John Cantelo
Well-known member
To me having bird books is an integral part of being a birder - and I'd guess most birders have a higher than average number of books.
So, in keeping for the vogue here of asking how many birds of a particular family you've seen (a race in which I'd never be well placed), I thought I'd ask how many bird books people have. I'm not sure I'll do too well in this race either, but since Mrs C used to suggest [she's now given up!] that a) I already have too many and b) you can't possibly want another one, at least I can hope to show my obsession to be a modest one! (I wager there's a good few out there with 1,000+!)
The answer I discovered, incidentally, was that I have 399 books (counting multi-volume sets as one and disregarding booklets like county reports) devoted to birds. Of these about twenty are devoted to Spain which is understandable as I go there a good deal, but why on earth do I have six on Australia (been there once), just over a dozen on sub-Saharan Africa and half a dozen on South America (never been to either)? More understandable, given my interests and profession (I taught history), are the 50+ 'bird art books' as is another 40 or so on what might broadly be termed biography/culture/history.
The burning question is, of course, what my 400th book should be .... although there's a good chance it's already here hiding in the jumble for which there is no shelf space and I missed it!
So, in keeping for the vogue here of asking how many birds of a particular family you've seen (a race in which I'd never be well placed), I thought I'd ask how many bird books people have. I'm not sure I'll do too well in this race either, but since Mrs C used to suggest [she's now given up!] that a) I already have too many and b) you can't possibly want another one, at least I can hope to show my obsession to be a modest one! (I wager there's a good few out there with 1,000+!)
The answer I discovered, incidentally, was that I have 399 books (counting multi-volume sets as one and disregarding booklets like county reports) devoted to birds. Of these about twenty are devoted to Spain which is understandable as I go there a good deal, but why on earth do I have six on Australia (been there once), just over a dozen on sub-Saharan Africa and half a dozen on South America (never been to either)? More understandable, given my interests and profession (I taught history), are the 50+ 'bird art books' as is another 40 or so on what might broadly be termed biography/culture/history.
The burning question is, of course, what my 400th book should be .... although there's a good chance it's already here hiding in the jumble for which there is no shelf space and I missed it!
