I would say nearly 75%. Unfortunately my ambition outstrips my diligence by a huge margin. I mean to read all of them, except perhaps the texts and reference books. Those I keep around to have a handy way of looking up information that would be difficult to find in depth on the internet, sort of my own personal library. In other cases I couldn’t resist because I was at a book sale where everything was insanely cheap.
I make collections of subjects and collections of writers. I am running out of bookshelves. The worst part is, I rarely get rid of books either. Not even after I’ve read them. In fact, I get very attached to them even if they are a crappy old used paperback. I’m not a hoarder though it may sound that way.
I think of a scene in a book sometimes and then I want to look it up and reread it. That is part of the reason I keep them around.
I do have a Kindle but I hate paying $10 for a book that’s digital when I can get a deckle edge hardcover for $3, sometimes even $1!
Art books are another thing I have a lot of. Obviously I don’t buy them as much for the text as for the pictures. When I visited Provence I had to buy Van Gogh’s biography when I returned. But there are so many books, so little time….it sits on my bookshelf haunting me.
A book is a way to know things in depth and that appeals to me. I don’t want to just graze over the facts but drink in every detail. I have a lot of interests so I tend to jump around a lot. I read sections at a time of non fiction books.
So there it is, confessions of a bookaholic. More than you ever wanted to know….