58. How Big Is Your Personal Library? or What I did during the Typhoon.

I had this fear as Typhoon Kong-Rey (a/k/a King Kong) approached that the roof would blow off and all of my books would be ruined. I could have fretted about my personal safety, or more importantly my daughter's. I could have worried about flooding (as in the past), or downed tree limbs or breaking glass or any number of things, but for some odd reason, I was concerned about my books.

So I took the opportunity to log my books on my listing at Library Thing, only to discover that Library Thing has a 200 book limit on its free user account. I was about half-way through the books in my house when I got the "achtung" message.

So how many books do you have in your personal library? What do you include in the count?

I have a ton of little books I read to my daughter and a few dozen of those flimsy paperback/picture books of the non-fiction variety--mostly from Scholastic and mostly on subjects like snakes and dinosaurs and Ancient Egypt, all of which darling daughter found fascinating at some age. Do these count as books in your estimation?

As I was typing in the data, and before I knew there was a 200 book limit, I decided everything counted--if it has an ISBN, it belongs in the system, so I thought.

So now I have to decide whether to pay for the upgrade for more than 200 books or revise my listing of what counts. (Or divide the books into what belongs to me and what belongs to darling daughter, so she can have her own listing on Library Thing, and hope that we have less than 400 books total.)

I've given away hundreds of books. I usually have an April raffle through my book review column in the Marianas Variety. And I still have about 400 books or more at home.

Once upon a time, I remember embracing the philosophy for dealing with clutter of keeping anything I found useful or beautiful. When I apply that to books, it results in keeping most, because I love books.

I need a few more typhoon days to sort this out!