Oh believe me… nowadays mine looks just like yours (except the videos are kept in a dedicated video cabinet, similarly overflowing). The picture of mine upstream was just the first day after I’d built it (and hadn’t quite finished loading it).
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Oh man, so many books. I need to go through and organize things. Thanks to finally going digital and an excellent library in Seattle I have managed to keep physical book purchases to a minimum. Mostly Doc Savage reprints that I have not read yet and have held off on getting more of those of late as I have a big to read pile of them and my willpower has been good lately as I ran across 2 bunches recently and I would have easily got 5 or 6 books from each.
I have to suggest “Mike Davis - Buda’s Wagon - A brief history of the car bomb”. Pretty good one.
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I have a list of about 300 books I still want to buy. So, no, there will be no getting rid of books.
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In the past I did tend to re-read books a lot, but since my collection grew and especially the non-read part of it, re-reading is a theoretical excersize.
Still, when I’ve read a book, I still use the theoretical change I might want to re-read it as one of the criteria on deciding if I want to keep it.
I was getting stricter after moving house a few times, still, now I’ve got a new bookcase I’ve noticed I’m keeping more and more books again. Well, as long as I have room…
An impression (you can’t see the complete thing, it also has shelves to one floor down and it’s already way more stocked.)
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Library? Yeah right grandad.
Replace that with “can I get it as an ebook?” Then I think he might be right.
1: Do I own the book? Well, okay, I’m keeping it.
End of list.
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I see books with big fuck-off spaceships on them, so you get a pass for that, but egad, man, that is no place for your speakers…
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If all property is theft, based on my physical library, I got the swag.
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Empty bookshelves are an abomination unto the eyes of the Lord (unless He’s misplaced His reading glasses again).
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Actually, I had a minor electrical accident (thanks Harman Kardon!), and only the front speakers (which are set on sturdy iron, sand filled plinths) actually work. So it’s essentially taking up space.
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No bookshelf is empty anymore, that didn’t take quite as long as planned.
Well, okay then 
Every room in our house has at least 1 bookshelf in it, mostly filled to capacity. Even (especially!) the loo.
I am so god damn jealous of all your amazing bookshelfs and collections. I mean, I know I’m still young and have time to collect, but I rarely buy books because, well, libraries exist and you can get anything from there for free. I love owning a book, but in my current situation, I just can’t buy them unless there’s a really good reason or it’s on sale.
I’d post a picture of my shelf but my boyfriend is currently sleeping in our bedroom, so I can’t.
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I will admit to having some books on my shelf that I haven’t read, but in all cases I do intend to read it even if I’m baffled as to what it might mean.
Greyhounds of the sea; ‡b the story of the American clipper ship, ‡c by Carl C. Cutler; with a foreword by Charles Francis Adams; 118 illustrations.I have the 1930, 1st ed.
ahem
And yet when Mr. Cutler sings the praises of Captain H.W. Johnson and his famous Invincible or any of the other million ships and captains in this book, well, meh. The plates showing those beautiful ships, on the other hand, are amazing. And that Hegel on the shelf? I had to read that shit in college and I’ll be damned if it’s ever coming off my shelf. It’s a badge of honor that I keep for getting through the damned thing.
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A decent personal library is a life’s work, to a certain extent. Public libraries do exist, sure, but I’ve always been inconveniently far from them (meaning more than a 5-minute walk). I grew up in a houseful of books, and book ownership has always been encouraged and reinforced in my family. Books as gifts, as rewards for good behavior, as instructional tools, as shared experiences. Since I was always reading, I was always in need of something else to read. I’d borrow library books as often as I could get to a library, but I’d also buy them whenever I could… and I’d rarely (if ever) get rid of any. My own book collection was quite modest in my 20s, became somewhat more substantial in my 30s, and only became a slightly-out-of-control issue to be dealt with when my book-loving wife and I merged our collections nine years ago. In the last few years I’ve bought more ebooks than dead-tree ones, but I like both varieties. Nowadays I’ll generally buy dead-tree books if I foresee re-reading, and keep most of the fluffier lightweight time-killing crap on digital.
But even when I pay the MSRP on the cover (which is uncommon), I can get a new book for the price of a couple large cups of coffee at Starbucks. It’s all about priorities. I don’t smoke or drink coffee, but the money I would otherwise spend on those habits is spent on stuff to read instead. It’s my vice of choice. 
After a few years, the collection gets… substantial.
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On the one hand: Get rid of books? Surely you just mean, Get books.
On the other hand, as a starving artist/student/minimum-wage-drone, I don’t have the kind of room I wish I had. My problem is that I believe in the concept of a private library. Not in the sense of, “Fuck you! Hands off my books! Mineminemineminemine!” But in the sense of, “Oh, don’t have to get up. Don’t have to go to the library. I can look this up right here.” Or, “Time for a fresh novel. What haven’t I read? Oh. Here we go.”
I have a hard time letting go of books. I even have books left over from when I used to be religious that are not going anywhere. There are books that are like old friends. I can’t say goodbye to them even if I don’t know if I’ll ever read them again. I’m sentimental. It’s not that loved Scalzi’s Redshirts, for example, but that I read it at an important time in my life. (I did like it, though.)
Still, I do have more than my fair share of textbooks. I tend to pick up old editions for a few bucks and I’ve realized lately that I have a few repeats by topic.
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Yes thanks! @joeair61, come one, come all!
