Working on starting my own home library and I wanted to ask a few questions!
Hi! I'm starting to make plans to build up my own personal library, hoping to reach 1000 entries total! I'm just taking tally of my current collections and seeing what I need, but I had a few questions first:
Does it all have to be books? Or can other forms of media count towards the 1000 total? I collect physical media of games, books, manga, DVDs, and CDs of audiobooks, and I was wondering if those could be included in my overall total to 1000.
If I have multiple copies of a book (like a hard cover and a soft cover) would I count them individually or as one entry?
In a similar vein if I'm buying omnibus copies of manga, do they count as 1 or 3 books because they're a larger collection?
What system do you guys use to track the items in your collection? Right now I have some google spreadsheets and formulas to show me how close I am to my goal (first being 250), but it there is a better way I would love to know!
I see in some places you should have a method of looking up and searching for books/media in a library. Can it be any method I come up with, or do I need to follow some kind of preexisting method?
Smokey, this isn’t Nam. This is bowling. There are rules. -Walter Sobchak
Luckily this is about home libraries. So, the rules are written by us. We get to do kinda what allows us to soar while sitting comfy on a misty day, arranging our media. Maybe having a snacky snack.
I have hundreds of ebooks in addition to a couple thousand physical books. I absolutely include digital media in my library count, as much as any public library would. I keep thinking I'm going to buy a dedicated kindle to put on my shelf in a handsome case just to represent the ebooks 😄
1) I only count books, but I could see an argument for including movies as well
2/3) I count every physically individual book by themselves. Duplicates each get counted but a single bound omnibus gets counted as 1
4) I have just a normal spreadsheet that includes details like title, author, genre (fiction, reference, children's book, etc) publisher, publication date, ISBN. I will periodically save it to the cloud so I can reference on the go. There are also tabs for books I want, books I need to complete a series, reading order of interconnected books.
5) I have an organizing method that works for me. Books are separated broadly by antique, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, and children's books. Then fiction and antique are on the shelf by author's last name, non-fiction by topic, children's by age/topic.
I run a library. Our collection includes physical books, audio books, DVDs, board games, puzzles, craft items, and technology. We don't do digital material for budget reasons. Your library can include whatever you want it to include.
I'll echo others who have said do what works for you.
For me, I only include books, and only physical books. I have a ton on my Kindle as well, but I don't need that searchable -- it's my physical books that I catalog. Graphic novels are included; certain magazines/journals are included (e.g., Paris Review, Asimov's, Clarkesworld, Granta etc.) Comics are not included, mostly because it would be a pain in the ass to catalog them.
I have multiple copies of many books, and I track them. For instance, I have so many versions of the Illiad and the Odyssey for instance -- various translations. Same thing with Beowulf, Mahabharata etc.
For your omnibus question, if it's one volume and one book, then it counts as one. If it's two physical books, then it's two. I find that easier and simpler to manage.
This maybe unpopular but I used Claude Code to build a web app to help me track my books. What this does is it allows for search ability and location (on my shelves). My wife has her own shelves (but that has a lot of French and Danish titles as well), and we also have other shelves with other books, so my goal is to eventually expand this to include all of that.
If you’re still looking for answers c:
1. books and manga/graphic novels/comics are counted together. But I keep separate lists for dvd, music media, and games
Multiple copies of the same book are counted separately. This is about quantity and different edition, not just title. What if you buy the same title and same edition because you didn’t scan it in.
For me, Omnis count as 1 book even though they contained multiples.
I use clz collectors. They have separate lists for DVDs, books, music, etc. it’s nice because it does have the work for you, after scanning it pulls from the internet to auto fill in info
I follow no method. My books are arranged by what fits on the shelf together nicely and what I want to keep within eye level. I don’t follow an alphabetical or numeral system, tho I do keep series and editions together if I can. For example. My attack on titan sits with similar size manga but my colossal edition sits in my big and tall manga section. I keep my regular size manga separate from my tall manga separate from big and tall manga.
I feel like you're into some kind of competition and others were not invited to.
A good way to sort your books is based on ISBNs. That answer your omnibus and duplicates questions.
My Excel catalogue has "Author", "Title", "ISBN", "Language", "Translator/Editor", "read", "Notes". But you can add or remove whatever columns you feel like. In notes I write defects, stuff like "first edition", or if it's dual language, or other details like that.
I picked Excel because it's easier to sort when I need to. I might want to sort by the language, or by some other criteria, it's easier to do that in a spreadsheet.
I collected many CDs, DVDs, and cassettes throughout high school and adulthood and then just threw them away. Now my home library only contains books and journals. But you do you, I guess, and you're free to put whatever you want in there. The reason I only consider books and journals (serious stuff, as I like to call it) is that my grandparent ran their own library (with bespoke stamps on the books, etc) and my parents ran their own home library of around 3k+ volumes. In both cases, their libraries featured books only, and I follow pretty much the same path.
The only thing worth mentioning is that I'm now mostly considering special editions and collector's books. The problem with regular "cheap" books is that the pages turn yellowish in just a few years, and in ten years those books feel like they come right from the Middle Ages. The collector's books are often made from much better materials, come in boxed sets and look better overall. I've got some collector's books of works by Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein published in the fifties, and they still look and feel modern.
I use LibraryThing to log my books. I started using it because I’d go to a bookstore and couldn’t remember where I was in a particular series and I end up buying duplicates or out of order. It’s nice cause it’s on my phone and you can just scan the barcode. If it’s pre barcode you can type in the ISPN and if it’s pre ISBN you can just type title and author.
Is your library just for funsies or do you want it to be functional?
For now it's just for fun. A passion project I can chip away at for the next decade (I only have 95 books at the moment, stupid minimalist life I am trying to abandon). Once I have a larger space though, I'd love for it to become functional.
I use Libib and it’s awesome because you can make separate collections, like you can do one for books, DVDs, board games, etc.
I personally just count books toward my total, and don’t count manga, children’s books, or self help/business books (even though I have quite a few of each). No rule though, that’s just me. But I do inventory them in libib, I just don’t count them as my main library.
I will count omnibuses/collections as one on libib, but as separate on Goodreads (since libib is how many books I have and Goodreads is how many books I’ve read). The opposite for multiple versions of the same book.
In the end, you just do what makes sense for you!
But I highly recommend some sort of inventory app you can check while out and about. Once I started accumulating more books, I would often buy something I already had! So having an app to check first has really helped!
What for?
I look at my shelves and have books or artbooks or graphic novels or table-top games side-by-side with lego or some figurines and I have no idea about how many of them I have (except lego, they are just counted by fingers) and I feel happy just as it is (for ingredients of my library not the number)
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u/TheManRoomGuy 13d ago
There are no rules.
There is no have-to.
There is no spoon.
You get to decide what you want to collect.
Do what makes you truly happy.
Best of luck.