| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] | Poll: How many books (of any genre) do you own? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| I haven't included cookbooks... | Feb 4, 2022 |
jyuan_us wrote:
Without making the question genre-specific, what will be the use of the result of the survey?
Do you count cookbooks, books for dummies, the "how-to" books, or even dictionaries, together with literary classics or New York Times best sellers ？
[Edited at 2022-02-04 14:44 GMT]
... and I have a LOT of them. On the one hand, I love cooking and trying new recipes and, on the other, one of my daughters is a restaurateur and her books tend to "get lost" at my place.
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Well, I read about 3/4 books every month.. I would say that in my house there are over 1000 books (novels, poems, short stories, ...)
| | | | Liena Vijupe 
Latvia
Local time: 18:27
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
Christine Andersen wrote: Don't laugh, but in fact I DO read some of the dictionaries, or leaf around in them.  [Edited at 2022-02-04 15:28 GMT]
I used to love reading dictionaries when I was a kid. I remember thinking if I learned one page every day I would know it all by heart one day (didn't work that way).
Paper dictionaries were also a problem when I just started translating many years ago because I always got distracted before I got to the word I needed and forgot what I was looking for. Now I just type the word in an online dictionary and find it right away. Not so much fun but a lot more efficient!
| | | | Bruno Pavesi
Brazil
Local time: 12:27
Member (2020)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Lost track, honestly. | Feb 4, 2022 |
Two reasons why I stopped counting:
1. I worked at a book store where they gave us a 60% discount on books
2. I once lived near a sort of salvation army knockoff where they would constantly have "buy 5 books for 10 bucks" sort of deals.
Now I also take part in linguistics book clubs and things of the sort, so they always have a list of books I need to buy and read. I like that over the past few years I've started really focusing on books related to linguistics a... See more Two reasons why I stopped counting:
1. I worked at a book store where they gave us a 60% discount on books
2. I once lived near a sort of salvation army knockoff where they would constantly have "buy 5 books for 10 bucks" sort of deals.
Now I also take part in linguistics book clubs and things of the sort, so they always have a list of books I need to buy and read. I like that over the past few years I've started really focusing on books related to linguistics and theory. I spent a while just focusing on literature, so it's been a nice change of pace.
On kindle I have a bit as well, though I have a hard time reading on kindle. ▲ Collapse
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 18:27
Member
English to Turkish
| Speaking of books | Feb 5, 2022 |
I wonder if good old Mervyn Henderson has ever got around to putting together and publishing his 'This Just In' stories without running into copyright issues with Proz.
| | | | P.L.F. Persio
Netherlands
Local time: 17:27
Member (2010)
English to Italian
+ ...
| Don't give them ideas, Baran | Feb 5, 2022 |
Baran Keki wrote:
I wonder if good old Mervyn Henderson has ever got around to putting together and publishing his 'This Just In' stories without running into copyright issues with Proz.
They removed his thread completely from here, so now his stories are only his own to make what he wants with them. And I do hope that that son of a gun is going to become the author he potentially is. I do miss him ...
| | | | Sebastian Witte
Germany
Local time: 17:27
Member (2004)
English to German
+ ...
About 350 hardcopy books (many reference books, two bookshelves full of technical, specialist translation, linguistic and general translation-related literature, including two or three grammar books (a French and Portuguese one, etc.), but quite a bit of fiction, too, mostly individually picked like El Cartero de Neruda - Ardiente Pacienca (which was not quite down to earth enough for me so I would not recommend it) rather than selected from the Spiegel fiction charts), three dozen comic books a... See more About 350 hardcopy books (many reference books, two bookshelves full of technical, specialist translation, linguistic and general translation-related literature, including two or three grammar books (a French and Portuguese one, etc.), but quite a bit of fiction, too, mostly individually picked like El Cartero de Neruda - Ardiente Pacienca (which was not quite down to earth enough for me so I would not recommend it) rather than selected from the Spiegel fiction charts), three dozen comic books and cartoons, about 45 travel guides, four dozen satirical books plus a tiny number of IT and art books) and twelve on a Kindle, almost all of which are specialist literature, mostly financial sector-related ones.
[Edited at 2022-02-06 19:30 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | sazo
Croatia
Local time: 17:27
Member
German to Croatian
+ ...
| I really don't know how many books I have.... | Feb 7, 2022 |
I made a deal with myself to stop buying fiction, and to give the public library a chance. Some of them have even books in English and German. The only books I am "allowed" to buy are dictionaries, and as I am a tour guide as well, books about Croatia and Zagreb.
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More than 1000, I'd say. Normal for people with linguistic studies.
| | | | Arthur Godinho
United States
Local time: 11:27
Member (2009)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| My wife jokes that I have my own lending library. | Feb 9, 2022 |
I have 800+ books, mostly history. From this poll, you notice that translators are a well-read bunch!
| | | | Arianne Farah
Canada
Local time: 11:27
Member (2008)
English to French
And thousands more on Kindle and comixology.
I tend to read books first on my kindle and if I like them and want to reread them, I'll purchase a nice hardcover. I also have thousands of Bande dessinées and graphic novels; I enjoy reading them, they tend to have a very rich vocabulary with a lot of rare words & translating speech is something I struggle with, so I rationalize purchasing them that way
| | | | Sanjin Grandić
Croatia
Local time: 17:27
Member (2020)
French to Croatian
+ ...
Born in 1966, I inherited "a ton of books" from my parents and not counting all the books and dictionnaries baught prior to Kindle and access to online content.
The books I didn't want to keep are in the local public library now.
Also, I simply can't throw away the simplest children's dictionnary or any other publication related to linguistics.
[Edited at 2022-02-10 05:45 GMT]
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Barbara Carrara
Italy
Local time: 17:27
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
It's a guess, and I've sold/given away (to the local library, retirement home and an animal charity that also does flea markets) about 800 a few years back.
Genres include fiction, non-fiction (mostly historical biographies, plus some social history - with a focus on below-stair staff in the English country house), art and antiques, exhibition catalogues, recent or otherwise (latest in, Alison Watt, Tudor portraiture, the Charleston circle, Gustave Caillebotte), a few titles in the ... See more It's a guess, and I've sold/given away (to the local library, retirement home and an animal charity that also does flea markets) about 800 a few years back.
Genres include fiction, non-fiction (mostly historical biographies, plus some social history - with a focus on below-stair staff in the English country house), art and antiques, exhibition catalogues, recent or otherwise (latest in, Alison Watt, Tudor portraiture, the Charleston circle, Gustave Caillebotte), a few titles in the areas of gastronomy and gardening, and of course my reference library.
And I keep acquiring books, with one or two monthly orders of two to four titles. Apart from a few new-release exceptions (e.g. Denis Duncan's Index, a History of the - I am in awe of indexers), I mostly buy 'pre-loved' books*.
However, like Tom, I find post-Brexit shipping costs have become more and more unaffordable, and because they are unregulated, vendors are applying unrealistic fees, at times as much as three times or more the price of a book.
BTW, the above are all physical books. No Kindle option for me, thank you very much.
* On the matter of pre-loved books, there's a podcast I'd like to recommend,
https://www.backlisted.fm/
There's a 150+ list of episode to choose from. Have a listen.
Oh, and happy reading, everyone! ▲ Collapse
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It's common in Russian families
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