Thursday, June 30, 2011

Booking Through Thursday: Size Matters



What’s the largest your personal library has ever been?
What’s the greatest number of books you’ve ever owned at one time?
Is your collection NOW the biggest it’s ever been?
Or have you down-sized?
What’s the fewest number of books you’ve ever owned
(not counting your pre-reading years)?


Mulling this over, I think,
How do I measure the size of my personal library?

I could choose strong adjectives.
Big, of course.
Or enormous.
Gargantuan. Voluminous. Massive. Vast....

What about choosing a good unit of measure?
Number of volumes, perhaps?
Number of bookshelves?
I know that at one time I had ten huge bookshelves,
with over 5,000 books.

How about a formula:
Amount of space taken up by books relative to the amount of living space in my house?
(That sounds fancy.)
To put that into perspective, my house is 1400 square feet.
That's...uh...5,000 divided by 1400...which is...well, 3.571428 books per square foot...

I like this:

Books are a ubiquitous presence in my life.
Books are in the study, under my bed, beside the bed, on the nightstand, on the kitchen table, in my purse, under the couch, in my car, in my backpack, in the kitchen cupboard, on my walls as art, at my school library, in the attic, in a discard box, in the garage, on the front porch, on my reading chair, in my mailbox, in a package for the post office, by the computer, in a basket in the bathroom, on my Kindle, on my iPad, on my computer, in my dreams....




And don't forget!
Today is the last day to enter
my June Giveaway here at Readerbuzz...


What is Booking Through Thursday? It's a meme that has archives going back to May of 2005. Every Thursday, bloggers can visit the site to see a new question. Copy and paste the question to your blog and then answer it. Then leave a link to your actual post in the comments.
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16 comments:

  1. UnknownJune 30, 2011 at 7:30 AM

    That's a lot of books ... but I recall that I once entered a work colleague's house and her she really had books everywhere ... even on every steps of her staircase. :-)

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  2. christinaJune 30, 2011 at 8:10 AM

    Absolutely love that picture! And I'm hear you about books everywhere. I am euphoric when I get a new stash.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sam (Tiny Library)June 30, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    That's a lot of books! I am trying to curb my book buying impulse lately, but it is hard....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kristy PowersJune 30, 2011 at 9:12 AM

    Almost 4 books per square foot! Wow!
    Here's my answer: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/06/booking-through-thursday-size-matters.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bev HankinsJune 30, 2011 at 10:08 AM

    Me too! Me too! (except I haven't made it to 5,000 yet. Yes, YET. It's perfectly possible I might someday)

    Here's my answer: http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2011/06/booking-through-thursday-size-matters.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 30, 2011 at 11:55 AM

    Wow! a great pile of books.

    here's mine:

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/06/booking-through-thursday_30.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. llevinsoJune 30, 2011 at 12:03 PM

    Haha fantastic! Books are everywhere in my place too.

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  8. Laurel-Rain SnowJune 30, 2011 at 12:23 PM

    I like the way you helped us visualize your books! Yes, ever-present they are....

    Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  9. Short Story SloreJune 30, 2011 at 1:15 PM

    I live in a partial studio, so I'm a bit limited on how many books I can have so they took over my walk-in closet. I'm jealous of the space you have (or don't now that books took over).

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sam (Tiny Library)June 30, 2011 at 1:30 PM

    Hi, just wanted to let you know I've added your entry to the literary blog directory: http://tinylibrary.blogspot.com/p/literary-blog-directory.html
    Hope you find some great blogs through it and also get some new readers.

    I really should read A Fine Balance, but I keep putting it off.

    ReplyDelete
  11. JenniferJune 30, 2011 at 2:07 PM

    I loved your original answer! The photo was a great addition to it. Thanks for checking my answer out...

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousJune 30, 2011 at 5:05 PM

    You answered this well and I say ditto for me and my house. Occasionally my husband will clean off all the horizontal surfaces of books. I then go around and find new horizontal spaces to put them. 7 Floor to Ceiling bookshelves, 30 or more on my dresser waiting to be read and in every purse and bag I own there is at least one and on my nightstand too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousJune 30, 2011 at 7:06 PM

    Thanks for stopping by my post today! Really enjoyed yours. While my books and comics aren't quite as ubiquitous...I can identify with having them all over the place. I hate being caught anywhere without something handy to read.

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  14. Melissa WiebeJune 30, 2011 at 9:16 PM

    Really enjoyed your post and it really is insightful to most readers: they have books everywhere conceivable.

    While mine is more literal, here is mine: http://jaynesbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/booking-through-thursday-size-matters.html

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  15. Evangeline HanJune 30, 2011 at 9:24 PM

    Oh my, that is a lot of books. It's pretty convenient isn't it... having books within reach everywhere...?

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  16. AnonymousJuly 2, 2011 at 5:00 AM

    Books per square foot! I love it!!

    ReplyDelete

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