Welcome to Day 17 of Blogmas 2021! Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion. Today’s topic is How many books is too many?
With holidays coming up there’s bound to be a lot of gift giving. I’m sure many of us will ask for more books to add to our collection – but how many books is too many? Do you think the book community encourages over consumption?
The first answer that comes to mind is that there is no such thing as too many books. But just as my reading habits have changed over the years, so have my book buying habits. Part of it is for practical reasons – having a room full of books is wonderful, and in an ideal world, I would have my own personal library the size of Hogwarts’, but taking care of all of those books is hard! Not to mention that I’m constantly running out of shelf space despite severely limiting the number of books I buy each year.
The other reason is that as my reading tastes grew more focused on a couple of genres with time, I began to ask for specific titles and eventually just preferred gift cards so that I can pick and choose myself. Over perhaps the last decade or so, I’ve had a general rule of only buying books I’ve read and absolutely loved, or if it’s a book that I can guarantee I will read. I really dislike having unread books on my shelves, so I almost never buy books on impulse.
I currently own around 175 physical books, and if I actually went through them, I would probably find plenty I could give away and create more shelf space, but I don’t like unhauling books either and try to put it off for as long as I can.
The bookish community most definitely encourages over consumption, especially with the many book haul and TBR posts and videos which you watch and can’t help but feel like buying all these amazing titles. I think this is doubly true in the case of book bloggers, because personally, keeping up with the latest releases is a priority for me and it’s very tempting to buy books frequently to do so.
Do you think there is such a thing as too many books? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Worlds Unlike Our Own 