I’m a Book Hoarder and I’m Ok With That

How many books do you own? 20? 50? 200? I’m talking about physical books too, not e-books or audio books. Books that take up room. Books that are stacked high on you bedside table. Books that live with you and move from place to place. Books that you’ve had for longer than your relationship.

I honestly don’t know how many books I have. I know it’s well over 200 though. In my tiny 664 sq. foot apartment they take up quite a bit of room. I have two bookshelves. Both are full so my books have overflowed to my two bar stools. I also have a square coffee table that has four stacks on them. One of the stacks is taller than me. I really, really don’t need anymore books. And yet, I cannot resist acquiring them. They are my comfort in times of sadness, boredom, anxiety, and even anger. They are my constant companions. I’ve had some of my books for close to 20 years! That’s over half of my life! I can’t imagine getting rid of those books. They are like my children to me.

I don’t buy all of my books (no they are not stolen, unless you count ones I take from my mom). I get them from a lot of places. The free section at the library. A lot I get as gifts because everyone knows how much I love books; they’re all I talk about. I mean I even have a blog about them. I do buy a lot of books as well. I mostly get them from thrift stores. I feel better bringing them home if I can justify it to myself that I am “rescuing” them.

I have gone through my books in the last year or so and donated some to the library and some to the local thrift store. At one point I found that I had three copies of A Separate Place; I didn’t even know I owned it, much less three times. I found in total six books that I had duplicates of that I didn’t know about. This stems from the fact that I don’t have a big enough space to have all of my books spread out and organized like I would like to.

I’m not really sure where this post is going other than to wonder if there are other people that do this. Are you ok with being a book hoarder like I am? Do you wish you could stop bringing books home? I’m sure my fiance would love if I would stop bringing books into our small, little apartment. However, I don’t plan on stopping the book hoarding anytime soon. I do go through my collection about once a year and weed it down so that my collection doesn’t grow to insane numbers.

I’m very interested to hear what you all think about this. Are you a fellow book hoarder? Or do you rotate your collection regularly? I can’t wait to hear back from you all! Please drop a comment here or let me know on Twitter!