection of books that you'd have to pry from their cold, dead fingers. Perhaps they may be "inefficient" in terms of space, but I don't personally know anyone who can handle reading 500 pages off a computer screen.

Personally, I don't consider my books to be clutter. I occasionally have to find creative ways to rearrange my shelves so everything fits, but they're not taking over every corner of my room. Plus, once I realize I'm not really interested in re-reading something, out it goes. I love having my own personal library--it's convenient, it speaks volumes about my personality, and I always have stuff on hand if a friend is looking for a good new read.

I love how books are 'clutter', but some mass-produced piece of crap from jonathan adler or DWR or whatever else is cutting edge for this season is somehow a desired, nay, required, personal design statement that reflects a great example of 'editing' one's surroundings.

I'll second the "feel free to declutter by getting rid of your books" idea and modify it:

Feel free to declutter and give me your books. I like to read.

I love to read and I love the aesthetics of books and full bookcases.

That said, I have very few by most lovers-of-the-written-word standards -- probably under a hundred. Honestly, the library is my book collection. I keep my favorite books, a few signed ones (but I've been known to give away signed books as well), a few reference ones, a few old-and-pretty ones, and a few that've shown up and I'm planning on reading but will likely give away eventually.

For me, being very selective in the books I own is a conscious rejection of an unnecessary status symbol (because it is, esp. among the company I keep). I would rather support my local library and pay some overdue fines than buy and lug around books I don't really love. If I know where I can borrow it, then I'm good.

To me books somehow never seem like clutter, unless they take over and you have no more room for them. As I only have so much room for books I have started to give them away to charity every now and then so I have space for new books. If I did have a big house though I would dedicate one room to being a library.

Books are a link to the past and a stairway to the future.

That being said, I've made plans to finish half of my basement (open up a slim CD jewel case, lay it down opened up, and you'll get an idea of my basement shape) as a library. Add a fireplace, some comfortable furniture, and with the insulating properties of the books (the basement is already professionally "dried out") it should be a wonderful place to spend an evening with the Occasional Cats.

Looking through favourite novels, or cook books is the best way that I can relax and find inspiration and motivation in my life. Sometimes when I'm feeling like nothing can bring me up, I sit in the most comfortable chair in the house (next to our over stuffed bookcases of course) and flip through books that hold a lot of great memories.
It always makes me feel better.

Books actually are meant to be done with whatever you choose. Maybe you like the cover art and never even crack the thing. Maybe you like to dog ear the pages with your favorite parts. Maybe you like to mark up the margins. Or maybe, like me and like a lot of other people, you like to go to the library and borrow them for free because you a)can't afford to own a lot of books b)can't afford the real estate required to house them anyway or c)you just read them and then are done, so no need to keep them around when you can always borrow them again if you need to refer back to them. I don't think that not having books in my house makes me untrustworthy or unappreciative of the beauty that a book can embody. I think people need to stop judging others on the basis of what material things they value or possess. I know this website is in a lot of ways all about materialism, but I think we can all agree that there are many differences of opinion and that one is not always right above all others. I like to hope we can also agree with that without being insulting (and saying things like 'in my opinion anyway' or 'no offense but' does not negate the negative and nasty impact your opinions might have. Just because you slap a cliche'd disclaimer on there does not mean your words are neutral or okay)

Nuni, exactly. Books are clutter, but brass chicken's feet aren't? Okay.

I love my books. And yes, when a friend decided to "declutter" by giving up a collection of hard-to-find specialty ones, you can bet I took them all, and will find a place to put them, and will love them even if my shelves are crowded.

I'm with you, happify. I spent all of graduate school with people who treated books as the ultimate status symbol (we're so intellectual!) It got old. There's no reason to hoard books when most of them can be shared. And they are very hard to keep in good condition outside a library where they're regularly aired through use. Some of my colleagues swear up and down how much they love books and couldn't live without them lining every wall to express their values, but the only value I see on display is that they believe in destroying lots of books through neglect.

I found that getting the PhD and a job as a professor resolved any lingering intellectual insecurities, and we keep about 100 books in the house, although I regularly exercise my academic library card (in fact the librarians called in my first year of my appointment to ask whether I really needed all those books, but had the paper citations to show that yes, indeed, I did--at the time it was annoying but now it's funny, plus it got me a seat on the libraries committee). And we go to the public library almost every week; they also know us well.

My mom cultivated the love of reading in me and for that I am forever grateful. I have a large collection of books that I have read & reread many times throughout the years. Sometimes I will come across a passage that I had highlighted or notes I jotted down on the margins, and I am swept back to a moment in time.

As a reading teacher I have tried to pass this passion on to my students. I encourage them to highlight passages, jot down notes, or record their thoughts on stickies while reading. They do. And what they really love is when they stumble on another students thoughts. On many occasions, a note left by another student has served as a spingboard for some amazing conversations.

Favorite place in my house...my library. Favorite place in my classroom...my library.

I guess I'm just a hater, but in my experience most book collectors haven't read most of the books on their shelves. And I'll add that I'm in the process of recovering from this particular habit.

Also, don't get me started on people who collect books just to show off how smart and well read they are, even as they haven't actually read those books.

Books that you read and love become part of your soul. Books that you read and don't like make you think. when i look at the books that I have collected over the years they tell me about the person I once was and about the person I have become.

how in the world is this clutter?

I was going to write a comment, but happify said it perfectly for me:


That said, I have very few by most lovers-of-the-written-word standards -- probably under a hundred. Honestly, the library is my book collection. I keep my favorite books, a few signed ones (but I've been known to give away signed books as well), a few reference ones, a few old-and-pretty ones, and a few that've shown up and I'm planning on reading but will likely give away eventually.

For me, being very selective in the books I own is a conscious rejection of an unnecessary status symbol (because it is, esp. among the company I keep). I would rather support my local library and pay some overdue fines than buy and lug around books I don't really love. If I know where I can borrow it, then I'm good.>>

Thanks, happify!

Are there people who have shelves of books that they've never read, and have no intention of ever reading, but keep the books around as a status symbol? Sure.

But are there also people who have shelves of books, each read and loved, and kept to re-read whenever the mood strikes? Sure.

It just seems unfair to categorically state that all books are clutter, when I think we can all agree that whether books are clutter depends on the purpose behind them.

Growing up, I had tons of books. But since college, I've moved a lot, including cross country. Now I live in New York in 400 square feet with my husband, so while we have books, they are the special ones: the ones that I read over and over or the ones that I couldn't replace. If I had more space, maybe it wouldn't be so much of an issue. But I'm really happy just having a few now.

My father was horrified when I gave away 150 books to the library without letting him look through first. I had to explain that they really were either cheap novels that weren't worth re-reading, old text books or how-to books that we didn't need. Also one novel that was good but very creepy and a gift from an ex and I got tired of looking at it and thinking of him.

That was only a tenth of my books. I have read almost all of my books. I have about 30 novels "to read" mostly from yard sales for free or super cheap. At a quick guess..... 30 unread of the 1500 or so, means I have read most of them. Some are antique, some are not found in libraries. I even have one that is so strange and unreal and mildly disturbing that it will take me away from real life and makes any of my problems seem so normal and easy to handle.

I do art work and have many "picture books" that are rarely read but often looked at. Lots of hobby books and garden books. For me if I get an idea at 10pm that consumes me I need to look it up then. I can not wait until morning.

Bluestar sometimes when someone says "no offense" it is because they are expressing their opinion and not attacking. Some people mean it as a roundabout attack, but some people really do mean to express themselves only.

I personally am appalled at how commercial "bookshelves" are really knick-knack shelves. They can not hold books and when they do fail it is spectacularly. My last one did hold up for quite a while, but in the end had to be held together with large straps meant for holding things in the back of a truck. The shelves didn't just bow ( and were flipped regularly) the sides pushed away from each other. It began and ended with one shelf falling. Once I found the cause - on the strap went and now my brother has them for his lightweight DVD's

My next shelves will be hand built ( by me ) with real wood .

I only have one musty book. It got that way camping and was instantly banished to a ziploc filled with baking soda and I haven't opened it since. One day I will open it, make sure it is un-musty and finish reading it.

It is a statistic that I read about 15 years ago that the average home has one book.


Most often that one book is the Bible.

That means there are many, many homes without books at all.

I wonder if because I'm 'older' - maybe lots older than most of you. . . well ok I'm 57 and other half is 63 that I have lost interest in keeping the thousands of books we've collected. I found I never really went back to most of them. I'm keeping one bookshelf of various 'memento' books, the ancient books bought for a song at the old alma mater while working part time there, first and only edition of various friends works, and that's about it.
I'm trying to live in the here and now rather than imagining rereading or finding a passage, from a book on my bookshelf, I've come to realization that that just isn't gonna happen.
If I need to find a receipe - I google it. No need for the 50 cookbooks that's been dragging me down for the past 30 years, same with gardening, self help, etc etc.
I'm finding my ipod has replaced many of my cds as well as my dvr has replaced my dvds. Welcome to the 21st century I say.
I wonder honestly without malice if its my age?

I said:
"Given the space they consume versus the information they hold, books are a pretty inefficient storage medium by today's standards.

That said, nothing beats the character and warmth of a nicely-stocked library, and books are a great way to express one's tastes and interests. Great to have if you have the space."
posted by lightspeed on 2008-05-15 14:01:23

You said:
"Inefficient? Archival paper with good-quality ink or a plain old #2 pencil will last you easily a hundred years, if not several hundred years. Regular desktop hard drives have a life span of 2-5 years. Magnetic tape lasts 30-100 years. Books use no electricity (and you don't need much to print a single book), are biodegradable (PCs aren't very), they make no noise, are easily portable, have excellent contrast... Having several books will indeed take up more space than a PC, but not many people read that much or keep books for long. (I do... at 2,500 books and counting...)"
posted by fraise on 2008-05-15 14:10:55

fraise,
As a data storage medium, think about the physical space your 2500 books must occupy. All of that same information could fit onto a flash drive about the size of my pinkie. That was the only point I was making -- I wasn't referring at all to differences in longevity.
I love books and own quite a few, but I also recognize that by modern standards, books take up space that is disproportionately large compared to the amount of data that they carry. That's why I said that they're great if you have the space.

I love my books. I refer to them constantly. field guides, language reference, entomology, etymology, weird circus acts, how to build generators, mid 80's architectural trends, all of it!! I can't live without them.
I don't usually keep fiction, but my reference library is extensive.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/69/154573108_9edbdf5eb0_o.jpg

I look like a person with few books, in a one bedroom flat, but I have an (almost) secret extra room downstairs which is lined with them and only I go in :-)

They creep upstairs anyhow, so it is good to have somewhere to haul them back to

And what a wonderful article! I agree with most all of it, allowing for my smaller, more mundane life and my more common-or-garden collection

I keep very few books. The library has most books I'll want to read and stores them for me. I buy books very rarely and occasionally consider it an impulsive waste of cash. The cover is just so smooth, it's so pretty and new. It's just that I have moved quite a few times in the past 12 years, and books are heavy, and I still have more books than I ever read. I do have too much other stuff besides, and try to enjoy it all. It's hard to get rid of possessions period, sometimes, but it's done. It's not that I just have it in for books. As for reference, hitting the internet usually works. I don't have to own a book to recall a passage. It's just one of those things I'll only buy if I'll treasure it, and borrow it from the library if I'm merely curious. Also, some books are just ugly. Need to keep them, don't want to see them. The good stuff's inside, so I don't really consider books too much as decor. I don't like seeing CD towers or shelved of DVDs and video games either. The spines of books tend to look nicer than other media, but not always, relatively speaking.

If you love the books, keep them, keep on loving and reading them, but if books make you nervous, then just stop. There is no book peer pressure that I'm aware of, and I cringe every time I hear a hater say how obnoxious they think other people's book collections are. Is there something about the printed page that would make you more critical of my physical books than you would be of my browser history? I'm not dissing anyone's Calphalon collection, criticizing their egregious and pretentious need to have more than one or two expensive pans. I don't think there are many poser libraries left like Gatsby's with thousands of books with uncut pages stacked on the cases for show. Really. Gatsby was fictional.

Yeah, but, I think what some people are saying is that having a lot of books is not necessarily better than having as many Precious Moments figurines or collections and decorous clutter of other sorts. If you have a valuable library to yourself, love to read, read your books, and feel happier seeing your books, that's great.

Still, there is nothing particularly sacred or dear about books that segregates them into a category of "stuff I have to own" different than any other haphazard collection of material objects. People seem to have a harder time parting with books or admitting they aren't ever going to read them than some other stuff they are likely to have. I am not hating, but some people could find this notion useful and let go of keeping things that don't serve them. In that sense, books have no power, they are not that special. Keep the ones you really like, try to avoid the impulse to buy new ones just for the novel effect of ownership, and save your money for books (or anything!) that will mean something to you.

In the end this seems to me a fruitless discussion as it is completely subjective. What about a ban on "Books = Clutter" discussions?

oh Dot--I don't know if you'll ever read this but I loved your comments!! As a pre-PhD and daughter of 2 professors I laughed and laughed--and made a note to use my library card more, get rid of some books, and sort through my insecurities :)