To own book or not to own books... that is the question

[Michelle My Bell]

Someone asked me why I don't own a lot of books. Well, I guess the answer is that I have two 3 shelf bookshelves for my kids books, 2 shelf bookshelf for myself and that is about it, minus our homeschool curriculum.

My main reason is that a lot of books are not worth owning. Some are cute and interesting, but would probably only be read once. When I find a book that is truly wonderful, something that we would go to again and again, then I purchase it. For my kids this includes books like the d'Aulaire history books, the Little House on the Prairie books, special authors such as Lois Lowry, Patricia MacLachlan, James Herriot etc... For me it includes Susan Schaffer Macaulay, Elizabeth George, Charlotte Mason.

I may be more likely to purchase books if I was without a library, but up to this point I have never had a problem with this. Even when I lived in a rinky dink little town in Illinois that had a 900 sq. foot ranch house as its library, I still had access to books. So I guess I just don't see a need to own a ton of books. Of couse this is just my opinion and current state of mind. LOL Any thoughts? :bigear:

God Bless,
Michelle

[Closeacademy]

I use my library for most books and only buy those books that are real treasures.

So we have books by D'Aulaire, Holling, Elsa Beskow and others that we will read over and over again or page through. I do have quite a few classics and the Norton Anthologies from my college days, a book of Quotations and things like that.

Books that we will read once or use once or twice just are not worth the shelf space in our home. :)

[Adrianne]

We prefer the library here too.

To be honest, the book market is another contributor to a materialist world. It is just another thing to buy and own. With such great library systems, do we really need to buy them? It seems like a waste to me. Of course if you do not have a access to a library that is a different story.

Just more waste for our landfills.......

[JuJuBee]

I love owning a book. It makes it more 'mine' somehow. When I look at my old books, they bring back the memories of when I read them, that time in my life, how I felt then, etc. I feel very sentimentally attached to them.

I hate the library! LOL They're someone else's books. My husband is the opposite and loves the library, takes the kids regularly, etc. It takes all kinds! :)

[Mrs. H.]

I would own tons of books, in hardcover. I would own a beautiful copy of everything Beatrix Potter, A.A. Milne, Kenneth Grahame, Thornton Burgess, Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, and Jane Auston, among many, many others, ever wrote. I would spend tons of time browsing and leafing through the pages of those old friends, and snuggling with children by the fire to read of Mr. Edward Bear or Rat and Mole.

*sigh* However, I do not have the space, the money, or the time for the purchasing, storing, and upkeep of such treasures. Most modern-day literature makes me wonder why they wasted the ink and paper, so I don't buy many of those. If we find a real treasure at the library, and the kids have checked it out again and again, we add it to the book list.

Yes, I would own hundreds of books, but they would all be excellent, beautiful volumes of wonderful literature.

[MichelleWI]

I cannot imagine a house without books. We have 22+ shelves of books at the moment (not separate bookcases, but individually counted shelves) with stacks of books and boxes of books, too. We buy almost all of them used, or they are given to us. If we find they are not being read, they are passed along to someone who is interested in them or we donate them to Goodwill so they can be purchased by those who, like us, must live on a tight budget.

Our family reads constantly, though. There are few times in our household when there is not at least one person with their face hidden behind a book. Often the entire family, right down to the two-year-old, is reading (or looking at pictures). As it is, my two older children are constantly requesting new material.

In addition, we are very picky about what is on our shelves. We are a conservative family and our book selections reflect that. There is not much on our shelves that we restrict from the younger children. I don't want to have to police their choices in our own home.

The library where we used to live was wonderful. The head librarian was a personal friend and we had a wonderful relationship with everyone who worked there. The library here in our new community is small and the selections for children are largely "fast food reading". They have weeded out most older books having rich vocabulary and interesting topics in favor of the newest cartoon-related books, etc.

Still, we started our love of books while having full access to the excellent library because there were many titles we returned to again and again. We found that weekly trips to the library were not enough to keep books at the fingertips of our children. In addition, it's much easier to monitor what is being read when we know the book has come from our home library.

[Plaid Dad]

I'm like you, Michelle. I only buy books that I will refer to again and again. Some excess has crept into my dd's collection - mostly gifts - but we do try to make our home library purchases "for keeps." We rent and have limited space, so we've made a virtue of necessity, but I think even if we had more room for bookshelves, I would still be very careful which books we acquired.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We mostly borrow from the library here as well. Generally, if we can find the book at the library, then we don't buy it. The books I buy are usually either great out-of-print books that the library doesn't have or classic books that I think are worth reading over and over again. In the OOP collection, we have Vinegar Boy and several books from the Happy Hollister series. In the classics, we have the chronicles of Narnia series, The Secret Garden, and some others. Then of course there are always the books received as presents. These I evaluate from time to time to decide if it is worth the space to store it or if we should sell it to make space for something better.

[attachedto4]

We consider books a must have and they are about the only thing our family consistantly spends money on.

I incorporate a lot of unschooling ideas, one is strewing, which is about more than books, but I've found that my kids learn so much on their own with access to a variety of reading materials. They are always reading. We do also always have a book basket of library books on the shelf, but the ones we own are books we want to read over and over, or they are field guides and other reference books that the kids are always pulling out when they have a question. When I hear about a book that might interest me and dh or our kids, I check the library first, then if we like it, we buy it.

ETA: My kids are having quiet time and one of them needed something so I didn't finish some thoughts I had. I had wanted to add, that I understand and appreciate the point about consumerism being out of control, and used books are one way to "recycle" books. For us though, we buy books with the understanding that these are books we love that we will always want in our collection, to hand down to our kids and their kids, for as long as they last. I grew up as a reader and books were like old friends, I loved having certain ones to read and reread. My MIL saved a bunch of my dh's books from childhood and my kids love reading their daddy's books.

That said, I do love the library also and we go regularly and appreciate having the great library system in our area.

[Jennifer in NH]

The library here in our new community is small and the selections for children are largely "fast food reading". They have weeded out most older books having rich vocabulary and interesting topics in favor of the newest cartoon-related books, etc.


:iagree: When I lived in Minnesota our library was fantastic! Here, it is marginal at best. Nothing in the children's section is marked clearly as to where it should be, and since they put a new addition on, it seems that some of the childrens book did not get to go into that nice spacious room!

In the summer we are in a different state and the library there is wonderful...we use it a lot more!

That being said...I love having my own library! A few years ago my DH converted our rarely used front parlour into our library. It has also becom a school room of sorts. I love being able to think of a book and just go get it! We do have a few lousy books...but they get donated! My MIL keeps insisting on giving the kids books for birthdays and such. That would be great if she didn't think that Disney puts out wonderful kids books! Why anyone would think a child would like any of those books is beyond me! pretty pictures, lousy words!
The kids have access to all our books, but they can't read them yet! working on that.
Sorry if this rambled!

[Trivium Academy]

There is something magically wonderful about needing a book and being able to walk to the bookshelf or rubbermaid tote and pull it out immediately. It sure beats waiting for 6 weeks to receive a book we needed 4 weeks ago from interlibrary loan!

We still use the library, just not for anything we want to own for continued use and definitely not for titles we depend on. :001_smile:

I think being able to purchase our own books was the best gift dh could have given me this year! He was tired of the library system too.

[Jean in Wisc]

Where do I write the meanings of new words if it is a library book? I don't think I could put them in the margin like I do now!

And the notes on the front page of the book--those quotes I want to remember and the page numbers...

LOL!

I'm a book junkie.

:-)

[MichelleWI]

That being said...I love having my own library!

Oh, Jennifer, that is my dream. Wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.!

[KH_]

We own a lot of books, and my children really delight in being able to go choose books from the shelves. Many are favorites that they will read over and over again, and I love to be able to provide them with a source of good reading material. We do have a nice sized library in our town, but not only is it not very convenient to go to, but they don't have the many of the books that we own - many of the older children's titles that are just good reading and not twaddle and not trash. It's really somewhat difficult to find good books when we do go, and much easier just to have them at home.

[Ali in OR]

Owning books vs. using the library...

It's not an either/or thing! I love owning wonderful books. I love a good library book sale. I love seeing dd pull books off our shelves and re-read old favorites time after time (Baby Island is falling apart and it was new in July). We also go to the library every 3-4 weeks and fill up there too. I do choose books to own carefully, and the longer I home school, the choosier I get. But I love the learning that happens that is not part of the school day all because dd finds something interesting on the shelf.

[Crissy]

I buy a lot of books. They're everywhere. Shelves in most rooms of the house. But I've been looking at them differently this week.

I had a rather deep discussion with my sister-in-law last weekend about owning 'stuff'. For the most part, I let things go, but I have such a different attitude about books.
It seems it comes down to the feeling that I can look around and offer myself proof that I'm not so dumb afterall. Who could have read all those books and still be stupid? :001_huh:

Odd, huh?

[MySerenity]

I'm of the impression that I rather own a book then borrow it. I have 5 five-shelf book shelves full of books. And one four shelf one also full. We're almost to the point where we need yet another book shelf. Used books stores, clearance sections at Borders and Barnes and Noble are my enemy. Heck who am I kidding any bookstore is dangerous for me! I absolutely love books, luckily my husband does too. And I swear it's rubbing off on my kids... but that's a good thing right?

[Laurel]

We own a lot of books. Shelves and shelves and shelves of books. And I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I have several shelves of my own "keepers" - these are the books that I can read again and again, collections of my favorite authors. With a few exceptions, however, most of the books I have bought lately have all been used. (Either good finds at used book stores, or swapped through Paperback Swap, if I have a particular book I want.) And I have gone through my books, and give away or swap those that I don't think we will read again.

There is something special about having a library in your house. I remember growing up, going into my mother's library, and picking out a book to read. She kept many of her great books from her childhood (Five Little Peppers, and such), and then she even has some books that used to be her grandmother's. There is something so special about the history of these books. When I was home over Christmas, we were going through the books (she is getting ready to sell the house, so thinking about downsizing), and it was so nice to talk about each of our memories with the books.

For "throwaway" books, that will only be read once, I don't see the need to own them, but for books that I will read, and that my children will read, and that maybe their children will read someday, it is so nice to have that collection, with that history.

[Myrtle]

I prefer to get fiction from the library, but I buy nonfiction.

One reason I want to own nonfiction is because several times a day I need to pull out a book and refer to something in it, I also make notes in the margins and on the blank pages at the end of the book that I refer to.

When I no longer anticipate a need for a book I give it away or resell it.

One option to heavy shelves that I am looking forward to when it evolves a little more (right now it's incompatible with pdf files) are text readers such as Amazon's "Kindle." (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/ref=amb_link_6369712_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0W5DF8HB6E1QFAKT8BXP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=371797501&pf_rd_i=507846) You buy a book and download onto a small wireless device that you can carry in your purse. I imagine it would be useful to have my entire library with me at all times! I'd like to download some of those google books to read but they are in pdf format and it doesn't look like I'll be able to read them anywhere but on my computer. Husband tells me they make wireless devices such as these on which you can write on the screen and it saves it to file on the page of the book, so maybe the day will arrive in which I can still have my marginalia!

[attachedto4]

We do have a few lousy books...but they get donated! My MIL keeps insisting on giving the kids books for birthdays and such. That would be great if she didn't think that Disney puts out wonderful kids books!

:laugh: We have a few relatives who also think that those kind of books are good. What really gets me is when our library has childrens activities and gives away new books, they are always really bad books- last time dd got one about Flick from A Bugs Life and I had to sneak it away later. You would think the library would know better. :glare:

[WTMCassandra]

I have about 12 bookshelves full of books. I sometimes say that I homeschool just to have an excuse to buy books. Having said that, I am trying to curb my habit somewhat. I use the library for "preview."

If they have it, I check it out and decide if it's wonderful enough that we want to own it and read it over and over. If so, I put it on my Amazon wish list for when I see a cheap used copy for sale or when I have Amazon credit from selling books.

I too have had the experience of needing a book and the library not getting it until weeks or months later from another branch or ILL. How frustrating! So I end up buying a lot of history books and such and selling them later.

I also try to keep books moving. If we are done with them, I tend to sell them. I have kept a few "keepsake HS books," but I try to keep them to a minimum. They take up about a tub or so: PP, beautiful Christian readers, etc. If my children have outgrown books like grammar stage history items, I sell them.

I hang on to good literature: classics, most Sonlight titles, Lamplighters, Hentys. I still have some of my own books from my childhood.

I agree with the people who like to have a good library at home. We are quite conservative, and I am VERY choosy about what my children read. We buy some Sonlight titles for "fun" books ; ). I try to keep twaddle and what I consider objectionable out of my home. I like to think that my children can pick up just about any book on our designated shelves and I will approve of it. I do have a section that I think is too "adult" for my children but would be approved for later reading, and my children are good at staying to their designated shelves. Since I would have to say so many "no's" at the library, I prefer that my children have a bunch of "yes'" at home. If I find out about a book I think they might like, I reserve it ahead of time at the library, take it home and preread, and if I approve, they can read it. Approved books this week included the hilarious "Harry's Mad" and "A House Full of Owls." But I never let them "graze" at the library.

This house is the first place that we could have a "library," made out of the formal dining room. The good news is that it has lots of natural light. The bad news is that it has so many windows and is so cut up that it only holds six bookshelves. But that's OK. It's a great house that has plenty of room for bookshelves elsewhere as well. I really like having a designated library, though.

So, while I think I own a lot of books, I do try to be choosy.

Hope this helps.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

We like to own books whenever possible. I can't wait until dh is done with school so we can move to a bigger house and have more room for books! We live in a small, poor town, so our library is small too. We also have most of the library books in the UP available to us through IIL, but that still isn't the greatest selection and the books sometimes take 3 weeks or more to get here. It's definitely something we won't be able to count on once we start formal studies. Not only that, but with so many littles around and our awful winter weather it's hard to get to the library. Can you tell that I've been frustrated by it already even though my oldest is only 3?

[OhElizabeth]

Michelle, I saw that in your blog too. If I could suggest, I think owning books, or else making sure there's a constantly flow of them from the library, is hugely formative for kids, their interests, the breadth of their knowledge. We do VP history, and while the book only gets used once for a card or topic, I can't tell you how many times I'll find my dd pulling them out to read them again. They become old friends she turns to again and again! Now that you're using TOG, I think you're going to have books like this that are wonderful that your kids will want to read over and over.

I noticed your schoolroom is in a basement and has masonry walls. If I could suggest, with very little trouble you could have about all the bookshelves you can possibly imagine. My dh just built me some more in fact, hehe. http://www.flickr.com/photos/schoolonthehill/2343182713/ It takes a special tool to drill through the masonry, but once you do it's incredibly solid and will hold tons of weight. He hangs these vertical railings and then installs the brackets, lays boards across, and voila. You can turn a huge section of wall into shelving for very little money in that way. You could store tm's, art work, bins with supplies or projects, anything you can think of.

PS. The pics of my schoolroom are old, from a couple years ago. Things have changed, been rearranged. I now have a back bedroom lined with bookshelves for our history books. It's a pretty inspiring place to be; you just look up and gaze! lol I don't think you have to OWN the books, if you're limited on room, but having books around will change your life, inspire learning, inspire loving books. My mom took us to the library constantly, something that wasn't the norm in the poor area we grew up in. It's also something SWB mentioned as something her mother did RIGHT in homeschooling her, that she took her to the library weekly with a laundry basket to fill with a variety of genres. I will say I got into a lot of trash reading through the library without guidance like that, and I think it's an even harder issue now. I also don't have the energy to keep up with library trips and fines (even though my dh happens to be on the library board, if you can imagine, hehe!). So I don't think the issue is how you get there, but the love of books. Simplicity and order is good. For us, having bookshelves and keeping everything neat gives us both. :)

[dragons in the flower bed]

I have about 12 bookshelves full of books. I sometimes say that I homeschool just to have an excuse to buy books. Having said that, I am trying to curb my habit somewhat. I use the library for "preview."

I have twelve, five foot bookcases filled, and will need another shelf this year for our middle ages/earth science purchases and my own self-ed selections.

My primary reasoning is kinda Fahrenheit 451. As an unschooled teen, I checked out wonderful, old books from the library, only to go back a few years later eager to read them to my kids and find out that they were burned or sold. Libraries don't attempt to maintain a collection of the best books of all time; they maintain collections of books currently relevant to the local population. Frankly, I don't trust the local population to value the books I want my great-grandchildren to read.

Also, books go out of print and don't come back, or don't come back at reasonable prices. I can think of three books I really need (in an educational sense) which I can't get because libraries just don't have them, and the asking price is now over a hundred dollars. This was the case with Holling C Holling and VM Hillyer books in the eighties -- does any one remember that? It is particularly the case with curriculum. Two different programs I loved as a teen have disappeared from the market, only showing up on bookfinder.com once every six month, and then for more than I can pay.

My secondary reasoning is that I want to plan to spend most of my life two hours from a major city and forty minutes from the nearest library. Cutting back on my use of the car and glowing electronic screens, known bads in our household, would also cause a severe reduction in our reading if we did not have a large and diverse library in our home.

My third reason is that old saying that the level of a child's intelligence could be measured by the number of books in the home. There's something to be said for allowing a child to live with the books, like friends, treasure them and grow with them and make them their own. I know when I buy a book that my voracious readers will attempt the first paragraph as soon as we get it, a month later, and every six months, until they're ready for it. What better system of creating a reading program than letting a child's curiousity frequently roam through a hall filled with the excellent books you've hand-picked to match your value system and educational goals? Constant, constant re-exposure draws a child to a book, and the book will then be there for the child to snag and take up at just the right moment developmentally.

[Rebecca]

MichelleWI,
I would love to see a list of your favorite books!

Our family is very similar- it is a typical day to see the little non- readers sitting on the floor "reading" books and looking at them- often together in pairs. :001_smile:

All five of my children have their very own special shelf with carefully chosen favorites.
Then we have the "homeschool" shelf. This has our school books such as science, history, etc. It also has our field guides, etc. We also have the "brown bookshelf" where other books go- that are fine- but not as special and not for school, etc. Maybe they were given by family as gifts, etc. Maybe I bought them years ago and we have since received something better- etc.

My answer: OWN THE BOOK: BUT ONLY THE ONE YOU LOVE!

Our home school room- is basically a book room!
I do buy lots of books- I can't find them at libraries. One example would be the One Small Square books that my sons love. Neither here in NC nor in PA did our library have them.
A lot of the quality Christian literature that we have- cannot be found in our local library.

We give books for all occassions- Christmas, birthday, etc.
It is "expected."

Rebecca

[elegantlion]

The one redeeming quality of our house when we bought it were floor to ceiling walnut bookcases all along one wall. I just drooled. :tongue_smilie:

I love collecting books and we have a lousy library. My ds is 10 and we had quite a few younger books, but as he gets older I am collecting the books we will read. I hope to have a real home library some day :).

I am constantly scouring thrift stores, garage sales, etc for titles. I have pages of books listed that I'm working on gathering. Many of them we won't read for years, but they are still here.

I love to read at my leasure, highlight and write in books. I just feel I'm missing something if I'm reading a book that belongs to someone else.

Like someone else metioned I love being able to just pick up a book when I need it, for reading or reference.

[Susie in MS]

There is something magically wonderful about needing a book and being able to walk to the bookshelf or rubbermaid tote and pull it out immediately. It sure beats waiting for 6 weeks to receive a book we needed 4 weeks ago from interlibrary loan!

We still use the library, just not for anything we want to own for continued use and definitely not for titles we depend on. :001_smile:

I think being able to purchase our own books was the best gift dh could have given me this year! He was tired of the library system too.

This is EXACTLY how I feel! One year we tried to use the library for our school books and it was a disaster! They either didn't have it, or it was checked out. ILL would only allow us 1 week with a book that we needed for 3. Now we buy all the books our budget will allow. I will do without buying new clothes, dish towels, or anything else 'cept food just to have the school books we need! :) Know what I asked for for Christmas?....a book. Got it too! :D

[Janice in NJ]

Yes, yes, yes.

I don't own them so I can own them, I own them so I can OWN them - and I can't make them my own (internalize them) unless I write in them. I haven't found another way to argue, talk to, bounce ideas around with these guys. They're dead. I can only converse with them by speaking my mind to them as we go along - and that means writing in their books.

Sometimes we even end up competing for space on the page. :001_smile:
I doubt that our library would appreciate that.

And sometimes inspiration hits. There is no TIME to order something ILL. I need the book now. Right now! I need my books to teach. :001_smile:

But, yes we do still use the library. A lot.

So, I guess I like both flavors! :D

Peace,
Janice

[LisaK in VA]

We live a good 30 minutes to the Library. And, they *never* seem to have a book when we need it. We have library cards -- but our trips to the library are for pleasure reading.

Last year, I tried to do the "library" thing for school -- it was a mess.

So, we simply buy the books we need to read for school at this point.

My younger two will wind up reading most of them as well -- so, the cost is really spread out among the four.

I have purchased 2 books in the last 2 years... Super Nanny and 30 Minute Meals. I purchased 3 books on building your own home for my dh, but all the other books we have aquired during the past several years have been given to us.

[Carol in Cal.]

It is impossible to have too many books.

The purchase of books in a book store is linear with time. It never falls off.

Using library books for homeschooling is a great way to screen books for purchase. Naturally, once one finds a great author in the library, one must consider purchasing ALL of the books on Amazon that that author has ever written. (I did say CONSIDER, not BUY.)

My favorite book from childhood is only in print in two yucky editions--a library binding with cheapo paperback pages, and a cheapo paperback. Why didn't I buy the lovely hardcover when I could? Because I thought that I could always get it. But I can't.

My library system is SO bad that when I wanted to look up something in a classic book I had studied during high school (The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad), it was not anywhere in the whole system. This system has a very large main library and at least 15 branches.

I have never been able to find some of the Lloyd Alexander series in our libary system, either. Nor Jo's Boys. They just don't have a COLLECTION. They have new bestsellers, and formulaic kid's books, but no COLLECTION.

It follows, then, that if I want access to a COLLECTION, I must create it myself. I'm working on it!

[Mrs Mungo]

I love books, I love owning them. The Clean Sweep people will never be allowed in my house for this reason.

[MichelleWI]

My favorite book from childhood is only in print in two yucky editions--a library binding with cheapo paperback pages, and a cheapo paperback. Why didn't I buy the lovely hardcover when I could? Because I thought that I could always get it. But I can't.

Carol, this is what AbeBooks.com (http://www.abebooks.com/) and Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/) are for! I recently bought The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush for 1/6 of what it sells for elsewhere by watching AbeBooks.com constantly. The book was only published once and the only library in our state that holds the book will no longer allow it to be checked out.

[Jennifer in NH]

Yes, yes, yes.

I don't own them so I can own them, I own them so I can OWN them - and I can't make them my own (internalize them) unless I write in them. I haven't found another way to argue, talk to, bounce ideas around with these guys. They're dead. I can only converse with them by speaking my mind to them as we go along - and that means writing in their books.

Sometimes we even end up competing for space on the page. :001_smile:
I doubt that our library would appreciate that.


That was just so funny! I could imagine the next person checking out that book!:lol:

[Julie in GA]

for many reasons:

1) I don't do well returning things on time
2) I like to make notes and underline things
3) I like having books available for my dc to read and re-read
4) I will have six children, come October; the thought of borrowing and re-borrowing books for all of them is absolutely OVERWHELMING!

But back to #3: I've instituted a practice of a one-hour "book time" from 2-3 p.m. (This used to be nap time, but only the 2yo takes a nap anymore.) When the dc are told they have to read something, and their only choices are what I have on the shelves, it forces them to at least take a look at the things I have chosen for them. I have noticed that my ds13 is now re-reading books that he read one or two years ago. I'm thrilled at this!

[angela in ohio]

You already have an idea of what I think ;), but I'll explain why I have so many books, even though we live six minutes from a giant library. These are all reasons already given, I'm sure.

(1.) Many of the books that we read are not available at any library. They are old and OOP or Christian or just plain obscure. (Insert everything Rose said for her first point.)

(2.) I like my dc to have a library available to them at all times. They are all avid readers, and I think it is because I keep them bored with a great children's library available at all times for them to enjoy.

(3.) I have book friends. I reference them constantly, I loan them out to my other (people) friends, I re-read them and write in them... They wouldn't be such good friends if they belonged to someone else or lived somewhere else. :001_smile:

[dragons in the flower bed]

Carol, this is what AbeBooks.com (http://www.abebooks.com/) and Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/) are for! I recently bought The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush for 1/6 of what it sells for elsewhere by watching AbeBooks.com constantly. The book was only published once and the only library in our state that holds the book will no longer allow it to be checked out.

Michelle, if you will allow me to use the imperative, you must switch to bookfinder.com. It searches alibris, abe, amazon, half, barnes and nobles and so many other booksellers all with one click AND lines the prices up from cheapest to lowest with shipping included.

[SoCal Sandra]

Because I am a book addict.

Recently I have turned to using library books because I am running out of room. This is not without effort, though, because the local librarians advise me to disinfect the books when I get home, since some of them say they have caught skin diseases and other illnesses from books returned in unsanitary condition.

[Jennifer in NH]

Because I am a book addict.

Recently I have turned to using library books because I am running out of room. This is not without effort, though, because the local librarians advise me to disinfect the books when I get home, since some of them say they have caught skin diseases and other illnesses from books returned in unsanitary condition.


:tongue_smilie: Yuck! eeeww. How is that possible, and wouldn't the library want to do the sanitizing? How does one sanitize a book? Would that take half of the loan period? At our libray our loan period is just 2 short weeks. I'd hate to think one of them was spent with the book off in my garage in a ziploc bag full of baking soda or something.

By the way, this is a really interesting thread! And, I envy all of you with good libraries!:D
another reason we don't get to the library as often as I would like..their hours are almost nonexistant! I have decided that it is not worth it to cart all the kids with me, that includes the toddler, so I can NOT find what I am looking for!;) I really have to go there when DH is home so he can watch the boys and then dd and I can go. That happens maybe once every 2 or three weeks...but I get way too frustrated with their lack of selection! Oh well, I chose where I live and I wouldn't move closer to "civilization" unless I had to!:D

[ArwenA]

We use the library a lot but it is currently locked out so we have been buying all our books. With eight kids who are avid readers/listeners plus books for our homeschool this means books are arriving almost every day and we're spending lots of money.
I love having a house full of books but I also realize how expensive books are. Life without a public library is hard for us. I really hope the lock out ends soon.

[WendyK]

I buy a lot of books. I collect books and I just love books. I don't spend much money on anything except books. I also take tons of books out from the library (sometimes 2 or 3 different libraries at a time). I need a 12 step program. LOL

I think it is great the library works so well for you. It seems whenever I am looking for something in particular, so are dozens of other people. There are a lot of homeschoolers in my area and I swear sometimes we are on the same chapters in SOTW because the books I want are taken!

[Calming Tea]

I have LOVED this thread!!!

I am the one that asked Michelle about her idea, and now I feel convinced that it's going to be my life's goal to combine my desire to have lots of books with the desire to simplify, by having only our favorites on our shelves.

Lately we've been getting TONS of DUDS or TRASH from the library, no matter how purposeful I try to be. Now, we're still enjoying the library and I certainly plan to keep on going, but I can't count on it.

But our home libraries are also not much fun these days, because I've held onto all the picture books that are decent, whether they're our favorites or not. The result is that the kids often pick books from the shelves that I can't stand reading or that aren't very good, or even interesting to them. An example are the Usborne Science books we get from Sonlight. I hate to read them and dc were never very interested in them, only the Encyclopedia made it to our favorites list.

Just because something is educational doesn't make it our favorite!!

I can't wait to go through and weed out when the kids go to bed!!

[Jennifer in NH]

I can't wait to go through and weed out when the kids go to bed!!

I do this with with books AND toys!:D

[Plaid Dad]

It seems it comes down to the feeling that I can look around and offer myself proof that I'm not so dumb afterall. Who could have read all those books and still be stupid? :001_huh:

I don't think it's odd at all. I felt that way for a long time, but at a certain point I realized that I didn't need possessions to prove my intelligence. If people couldn't tell from talking to me that I'd read all those books, then a fat lot of good they'd done me. So I slowly let go of books from graduate school that were only the shelf to make me look smart. Then I sold books that I just didn't care for anymore. Then I changed religions and donated a whole bookcase full of now irrelevant books to my former church. And so it went. It was a gradual process, but a liberating one.

[Janice in NJ]

Tee Hee...
But my dh enjoys reading our books AFTER I write in them. I am "working through" an edition of Jane Eyre. I offered to give him the "children's copy" - the one that doesn't have all of my notes (give away ALL of my thunder. :001_smile:). He declined. He said that he is getting a lot more out of the book BECAUSE of my notes.

...but I still don't think the library would like it. :lol: ...besides - it's a TON of work! Once I work through a text, I want it to be available to me so I can use it to teach the book three times. My copy of Jane Eyre will be worth WAY more to me than the buck-two-eighty that I used to purchase it. (Actually I think I found THAT one in a box in my dad's barn - so it was a freebie.) But after I work through a book, it represents HOURS of work on my part; I WANT to keep it.

On the one hand, it offends "something" in me to trash all of these books. :D But I don't see any other way to do it. I'm just getting started too. My house is filled with blank pages that I have yet to attack! :001_smile:
I'm psyched!

Peace,
Janice

Enjoy your little people
Enjoy your journey

[Part-Time Homeschooler]

Recently I have turned to using library books because I am running out of room. This is not without effort, though, because the local librarians advise me to disinfect the books when I get home, since some of them say they have caught skin diseases and other illnesses from books returned in unsanitary condition.


I'm so glad someone mentioned this -- it is exactly the reason why I now buy all of our books. I can't tell you how many times we've checked out a book only to open it up and see something absolutely disgusting. We stopped checking out books about a year ago but we do still check out audio books and movies. I now buy from Amazon, CBD, and various school supply stores.

[Novafan]

We do both. Borrow and buy.

We have a crazy amount of books in our home. Most of them are from my childhood and I am so thankful that my mother saved them. I buy tons of books too.

Now that we are HS'ing, we are reading more than ever! I am using my library constantly. We get books out of the library and if we love them or find a reason to have one on our own bookshelf, we order it.

I have cut back a bit on book buying because we are military and we move often and we have a weight limit when we move. If we go over the limit, we have to pay out of pocket for the extra weight. We're dangerously close to our limit, so I've had to scale back. If we were not a military and lived in a more permanent residence, I'd probably build a library in our home!

[nestof3]

We own a lot of books (12 bookshelves worth), and we also check out a lot from the library. I like to have books available for spontaneous viewing/reading (our 8 year old is always getting hooked on something and wants a book pronto). I also end up buying some books after renting them because they're just so great a resource to have on hand. I also own classics, great books like Foster, Holling, Milne, E. B. White, and so on. You really never know when books will go out of print or be discarded from our library, so I do invest in the best. I also have lots of books that the library doesn't carry. I like having our own Usborne, Kingfisher and DK books as well as books like One Small Square.

[Michelle My Bell]

Well this has been an interesting thread for sure! I have read a lot of responses that have given me reason to think a wall full of books could be wonderful! Actually, like I said in the initial post, we do have a decent amount of books. All the ones that we have loved over the years, and I do add to them regularly. Thanks for all the great responses guys!

Michelle

[Dana in OR]

I buy many volumes from thrift stores, etc. Our library is very limited, i.e., very small selection and only open half days during the week. So I prefer to buy the book, and keep it if I love it. If I don't love it, I will "trade" it for credit at a used bookstore or donate it back to the thrift shop where I bought it. Sometimes I will buy better volumes of my most loved books.

[Gailmegan]

I'm a book freak. We have thousands. No joke. But I saved all my books from when I was younger. It has been great to read books to my boys that belonged to my mom when she was little. And I still borrow books from the library. Anything that I think we will only read once comes from the library. But I expect to get more use out of it, I buy it.

[Mom2boys]

We have a smallish library system, and more and more I find I am having trouble checking out the history books I want, when i want them, because too many other families are using the same curriculum (SOTW) and are requesting the same books at the same time. Ditto for Sonlight. I went ahead and bought the Sonlight books we needed this year because we kept having to return books before we were finished with them, because someone else had them on hold. So, I find I am purchasing a lot of history and literature books, but I still get science books from the library.

[Eliana]

We make extensive use of two library systems and often have over 500 or 600 books out at a time.

We also own well over 5000 books, and that number will, G-d willing continue to grow.

Why own when we could borrow?

In no particular order:

Many of the books we own are out of print and not in the library's collection...

or they are in print, but the library discarded its last copy last year or the year before. (The library booksale does wonderful things for expanding our personal library at a very low cost, but it break my heart to see all these wonderful books no longer available to library patrons!)

My book collector software tells me that we have 422 kids' science books, 314 kids' history books, 93 biographies (for kids), 143 folklore/retellings of classics (for kids), and 120 kids' art and music books. My kids pull these books off the shelf and absorb them, or they are curious about something and find a book about it, or they want to 'research' something. Having an in-house library makes this a natural part of their lives, and has done more for their educations than any piece of curriculum I have ever purchased. Yes, we can (and do!) put books on hold at the library for them to expand their research, or read more about something which interests them, but they wouldn't learn as much if they had to wait a week or 5 for a book to come in.

We have 807 kids' chapter books and 469 kids' picture books. 99% of those are high quality, valuable books (which is much more than I can say of the children's fiction sections at the library). Here they can freely browse and read whatever strikes their fancy. When I read intriguing book reviews, I place holds at the library and read the books and then decide if they are worth owning, but when I find a wonderful book, it does onto my 'want' list... and then I wait until I find it at a used bookstore, or Goodwill, or the library booksale, or until we get another Amazon gift certificate from our credit card company...

Our literature and (adult) history and science collections are incredibly valuable resources as I educate our older girls. When we are exploring a topic or discussing an issue, or they are interested in a particular person or event or literary work, most of the time we have books to pull off the shelves and go through together... and those books lead us to more books, and so on.

We collect poetry books and pull them off the shelves, flip them open and read to each other. My 9 year old will take a volume or two up to her room and pour over them for days - or sit on the floor next to the shelf and browse through them looking for a poem she likes.

I have dozens of college textbooks on a variety of subjects, which even the youngest ones like to sample.

Field guides, encyclopedias, Hebrew religious texts, art books, the scripts of plays, essay and short story collections, books about math, philosophy texts, Greek and Hebrew lexicons, French and German literature & dictionaries... these fill our house and fascinate our children.

Harder to justify, perhaps, is the grown-up fiction and genre fiction collection which overflows shelves in our bedroom. This is a mixture. There are so many books here which we treasure, which we will reread...

but there is also some fluff here. Why? Because having some light reading here on hand means that when I can't sleep at night, but am not awake enough for challenging literature, when one of us is sick, or very sad and wants to be diverted we have things we know are entertaining and which suit our tastes. I got rid of it all once, thinking that we could always get it out of the library... only to discover that much of it is, if it is our library's collection at all, uncatalogued paperbacks... and to find a particular book, we would have to sift through rack after rack of unsorted paperback fiction...

And last, and probably most importantly, we collect books because this is how we have always lived. We both grew up in houses full of a variety of amazing books, and it feeds our hearts to be surrounded by them still.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I collect them and there is not a one in the house that I would not read again or have read again.(and again)

For the kids, same thing, there is absolutely NO twaddle in the house (except from the library that my 11 year old occasionally chooses) but the shelves are packed. Classics children's books, the My Book House series, Landmarks, Childhood of famous Americans, Jean Fritz books, books that were mine and my dh's like Miss Suzy and Miss Twiggly's Tree and Uncle Wiggly and Beatrix Potter and Thornton Burgess.
I have all the Lucy Fitch Perkin's twins books that were mine as well as the Chronicles of Narnia, Little House and Anne of Green Gables.

I do have and keep things that are "light reading" for myself. I am a huge Robert Parker fan as well as Clive Cussler. I wouldn't part with my Dragonriders of Pern series for anything nor my David Eddings.

We are huge readers, but often choose the same books over and over and so, I prefer to own them. But then again, "My name is Liz and I am a book addict"

[Julie in GA]

Just want to clarify that I'm very picky about what I buy. I often weed out via bookmooch & sale boards as well. The library works well for me as a way to preview books & decided whether or not to buy them.

[TracyR]

I love owning books . We can go back to our favorite stories again and again . We live in a small apartment at th moment. But have a big three shelved book case full of books , and a small three sheleved book case with our homeschoolstuff . Plus I think alo tof books are always laying around because my girls love to hear the stories and read them . Plus growing up my dad always bought books so we didn't have too much of a need to go to the library . So I think having my own books and loving to have my own books came from that too :>)

We have a small community library that we don't always get to. Plus I've noticed alot of the books are being replaced with comic books for the older children too . They put those up front so that my girls stop right there and don't make it to the back where all the true good stories are . So most of the time we're coming home with Pokemon . Not that I have anything against comic book stories but when its all the time every time that's when I have the problem with it .
So we don't go to our library all that often anymore .

[Peek a Boo]

We also own well over 5000 books, and that number will, G-d willing continue to grow.
.... (The library booksale does wonderful things for expanding our personal library at a very low cost, but it break my heart to see all these wonderful books no longer available to library patrons!)

....My kids pull these books off the shelf and absorb them, or they are curious about something and find a book about it, or they want to 'research' something. Having an in-house library makes this a natural part of their lives, and has done more for their educations than any piece of curriculum I have ever purchased. Yes, we can (and do!) put books on hold at the library for them to expand their research, or read more about something which interests them, but they wouldn't learn as much if they had to wait a week or 5 for a book to come in.

.... but when I find a wonderful book, it does onto my 'want' list... and then I wait until I find it at a used bookstore, or Goodwill, or the library booksale, or until we get another Amazon gift certificate from our credit card company...

...
We collect poetry books and pull them off the shelves, flip them open and read to each other. My 9 year old will take a volume or two up to her room and pour over them for days - or sit on the floor next to the shelf and browse through them looking for a poem she likes.

college textbooks on a variety of subjects, ....
Field guides, encyclopedias, Hebrew religious texts, art books, the scripts of plays, essay and short story collections, books about math, philosophy texts, Greek and Hebrew lexicons, French and German literature & dictionaries... these fill our house and fascinate our children.

...And last, and probably most importantly, we collect books because this is how we have always lived. We both grew up in houses full of a variety of amazing books, and it feeds our hearts to be surrounded by them still.


This is largely us too. I'm past the "need" to be surrounded by books --I'm plenty confident in my intellectual abilities, lol. But I *love* the feel, smell, and look of a book. The soft pages of a well-read and worn book, the crisp smell of a brand new book. being the first to crack the spine. knowing i can personalize it. Knowing there will be no late fees!


after tallying up triple digit fines a few times, it's simply cheaper to own than loan, lol.

I decorate with books. i use books to press stuff. To stack stuff. they are multi-purpose tools and get USED here.

with 5 kids, chances are the books my oldest no longer needs will be read by the younger siblings. And when the youngest has outgrown them, we'll have grandkids!! :D

[Lisawa]

I’m in the purchase camp! The more books on hand then better.... especially with more than 1 or 2 children at home... they will be used and read more than 1 time. :)

We keep resources.... literature, history, science and the like... I wish I could have 1 huge room with all the walls used as shelves! I bet I could fill them! I would want to...:D

For us… $$ is never wasted on a good book… :D

[Eliana]

:)

We keep resources.... literature, history, science and the like... I wish I could have 1 huge room with all the walls used as shelves! I bet I could fill them! I would want to...:D

When we bought this house (hurrah!!!), we realized we had a small bonus room... and we turned it into the kids' library. It has floor to ceiling bookshelves covering every inch of wall space (they are shorter under the window) except for where the little loveseat is. It houses the kids' chapter books and the history and science books.

We've loved having it, and it means some of the books are being used even more than they were at the old house, but I don't think I'd be happy having all the books in one room, kwim? I love having lots of tall, *full* shelves in every room (though I don't miss needing to use hall space! Or the corner of the laundry room!)....

For us… $$ is never wasted on a good book… :D

Oh, *yes*!!! One of the best investments possible!

[Mrs Mungo]

I collect them and there is not a one in the house that I would not read again or have read again.(and again)
<snip>
I do have and keep things that are "light reading" for myself. I am a huge Robert Parker fan as well as Clive Cussler. I wouldn't part with my Dragonriders of Pern series for anything nor my David Eddings.

On one of our moves I had a box of junky novels that I didn't particularly like set aside to give away to the thrift store. However, hubby took an *extra* box, mostly full of trashy romance novels (hey, I'm an Army wife, he's away a lot, a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do) but *also* in the box was part of my Pern books. I was ticked when I realized it. I had to go through them, figure out which I was missing and replace them. But some of the ones I lost were my mom's from the 70's. I was SO TICKED!

[Jenny in Atl]

I have to stop myself from buying. We we moved last, my FIL asked me if I had ever heard of a library. :glare:
I was spoiled working in bookstores for about 10 years, got lots of free bks/mag/etc. I still love the smell of a bookstore or library. I guess you can never have too many shoes or too many bks!!
:iagree:

[eve]

I buy almost all of our books. Our library far enough away and we just now have a second car. Also, going to the library with little ones takes up precious time raises my stress level especially since our local library rarely has the books I am looking for. Finally, several of the books we use are out of print, and I plan on using them more than once for each child, this builds a library that I can pas on to my children.

[Reya]

Someone asked me why I don't own a lot of books. Well, I guess the answer is that I have two 3 shelf bookshelves for my kids books, 2 shelf bookshelf for myself and that is about it, minus our homeschool curriculum.

My main reason is that a lot of books are not worth owning. Some are cute and interesting, but would probably only be read once. When I find a book that is truly wonderful, something that we would go to again and again, then I purchase it. For my kids this includes books like the d'Aulaire history books, the Little House on the Prairie books, special authors such as Lois Lowry, Patricia MacLachlan, James Herriot etc... For me it includes Susan Schaffer Macaulay, Elizabeth George, Charlotte Mason.

I may be more likely to purchase books if I was without a library, but up to this point I have never had a problem with this. Even when I lived in a rinky dink little town in Illinois that had a 900 sq. foot ranch house as its library, I still had access to books. So I guess I just don't see a need to own a ton of books. Of couse this is just my opinion and current state of mind. LOL Any thoughts? :bigear:

God Bless,
Michelle

I own many books because I love to read and I love books, but I own a tiny fraction of the books I've read. I resell many to used bookstores, so that keeps it all under control. MANY, MANY of the books I read aren't readily available through the library. Others are types that I frequently consult. Others I like to reread, and others are just good to own. When we moved into our first house, the sum of all our other possessions was equal to the books we had. And since my grandparents died, that's nearly doubled.

There is a tight statistical correlation between the number of books in the home and the level of a child's literacy--higher than the correlation between the amount of reading the adults do with the children. There is also a very high correlation between scholastic achievement and IQ and the number of books in the home. Which is certainly something to think about--the presence of books probably says a lot more about the values of the household than the books actually making kids smarter, but it might make you think about what your values are driving you to do!

The kid books in my house cannot fit on a single 6' bookshelf. And I only have one biological child at the moment. School books alone take more than two 6' bookshelves.

I once calculated that I'd spend $5k a year on books if I bought them all. YIKES!

[bethben]

I realized the need to have a homeschool library when ds hit the 3rd grade reading level. Our library has a lot of JUNK! Now even, the Hardy Boys are being replaced with Hardy Boys graphic novels. I too do not have a problem with a comic book here and there, but the library is starting to become a place of kid/mom contention. "But why can't I get this book?!" is starting to be heard more and more. We use MFW and love the book basket thing, but it's coming to a point where I don't want to go to the library because ds can't find anything that looks good to read (and that I approve of). I'm just sticking to requesting the book basket books from MFW and just buying all the chapter books I think would be good for ds to read.

Here's a plug for buying books too. Ds would not read Encyclopedia Brown. I kept telling him he would like it. He wouldn't touch it even if I checked it out from the library. I found one at a garage sale and bought it. 1 week later ds read it and loved it. YAY! It was just because it was sitting around. He will also read on his own books on science or history that are on the shelves- just because it looks interesting. We will be getting more books as we can afford them. My mom has a joke that says "homeschoolers don't need insulation, they just buy bookshelves!"

BIG QUESTION - someone mentioned a scanner that tells what books they have. How does this work? Can you scan all your books, go to the bookstore and find a book and will the scanner tell you if you have it?

Beth

[Rhonda in TX]

I find, though, that I prefer to own the books. A lot of times the really good books at the library have a long line of requests. That means I have to wait awhile, and then I can only keep it two weeks. There have been many times I have taken books back to the library unread. If we own it, it's much more likely to be read eventually.

I love for my kids to have, at ready disposal, a host of good books to choose from. I buy a lot of my books used, or get them through paperback swap, so I'm not spending a lot of money on them.

[Felicia]

I looove books, lots of books. I dream of having my own library room filled with great literature, how-to build or fix things type of books, (my ds is always wanting to build or fix something) encyclopedias of all sorts, great reference books, wonderful children's books that have lasted the test of time as well as a few wonderful newer selections. The possibilities go on and on.
But alas, like so many others here I have very limited spacing, so I love my public library as well. Even if I had the wonderful dream home library I would still go to the public one. My kids love it. It is something of an adventure day when we go. What new journeys and adventures will we find?
Gee, I just might grab up my kiddos and go first thing in the morning. :D

Happy reading!

[WendyK]

It is one of my few materialistic guilty pleasures (owning a lot of books). I know I could live without owning any books, but I do love my books.

[frogpond1]

get easily at the library, and the classics that my children will all need to borrow and read. With 4 children the necessity of a library is great. Some books have sat for years on the shelves until a certain child was ready to open them. If they weren't there they'd not get read. The library is fun for little kid books and research, but they're dumping the books I love. Many of my books are library discards. I love most books that were written in the early 1900s or earlier.

[mcconnellboys]

I agree. If you have access to a good library, I don't think you have to feel that you must also have a ton of books cluttering your home. My own home will probably fall down someday when I clear out all the stacks of books that are supporting the roof, LOL, but I do understand that this cluttered lifestyle is not for everyone. Now that my little guy is growing up, I am slowly beginning to rid myself of most of the books for younger kids, save for those very few really great classics that we want to keep. At some point, maybe I'll have a little breathing room, too (if the walls are still standing)....

[tnmomofboys]

I buy a lot of our books. We have a good used book store where I can find a lot of my books. Our local library is not that great and the wait during the summer for a requested book can be LONG. I look for used or use my 20% off at Barnes and Noble for summer reading lists. I have better luck with the library during the school months.

[swellmomma]

I don't have much in the way of twaddle books, but when it comes to school books or classics I have tons. I am horrible at returning the books to the library so I was finding my overdue fines were more than if I had bought all the books to own, so that is what I do now. I already get tons when I order from SL but then add to that as I find good books, or buy ones to go with our history or science study.

[sadiegirl]

I LOVE books...I buy books that I know my boys will want to keep...others we get from the libary. But can I say that one of my fondest memories as I child were the Sunday afternoons visiting antique shops and flea markets with my parents and I discovered Nancy Drew,Bobbsey Twins and many other books. These books were dusty,hidden treasures that I still have today and gave me countless hours of reading. I say if you question whether to buy a book...consider resale shops and flea markets. Also one of my rules is to pass it on...sometimes my mom and I buy books and share them with as many as 5 friends or more.

[Kate in Arabia]

BIG QUESTION - someone mentioned a scanner that tells what books they have. How does this work? Can you scan all your books, go to the bookstore and find a book and will the scanner tell you if you have it?

I didn't see the earlier message, but we have Readerware, a software program that comes with a small scanner. You can scan the bar code on your books (or type in the ISBN), and the program looks up all the info about the book on the internet and puts it into a database. You can print out the database, or put it on a PDA, to take it to the bookstore, etc. I'm currently trying to update ours before our summer vacation (when I buy a lot of books).

About the topic, we have a lot of books. Dh and I are both really bad about buying books, which is unfortunate because neither one will keep the other in check, lol. We don't have access to a good library here, so I generally get a lot of books over the summer, particularly for the kids. I try to hit up as many used bookstores or library sales as I can find in the space of four weeks. We are reimbursed our homeschool expenses from dh's employer, so I feel I have a little more latitude there.

[Sahamamama]

because we check out so many books each week. They tell us that we are solely responsible for getting their circulation numbers up, but I think they are joking (?). ;)

So many of the books we read at this level (little kids here, ya know) are nice, but not keepers. For example, this week we will read 10-20 books on fish. Now, I like fish, and we will read and read and read about them, BUT... for us to BUY all of those books would be unnecessary, even if we could afford them (can't). The library system allows us to "use" them for the time we need, then release them back for others to use -- like catch and release fishing, no pun intended. I think it is a GREAT system.

I know there are those who think if a book is worth reading, it's worth owning, but my philosophy is, if a book is worth reading, it's worth borrowing from the library, ha ha ha.

Some books we do own, and others we will add over the years. We have a little house (700 square feet), so we have only one small book shelf in the house, and 4 more in the garage (ack, I know, I know). But it's tight here. Whaddya gonna do?