How many bird books have you got? (1 Viewer)

[Young Birder]

I've only got 20-35 and I cannot say my book shelves are happy with me...
Wait make that 35-45

 

[John Cantelo]

I've always suspected that my desire to own as many books as possible wasn't unique and have been curious to compare others collections.

I know quite a few people here in the UK who's collection dwarfs mine as they are in to EVERTHING including antiquarian books which I can't afford but at 474, I think my collection is ok for a man of modest means.

Accumulated over some 40 years, of the 474, 310 are bird books, this includes site guides. I have numerous other books covering Mammals, reptiles, insects, dragonflies, butterflies and moths, even a couple about sea shells. The only thing I can't get excited about is plants...

I often fantasize about winning the lottery and how I'd go on a huge spending spree and have a proper 'library' and this leads to a thing that occupied me for a short while. When does a book collection become a 'library'? The answer is, it doesn't, a library is the room the books are kept in so unless you have such you merely have a collection of books!

I've got mine catalogued for insurance and replacement would run to about £25K, that's a few birding trips and I was shocked when I totalled it up!!!

Still plenty of room as I've just reconstructed my shelves.


Andy

I wish my book shelves were so neatly stacked as yours! Pretty much everyone of then has 3-4 books or more sitting horizontally on top of the other books because I've run out of space again. When I started this thread I had 399 books, but it must have got 20+ since then .....

 

[HantaYo]

I wish my book shelves were so neatly stacked as yours! Pretty much everyone of then has 3-4 books or more sitting horizontally on top of the other books because I've run out of space again. When I started this thread I had 399 books, but it must have got 20+ since then .....

I am stacking books horizontally as well. I just need a bigger house for the books!

 

[bfoutch]

Too lazy to count, but around 200.

"Whoever dies with the most books wins!" ;-)

 

[Andy Adcock]

This is my third re-construction over the years as my collection got bigger and prior to this I did have books laying on top as you say and it drove me crazy, I like order!

First shelves were on a smaller wall, then I moved it to this wall and now I've had to extend it to the full length of the wall which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

This should last a while although, I've already pondered what I'll do when this is full! Each shelf is just under 4m long.

Andy

 

[Andy Adcock]

The new Robins and Chats will be my 500th nature /bird book!

Andy

 

[Swissboy]

The new Robins and Chats will be my 500th nature /bird book!

Andy

Never counted mine. Certainly several hundred, maybe over a thousand?. But some that I might as well get rid of. But then, I have notes in my old Peterson FGs that I would need to copy. So in some cases numbers increase due to several editions of the same.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I'm now destined to be broke forever as I just made a start on collecting the 'New Naturalists'.

At an average of £50 each for the modern reprints and with about 150 titles, there is plenty to lust after and that's without considering the high cost titles such as 'British Warblers' the hardcover of which is going for £1650 without the influence of algorithms!

The artwork on the covers of some is wonderful, one my favourites is the British reptile volume

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Amp...0998&sr=8-4&keywords=reptiles,+new+naturalist


Andy

 

[aeshna5]

I'm now destined to be broke forever as I just made a start on collecting the 'New Naturalists'.

At an average of £50 each for the modern reprints and with about 150 titles, there is plenty to lust after and that's without considering the high cost titles such as 'British Warblers' the hardcover of which is going for £1650 without the influence of algorithms!

The artwork on the covers of some is wonderful, one my favourites is the British reptile volume

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Amp...0998&sr=8-4&keywords=reptiles,+new+naturalist




Andy

Yes a fine cover. I do have this one + amazingly there are 3 NN devoted to UK herps. I don't have all the early ones + not prepared to pay silly money for them but have been getting each addition for some years. The most recent two have come out barely a month apart- Alien Plants + Yorkshire Dales.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I'm late to the party with this set I'm afraid, got about 20 titles but like you I won't pay silly money.

Half the fun is trying to get a bargain and when you finally get a nice book at a good price it's satisfying! My last aquisition was 'Moths (90)' book which I got for the reasonable price of £57 and another superb cover illustration.

One annoying thing with sellers is that they often don't print the complete information, they'll say '1st ed' but won't tell you which printing it is and some popular titles had several print runs. The fact that they now do reproduction covers is even more confusing.

As with the Poyser books, some fairly recent titles seem to be far more expensive than the others, Freshwater Fish for example?

Andy