Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

I was cleaning my bookcases the other day and started to count how many books I have bought, but haven't read yet. HOLY CRAP! I have 74. What is my problem? Why do I keep buying. I have at least 1 and a half years worth of reading material. Please tell me there is someone out there with more than me. Make me feel better. My wish list is around 400 at least I haven't bought those yet.

Don't feel bad. I own 669 books (I have a spreadsheet, lol) and I think I've read maybe a little over half of them, which means my number is probably around 300.

I think I have over a hundred sitting around my house right now.

Gosh, I only have about 15 and thought I was bad. I am sooo behind.

You think that's bsd, I just got my kindle because I don't have the room to store anymore books. I now have over 500 books on my kindle; of which I've only read six.

I have 15-20 that I dont know if I will ever get to now that I have my kindle.

bsd means bad sorry about the mispelling

About 30 in paperback & 10 on my Kindle

I have 55, did not even know I had that many until I came across this discussion, boy I need to speed up my reading. There is no way I'll stop buying. I don't know if I'll ever catch up to what I have, but at least I'll be surrounded by my lovely books. :)

Sigh... this question always makes me feel really bad as I have quite a book buying obsession that well outpaces my reading ability. Now, keeping in mind a number of these are free short stories and audiobooks in addition to standard books, according to GR my total now stands at 463. Shocking!

I have an excel file where I list mine as well. According to that I have 125 paperbacks and 35 audiobooks in my library/ipod that I have yet to read. And yes, I do keep buying more books every month. So, you do have the right to feel better now twinfish:)

I have well over 100. Sigh. The autobuys get read right away, but the others...

B

I had about 150 books on my shelve and read about 90 of them. Since I've gone digital I've been selling most of my books on ebay. I love my Libre reader!
Now I lost count what I have! I'm still keeping all my favorites like Fever & BDB

http://shop.ebay.com/girlbobbie/m.htm...

Ok, I can make everyone feel much better. First, I must state that I am the definition of a bibliophile, I am a book collector as well as a book reader. I currently own at last count 4357 items in my library. Of that number, 1563 is nonfiction, reference books. I don't count those since you don't really read those cover to cover. So, of the 2794 fiction that is left, I've read 1766 of them, which leaves 1028 unread. Everybody feel better now? ;-)

I read & trade as I go....so I can get more books.

But I have about 25-30 unread right now.

I usually read 7-8 a month..

I don't think there's been a booksale that I've walked away from without picking something up. I also tend to get books from people who know that I read a fair amount. (I finished book #201 for the year yesterday and will probably hit 225 by the end of the year.)

I would say I have between 300-400 unread books sitting on a pile in my bedroom right now. Maybe another 200 on the shelf in the living room. Probably another couple of hundred in the basement on another book shelf.

And yet two or three times a week I stop by Half-Price Books and usually walk out with something. I also belong to several local libraries and get books on a regular basis. Just last week I bought seven books from eBay. I think I have a problem.

I have lots, probably 100 or more, but I "store/hide" them. My family doesn't need to know how many, right? They might think I have an addiction or something.

I've probably got around a hundred, sigh, but you folks are all making me feel better :D At least most of them are on my Kindle so the clutter isn't TOO bad.

LOL That why I switched to ebooks LOL

Bobbie: I have books hiding on my reader too.

I love how I can read at break or what ever and not get snares what on the cover LOL

I have a GR's shelf called TBR-Own so it's easy to see that I own 2008 books that haven't been read yet! I also have about 150 keepers and close to 100 that I'm working on swapping or selling. Like Photojim, I can't walk away from a booksale without buying at least one book. I think I figure at some point I'll be broke and won't be able to actually buy books so I'm stockpiling.

I also purchased an Sony ereader back in April but I'm almost embarrassed to say that I haven't even taken it out of the box yet. I do have about 50 ebooks that I could conceivably transfer but I honestly don't have the time to figure out how to do it. Besides I love the feel of holding an actual book in my hands. I honestly don't even know why I purchased an ereader.

Joseph wrote: "Ok, I can make everyone feel much better. First, I must state that I am the definition of a bibliophile, I am a book collector as well as a book reader. I currently own at last count 4357 items i..."

Yes! you have made me feel so much better. I finally finished entering all my books into Goodreads and going by their TBR shelf - to-read - 1902. The worst part is, I am still buying books.

Problem, you say....hmmmmmmm.....perhaps.

I do the same thing so don't feel bad. I have bought over 30 books in the past 5 months ans still need to read most of them. Once I like an author I tend to buy their books. :)

I'm so jealous of you all! I have 300+ books on my TBR shelf & I only own around 10. My problem isn't owning too many TBR books, it's NOT owning them. I think my shelf would drastically dimish if I had the budget to buy most of them. For now, I can only get them through the library or PBS but I'm getting a kindle for xmas. Hopefully *crossed fingers* that will help me thin out my shelf, since ebooks are usually cheaper than print.

I haven't counted them recently, but the last time I had about 400 books on my shelves, that I haven't read yet. I read about eight books in a month, and I probably buy around eight books in a month too, so I think I have a problem too.

You guys really make me feel better about my own pile of unread books. I currently own 126 books, of which I still have to read 52. By coincidence I actually blogged about this today, lol.

OMG! We are all like squirrels stock piling our nuts for the winter. Oh well I figure if the world falls apart people with books will be at the top. People will come to us, bored because they have nothing to do and we can name our price. Since money won't mean anything they will pay us in food,fuel,water and toilet paper, just to read something. And we will live in high style compared to others. I mean according to the mayan calendar the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, so stock pile away fellow rodents. We shall soon rule!

twinfish2 wrote: "OMG! We are all like squirrels stock piling our nuts for the winter. Oh well I figure if the world falls apart people with books will be at the top. People will come to us, bored because they have ..."

I love your logic!

LethalLovely~I'll Wrap My Wire Around Your Heart wrote: "I'm so jealous of you all! I have 300+ books on my TBR shelf & I only own around 10. My problem isn't owning too many TBR books, it's NOT owning them. I think my shelf would drastically dimish if I..."

Im with you on that one! I pretty much only buy books when Im reading to read them.

I think I can make Joseph feel better. lol Okay. I have a library full of books. (I'm not exaggerating as my son's middle school library has only 7,000 books). Most were bought at thrift shops or garage sales, given to me free by my dad or off freecycle, or a great majority bought at my library's annual book sale at 25¢ or later 50¢ each, and I'd take huge advantage of the bag sale on the last day. (As many books as you can fit in a bag for $1, later years $2). Now, not counting 5 apple boxes of books I havn't inventoried yet, nor any of my kids books unless I've read them, I have inventoried in Goodreads 4,585 books. I've got it listed that I've only read 815 of them. So yes, I have a TON of unread books, over 3,770. lol I do go out of my way to buy some I want used online or trade for them on PBS (usually duplicates or books I didn't like). Do remember too that since many of these were given to me, or grabbed during the $1 bag sale that I don't necessarily want to read all of them. lol Harlequins from the '60s and '70s aren't necessarily bad but feel dated. I also have a decent selection of both Reader's Digest Condensed Books (either free or at 10/$1 from a thrift shop - AND I found a crisp $20 bill dated from the '60s in one that was used as a bookmark!). I also have a whole set of Detective Book Club condensed hardbacks, an almost complete set of Louis L'Amour western paperbacks. Yes, I have too many books. lol But it's my passion to read and being rather poor I've collected books on the super cheap to feed my reading habit and supplement with the library (if they have what I want to read, this is where I usually read new releases.) It's incredibly rare for me to buy any book at full price.

I agree with what other have said about being a bibliophile, loving to collect books and read them. I have a wide variety of genre's of books too. I have westerns, romance, mysteries, sci-fi, biographies, paranormal, classics, YA and children's books, and reference books (not all inventoried, like a full set of older encyclopedia's given to me). Romance makes up the largest section of my home library but I've been branching out since I joined Goodreads last year. I started reading more general fiction and got introduced to PNR & UF.

And crazy as this sounds, lol, I actually re-read books I own that I love even with owning this many unread books. And I only average reading about 10 books a month and around 100 a year. I do love having something for any mood that I may be in, or having books my boys (6, 10, & 13) both enjoy reading for pleasure and what they can use for school.

twinfish2 wrote: "OMG! We are all like squirrels stock piling our nuts for the winter. Oh well I figure if the world falls apart people with books will be at the top. People will come to us, bored because they have ..."

Oh my 13 year old son cracked up when I read him this! lol

ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "I think I can make Joseph feel better. lol Okay. I have a library full of books. (I'm not exaggerating as my son's middle school library has only 7,000 books). Most were bought at thrift shops or g...

And crazy as this sounds, lol, I actually re-read books I own that I love even with owning this many unread books. And I only average reading about 10 books a month and around 100 a year. I do love having something for any mood that I may be in, or having books my boys (6, 10, & 13) both enjoy reading for pleasure and what they can use for school."

So nice to know I am not alone. :-) Even with all the books I haven't read yet, I'm also a chronic rereader. On average I'd say I do tend to read about a book a day, I like to read several hours in the evening to cool down for the day, but about a third of those are rereads.

Oh my gosh, hundreds. Going by my goodreads shelves and the books I haven't added there yet, I have at least 300. And yet I keep buying more books...

I tend to reread when I want something comfortable and relaxing. Like after reading a real turkey of a book, lol, or when stressed out.

I also read alot of anthologies, particularly lately paranormal anthologies. Trouble is, I don't list them as "read" in the system here on GRs because I only read one novella or short story at a time. I don't like to read anthologies straight through, cover to cover. But because only part of it is read, I don't mark it as "read" which to me means I've read the whole thing. It's a great way to try new authors. It's how I found The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. (I own the whole series acquired slowly but have only read the first two so far. I find them so action packed I need a breather before reading the next one in the series.)

I have somewhere around 50 on my bookkshelf that I haven't read yet, but I am starting to deplete that I may actually be close to 30-40 now I would have to go count again last time I counted was at 52, that was the sunday before halloweeen.

But I also keep buying books, so yeah probably back at 50 lol

I wouldn't be surprised if we all bought about as many (or more!) books than we read. Always have to have something waiting tbr in the house. Heaven forbid we come to the point that we've read all we have! lol

My problem is that I buy so many each time that they pile up, but then they've been in the house for a while so even tho I haven't read them I'm bored of them. I constantly need NEW books, which really piles up, lol!

twinfish2 wrote: "OMG! We are all like squirrels stock piling our nuts for the winter. Oh well I figure if the world falls apart people with books will be at the top. People will come to us, bored because they have ..."

twinfish2 LMAO!!! Most definitely! I love it! :D

Bless the person/people who created eBooks b/c I would be buried under all mine otherwise. I'm refraining for actually counting them. If I do that, then I'll finally have to admit that I'll never be able to read them all in my lifetime.

Oh, LethalLovely, how I wish I had your problem. Though only sometimes. But, mostly I wish I could let you wander my shelves, boxes and hard drives for books you'd like to read.

Hope Santa's good to you and you get your Kindle for Xmas. :)

I thought I was bad, but I feel so much better reading this thread :) I have listed 227 books in my collection at the moment that I've not yet read. I listed them all in goodreads, in a shelf called Own-Not-Yet-Read.

But I keep buying new ones every now and then. I just love buying books, although I read slower than my book buying, but I just can't help it :)

What a perfect world it would be if I could manage to read a book, buy a book, read a book, buy a book. But, that's a fantasy I know I'll never see in reality. It's more like ... read 2 books, buy 6 books, read a book, buy 5 more books. LMAO!!

I can't stop buying books I own around 2,000 books I still need to read about 500 of them.I still get tons of books from the Library too.My Immediate to read shelf has around 130 books from different series I read and new books I really want to read.

Thank goodness for this list! I have 3 shelves of TBR books in my bedroom and 3 more boxes hiding in my closet (that hubby doesn't know about and I am not about to tell him!). Lately I have been buying books faster then I read them. I started a folder to keep my receipts in so I know how much I spent in a year on books (and will see how much I spent at Borders vs the local independent). About 2/3 to 1/2 are new; and 1/3 to 1/2 used.

Between the books on my Kindle and the ones sitting on my book shelf I think I'm getting close to 100. But looking at other peoples comments it looks like I'm done ok :-)

And crazy as this sounds, lol, I actually re-read books I own that I love even with owning this many unread books...

I currently have close to 1,000 books which are mine and are unread. About 200 or so I own which I am guilty of re-reading a LOT (any of my Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, J. D. Robb etc. etc.). I continuously buy books and not read them. I work in a library so 99% of my reading comes from library books even though I have soooooo many of my own. Drives my husband nuts!
I think I have shared this before but.... when I first got the keys to all 3 of our branch libraries my husband said it was like giving an alcoholic the keys to a pub (bar)!!!
Most of the books I own are brand new and I am always so excited to get them, but then they go on the TBR pile and I tend to forget them. I have some fantastic books and I just don't have the time to read them all. >sigh<
My husband thinks I am a crazy hoarder, but methinks a man who owns 3,000+ vinyl records may be like the ocean calling the sea salty!

LibraryLass wrote: "My husband thinks I am a crazy hoarder, but methinks a man who owns 3,000+ vinyl records may be like the ocean calling the sea salty!..."

LOL LibraryLass!

;)

I'm not sure but around 80.

Wow, you guys are making me feel so much better about the 120 paper books I have TBR.

Um, do the 100 royalty-free books that came pre-loaded on my Kobo count? ;-)

I completely agree with the statement that we are all squirrels! I am definitely a squirrel when it comes to books. As of right now I have 130 books that I own but have not read. :) Plus 7 library books that will be due soon. I feel like right now I have a large expendable income but one day that may not be so, so I have to get the books I want now so I'll have something to read later! haha