How many books is too many?

I keep them all, but try not to have more than a years worth of unread books to be read.  If it starts to get out of hand, I take time out from other activities and do some dedicated reading.  I've only every thrown away one book, a history book that was so poorly conceived that I tossed it in the nearest trash bin two-thirds of the way through reading it.

In terms of the future of my collection (nearly 1000 SciFi and Fantasy books) I am trying to develop an interest in these genres in my niece and nephew.  Hopefull one or both will want these books.

Ever since I racked up my first dozen or so SF paperbacks, I started thinking about how and where I was going to keep them.  The thought that I should somehow dispose of them never occured to me. The plank shelves started going up in my room and every once in a while I would add another, or use longer boards. At one point I did in fact decide to shrink the collection a bit due to an impending move. But that was mostly getting rid of some none SF titles, and some of the 'Scholastic' titles I figured I would never read again. There were a few SF titles I also got rid of at the time thinking I would never read 'those', and even that small divergence in philosophy came back to haunt me as I got rid of some Planet of the Apes animated TV series novelizations (by George Alec Effinger no less) that I later had to find again since I decided that I did indeed want to read them. This slight mishap further strenghtened my resolve that I should NEVER get rid of a book. And they've been piling up ever since.

During my Cegep and University days, my collection grew steadily as I set aside an afternoon every 3 months or so to specifically hit some of the bigger used book stores to restock my shelves for the coming months. Even with all the bus/subway commute reading I was doing at the time, I realized that my input rate exceeded my consumption rate. But at the time, I excused the excess with the argument that all the stuff I was buying was all good and I would eventually get to read it.

After I entered in the 'working world', my purchases continued unabated as I reasoned that the amount I was spending was still relatively small compared to other indulgences, and besides, I worked hard for that money and deserved to treat myself. At the same time I was learning more about other authors and acquired a greater appreciation for former unknown authors.

Another turning point was going online and discovering "The BBS at the end of the Universe" the grandfather of this very website. It was here that I first encountered others that really shared my passion. This not only introduced me to many other authors, but peer book reviews and discussions again stretched my range and desires. The prospect of get togethers with 'book exchanges' both terrified me and excited me at the same time. Because of my hording nature, I brought measly picking to the events, but even though they were supposed to be 1 for 1 exchanges, I inevitably always came home with more than I left with. Another aspect of online fandom that impacted the book acquisition prospects was the advent of organized and shared information with respect to buying opportunities. All of a sudden we had lists and databases of bookstores, and later direct online buying.

So here I am now with a 30 year plus collection of books. It continues to grow. I've tried slowing down the accumulation rate significantly, but I know it will never stop altogether. I'm not sure what will happen to it once I'm gone, but do hope that it gets passed on, in whole or in part, to someone who will enjoy it.

While the prospects of that happening sometime seem dim, I did have an interesting conversation with an owner of a used book store a few months ago. As I was browsing his shelves of SF books, a lineup that I had scanned many times before, and had faint hopes of finding anything that I was relly interested in, I casually mentioned how I had almost as big a collection of books at home. He immediately picked up on the point an confessed that he also had a great collection at home and that many of his SF customers were the same. He added that whenever good slightly hard to find SF books come in, he has no problem selling them. The stuff we see sitting on the shelves year after year are somehow a subset of SF that for one reason or another (over printed or really not that good) stay. Bring in a tall stack of Heinleins, Asimovs, Clarkes, Ellisons, etc, etc and most will be sold in short order. Now I don't know if that is really true (it certainly surprised me to hear it), but I was glad to hear it.

~ Lazarus ~

I had quite a collection of books on a variety of subjects - although not as extensive as the frogs, but I won't go there - mostly science fiction and fantasy novels.  A lot of them were sent to my nephews when they were young, and they ended up in my brother's HUGE basement library.  More were given away when my parents retired and moved out of their house, and I could only keep a few boxes of carefully chosen books because of space considerations in the apartment in which I was living at the time.

Two moves later and my collection still hasn't recovered, mainly because 1. the lack of shelf space and 2. trying to keep the clutter down until the place is painted properly.

There are many books out there that I'd like to have but right now I settle for buying only those that are an absolute "must read".

Blue Jean -- GP/approved -- Beware of Frog!

"Counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor... Death's too good for them!" - Vogon Captain, Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy