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How many books do you own? — Parallax Forums

How many books do you own?

Too_Many_ToolsToo_Many_Tools Posts: 765
in General Discussion
Specifically...how many TECHNICAL/DoItYourself books do you personally own?
I own many (hundreds and hundreds) of both types.
I ask because I have been rather surprised by how many people own no books at all.
I really can't imagine living a life without having books available.
And I have yet to see the Internet fill the need...ebooks, blogs, YouTube, etc. don't cut when it comes to making information available like books do.
 
Your thoughts?

Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    690 physical books that aren't packed in boxes
    and 383 ebooks in my Kindle account
    and 67 books (PDFs) in my O'Reilly account.
    so, that's 1,140 titles easily accessible.
    Topics range through woodworking, stained glass making, electronics, programming, general computing, fiction, photography, astronomy, religion, history, cooking, boat building and probably a few other stray subjects.
    There are several boxes of book packed away due to a lack of shelf space. 
    I love the physical, tactile sensations of reading a real book - the turn of a page is quite thrilling!! A side benefit is of course all the wonderful information packed into them! Ebooks server their purpose for convenience and information density - it's amazing the library you can pack away in a modern tablet!!
    Now, how many hand planes and turning tools do you have???? Nothing beats the thrill of a paper thin shaving of hardwood curling its way out of the mouth of a fine plane or running a gouge down a spindle of walnut!!
    Oh, sorry.............
  • ctwardellctwardell Posts: 1,716
    Are you trying to say you see a not so distant future like this TMT?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ4lDJs8skg
    I'd venture a guess that it isn't going to take anywhere near a million years to get there.
    I have a hundred or so technical books, also kept most of my math, chemistry, physics, etc. books from college.  I mostly get Kindle books now for computer related topics that have a brief useful life.


    C.W.




  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    From what my wife says, the scene from TMT is much like high school study halls except no personal electronic devices. :o)  (and much better behaved, of course)
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    I have owned thousands of books, but I tend not to keep them once I've used them. After I've gotten my value from a book, I donate it to a library or other good home. My "rule" is that if I haven't looked at the book in a year or two, it's time to let it go.

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    I still have data books dating back to the '70s. But I can't remember the last time I acquired one -- maybe 20 years ago? For data sheets the internet is more than adequate, and I do print them out to read them. I also rely on the internet for finding info about how to repair stuff, e.g. my car, washing machine, etc. Chilton's publications once ruled for car repair, but internet findings are far more detailed.
    I do have an extensive collection of O'Reily "animal" books, covering topics like computer languages and operating systems. These I refer to frequently -- especially the Perl reference. (I mean, who could possibly remember all of that?)
    I still have old issues of Byte and Computer Language magazines. And catalogs for everything imaginable. 'Need washers? Bokers is your company!
    Most of my college physics and math textbooks still grace my shelves, and I do refer to them occasionally.
    Other than that, novels (Steinbeck being my favorite author) and some non-fiction.
    I can't stand reading anything on my PC that's longer than one page. Print on paper still rules!
    -Phil
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2015-07-10 17:21
    Still have all my data books from the 70's and 80's, (50?). I bought a lot of TAB books in the 70's and 80's, (150?), but sold or donated.The ones I have left will sadly go to the landfill as the libraries and Goodwill do not want them.
    I also have about 300 pounds of Sam's PhotoFacts original manuals.  Whan them? Just pay the shipping. :)

  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    edited 2015-07-10 17:21
    Still have all my data books from the 70's and 80's, (50?). I bought a lot of TAB books in the 70's and 80's, (150?), but sold or donated.The ones I have left will sadly go to the landfill as the libraries and Goodwill do not want them.
    I also have about 300 pounds of Sam's PhotoFacts original manuals.  What them? Just pay the shipping. :)



    Publison, I'm afraid I just walked into this discussion.... (Yes it happens.) Can you send me a list of your TAB books that your planning on getting rid of? Let's just say I'm looking for two books on robotics by a chap based in Ohio. I also have the majority of my databooks as well, except for one by MMI that was released just before those bounders at AMD bought them, and then disowned the whole division.....
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    I have owned thousands of books, but I tend not to keep them once I've used them. After I've gotten my value from a book, I donate it to a library or other good home. My "rule" is that if I haven't looked at the book in a year or two, it's time to let it go.



    Okay. Oddly enough I do have here one of your books Gordon.....
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Still have all my data books from the 70's and 80's, (50?). I bought a lot of TAB books in the 70's and 80's, (150?), but sold or donated.The ones I have left will sadly go to the landfill as the libraries and Goodwill do not want them.
    I also have about 300 pounds of Sam's PhotoFacts original manuals.  What them? Just pay the shipping. :)



    Publison, I'm afraid I just walked into this discussion.... (Yes it happens.) Can you send me a list of your TAB books that your planning on getting rid of? Let's just say I'm looking for two books on robotics by a chap based in Ohio. I also have the majority of my databooks as well, except for one by MMI that was released just before those bounders at AMD bought them, and then disowned the whole division.....

    I don't have any robotics books to sell. I just get Gordon's and hold on to them. :)
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2015-07-11 07:33
    Books, I remember books, used to have loads of them.
    I tried to buy one the other day. Horwitz and Hill. So I visit the biggest book shop in the city, Akateeminen Kirjakauppa. That is "Academic Bookshop". Which it was years ago, shelves and shelves of text books on all kind of subjects. There is a big student population here.
    Well, how times have changed. Not one academic or technical book in the place. Two huge floors full of picture books. Big cookery books with big pictures, same for sports books, rock band books, horse books, travel books, art books, architecture books and so on. Shelves of "self help" mumbo jumbo.
    Well, there was one technically inclined book, "Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum" by the great Leonard Suskind. (Aside, he has picture of some mecano on the cover, cool for a book on QM)
    Should have bought that as H and H was no where.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2015-07-11 01:40
    1 four shelf bookcase + books on top. Mostly electronics books and programming books, 25% on other technical subjects.
    About $1000/year in new books.
  • Too_Many_ToolsToo_Many_Tools Posts: 765
    I still have data books dating back to the '70s. But I can't remember the last time I acquired one -- maybe 20 years ago? For data sheets the internet is more than adequate, and I do print them out to read them. I also rely on the internet for finding info about how to repair stuff, e.g. my car, washing machine, etc. Chilton's publications once ruled for car repair, but internet findings are far more detailed.
    I do have an extensive collection of O'Reily "animal" books, covering topics like computer languages and operating systems. These I refer to frequently -- especially the Perl reference. (I mean, who could possibly remember all of that?)
    I still have old issues of Byte and Computer Language magazines. And catalogs for everything imaginable. 'Need washers? Bokers is your company!
    Most of my college physics and math textbooks still grace my shelves, and I do refer to them occasionally.
    Other than that, novels (Steinbeck being my favorite author) and some non-fiction.
    I can't stand reading anything on my PC that's longer than one page. Print on paper still rules!
    -Phil

    I HAD a complete set of Byte...but donated it because of space considerations.

    I really, really should have kept the set :<(

  • frank freedmanfrank freedman Posts: 1,983
    edited 2015-07-12 06:58
    Got rid of a lot of older books, some to half price books for a song, so much on the net these days. Hope like hell it never crashes or looses some of these resources, but to much changes too fast. And now if I want to annotate them, print them to one note and just scribble on them (I have a surface pro) or type annotation in the PDFs. Some books though are still best as real paper books......At least the things that change little. But, Heater, for what it's worth, so many bookstores have gone that way. Noticed the trend in the big box bookstores in the mid 90s or so. Sad to hear about it catching up with Computer Literacy Bookstores in San Jose area. That was one very cool store. Geek Heaven...... 
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