Are there too many books?

[@mediumjohnsilver]

A universe in which there really are too many books is described in Jorge Luis Borges’s 1941 short story “The Library of Babel”. Our protagonist lives in a shelf-lined hexagon in a library that contains every possible book - composed of all combinations of letters - housed in alcoves that are repeated in all directions laterally and vertically seemingly without end. Only through sheer luck would one find a coherent sentence in one of the volumes.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That does sound like it might be slightly too many books

[@alpertroncp2198]

"I haven't got too many books, I haven't got enough shelves" - never has a truer thing been said. Of course, the day comes where it becomes "I haven't got too many books, I've got too few rooms"

[@CriminOllyBlog]

hahaha! Yes I'm not quite there yet...

[@CliffsDarkGems]

Great video Olly! This is very interesting for a South African horror fiction addict. I have access to so many books, but if I want titles from Jack Ketchum or the best of J R Lansdale I have to order from overseas, which is horrible considering the cost. Our bookshops seemingly cater for King and Koontz fans only, ignoring so many other treasures. In short, all Brits and Yanks are frikken spoilt when it comes to numbers, quality and distribution of books. I watch and drool over booktubers who have rare, beautiful and pristine hardcover classics of horror novels. This is an impossibility for me, a fact that makes me sad.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That is a shame, and to an extent similar over here - Ketchum is certainly harder to come by here than he seems to be in the US, especially as a lot of his work isn't available digitally.

[@EntertheBook]

Yes we need more shelves- amen! That’s what would make me feel better as mine are now several piles on the floor 😬 I have slowed down on getting more books but I still am. It is true if we have too many choices our pleasure of choice goes down- weird concept but shows we can be overwhelmed.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That’s very true. I remember being a kid when getting a new book was a magical experience. Now it’s commonplace and the thrill of it is gone in an instant.

[@bad-girlbex3791]

"I haven't got too many books, I haven't got enough shelves"

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I feel you! There simply isn't enough time for everything. Maybe heaven is just a library with comfy chairs and lots of tea.

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

An interesting discussion, Olly. I still don’t have enough shelves either. I need to do some re-shuffling. Digital books have definitely made a difference in the publishing world. 😊💙

[@CriminOllyBlog]

The pain of too few shelves is very real!

[@Priscilla_Bettis]

I like your comparison between pain killers and books. I'd like a wider variety of books published and promoted by the big guys.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah agreed, it all feels so samey!

[@M-J]

There can never be too many books. The fun of book buying, collecting, and reading for me is absolutely finding those rare, obscure, and out of print/vintage treasures. - 📚MJ

[@CriminOllyBlog]

True, that is a great pleasure!

[@M-J]

@@CriminOllyBlog 📚📚📚📚📚 Indeed! 😊

[@SR-no8sr]

My TBR is impossibly huge and it can feel overwhelming or like I have missed a ton of great books, which is kind of sad as there are probably a lot of really talented authors getting lost in the over-saturation.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I guess the important thing is are you enjoying the books you're reading. If you are, then it's all good

[@AliceandtheGiantBookshelf]

Not enough shelves. Classic book hauling problem. When I saw your question are there too many books, my first thought was: in general or in my house? Yes there are too many but that has to be a good thing as we will never run out or not have a choice of reads.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Well we can't all have a giant bookshelf! I definitely need to address my shelving deficit soon

[@AliceandtheGiantBookshelf]

@@CriminOllyBlog The problem is the books keep multiplying and soon the new shelves get too full as well. 😂

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

Yes, of course there are too many books. But I think the bigger problem is that there are way too many other things a person can do than read, too. That's my reasoning for still having over 100 physical books on my to-read list. (And before you go "rookie numbers", I have 350 manga volumes and something like 1000 digital books to read as well.) The 100+ physical ones just weigh more on my mind because they can't be contained on an average USB stick.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Very true, there are far more distractions today than in previous decades

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I don’t normally read a lot of new releases. For whatever reason the hot subjects embraced by contemporary publishers isn’t what I’m after. It doesn’t seem like there are too many books published because so much is outside my wheelhouse. I’ll probably never read YA so all those books are irrelevant.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

In a way I feel the same, in that when I walk in a bookshop it takes me onto a minute or two to scan the shelves and confirm there is nothing of interest

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Yes, I feel the same way.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize it can be depressing!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

@@CriminOllyBlog it can be.

[@wburris2007]

Someday, print on demand will probably become the main way that books are printed. The pandemic and online shopping has probably sped up the transition.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That's a really interesting point, and one that had never occurred to me. I'm sure you're right

[@ellagoreyshorrorstories7524]

Buy books...When they double line the bookshelves and the shelves sag, buy/build more shelves...But the shelves are empty so you have to buy more books to fill the shelves! Yay! Now, I didn't think there WAS such a thing as too many books, even after the fire inspector looked at my shelves and was clearly picturing the whole place going up in flames... But when my mother passed and I had to sort/pack/move her EIGHT bookcases full of hardcovers... As sad as it is, there is such a thing as too many books. I have a deathly fear of falling and being buried under my books and no one will find me for YEARS! That doesn't include the 700 or so books on my Kindle.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah, the books stacked around me have started to reach dangerous levels so I have started packing them all in boxes until I can get some new shelves!

[@cafecryptic]

It seems the market has saturated itself with a thousand versions of the same thing across the board rather than getting a little creative with consumer needs. Pertaining to books, I do think it's great that we have access to so much literature, but I feel bad for the environment :/ I don't think there needs to be as many reprints and editions of the same book as there seem to be.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yes! I totally agree with your last point. I'm sure there are enough second hand copies of books that are getting new editions to meet the demand.

[@nathanfoung2347]

The Australian drug you touched on was Nurofen. The company, Rickett Benckiser was fined 6 million AUD for misleading and false labelling. But I digress. No there is never too many books, but there should fairer pricing for ebooks, which have lesser impact on our environment. 🌲 🌳 , and basically costs zip for publishers to produce.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you! And yes drives me nuts when ebooks cost more than the print version!

[@ReadingWithShep]

I work at a bookstore and every week someone publishes a book, anyone can publish a book.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Very true

[@Richard.HistoryLit]

Apparently Umberto Eco said about his 20,000 books, 'I have them in case I want to read them.' This is evidently in contrast to purchasing, in some sort of anxious pursuit of "something".

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That logic makes sense to me.

[@Richard.HistoryLit]

@@CriminOllyBlog I guess the approach appears a bit materialist, retail therapy only. But they are books, full of all sorts of thought and so forth, not a collection of objet d'art, dare I say it !? : )

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@Richard.HistoryLit yes they have value in themselves as well as in being part of a collection

[@Richard.HistoryLit]

@@CriminOllyBlog I can get my head round collection better than library! so to speak

[@parlabaneisback]

There probably are; but the alternative is considerably worse.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! Good answer

[@ITCamefromthePage]

I imagine that there are hundreds to thousands of books published each year where not a single person picks up. Still I don't think there are too many, we will never get to every good book and I like it that way.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

True, even of traditionally published work. I remember seeing something about the sales figures for the first Robert Galbraith book before it leaked that JKR was the author and they were LOW

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

The amazing thing about Netflix is that there is so much on there and I don’t want to watch any of it! The answer to this is probably yes. I don’t particularly mind though!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think I probably watch more content from Netflix than anywhere else other than KZbin. I still don't watch much though

[@ShannonsChannel]

I agree with @Michael K. Vaughan - I scroll through Netflix looking for shows to binge and there are so few I'm interested in really.

[@DDB168]

I reckon it's an industry that runs on the 80/20 rule for sure ie. 80% of profits come from 20% of titles. It's probably more like 90/10 actually. You purchased 3 books from the IWM but only show one !! 😭 I wanna see the other 2 now. Perhaps its on your discord channel ? I blame poetry for the reason for there being too many books published each year. If we could just rid the world of poetry, the numbers would be ok. Oh and philosophy and self-help books too. Oh and Wheel of Time books too......oh and.....😉

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha - those are all very good categories of books that there way too many of. I reviewed one of the other IWM books on the channel a while ago. At least I think I did

[@JessBookgirlTV]

There could never be too many books.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Probably true!

[@CestKevvie]

Simple question with a simple answer: no!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I don’t believe those numbers you listed for publishing include self-publishing. In 2018 alone it was estimated that 1.7 million self-published books were “published” and the rate of self-publishing is increasing year after year. I fear there is exactly as you show here that there are too many books saying the exact same things. How does one find anything “worth” reading anymore? That’s the question. Selection is nice, but it also makes it harder to find what you’re looking for. It’s a conundrum. Great twist on this video topic. 👍🏼

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ah that's interesting, and doesn't surprise me at all given how easy self-publishing is. Totally agree that the excess of choice makes it hard to find what you're looking for! Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@michellehood3523]

Not too many books, but too much of the same thing. I agree about domestic 'thrillers' being a thing. Generally I don't find them very thrilling and I now avoid them. And pandemic fiction is a thing at the mo too. I remember there being loads of books like The Hunger Games. And tons of vampire stuff when Twilight went crazy. I love it when I come across something totally original and not basically a rip off of something else. I have never watched Netflix so I can't comment on that, I don't really watch much telly. Too many books to read ;)

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah I tend to only watch TV if it’s with the family, other than that I’d rather be reading. And yes, publishers love a trend that they can jump on

[@ultimate8003]

Which video games did you completed?

[@jessicamou]

I guess the length of a book bothers me more than how many books come out every year. English is not my first language so I read really SLOW, and when an author drags the length unnecessarily long just like Stephen King really stressed me out. Luckily audiobooks help a lot, I can put audiobooks on 1.5x or 2x speed and fly through those dragging parts just like when I read in my primary language lol.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yes! I do think books tend to be much longer than they need to be these days.

[@ShannonsChannel]

Interesting. So... 200,000 + books published in the USA per year. It's a bit daunting to think there are that many published every year and yet it is still such a difficult market to break into as an unknown author. I wonder how many of those are from well-established authors (like Stephen King) who could pretty much write anything and get it published at this point in their careers. How many of those are debut authors? How many are indie/self published? And yes, your comments on pharmaceutical companies re-packaging the same drugs under different names... that happens all the time. I see it - there's some that say "for migraines" and it's the same basic drug they sell for "back pain" or whatever (which doesn't have a hope in hell of helping MY migraines!). Same with Anti-histimines! A lot of the over-the-counter sleep aids are nothing but diphenhydramine (generic Benadryl). A side effect of it is drowsiness, so they sell it for a higher price as a "sleep aid". I ALWAYS read the ingredients, lol. They do it in the mental health field as well. Trazadone is a drug prescribed as a sleep aid, but it was originally produced as an anti-depressant. They give SSRI anti-depressants to people for anxiety and OCD, etc. Marketing is a big game and you're right they do it with books as well. Romance novels? Formulaic - same basic story with different people/places/details. Yea, they want to keep producing the same stuff over and over because it sells - for a while everything was vampires. Now it seems there are dragons everywhere. (I may have ranted off-topic a bit here!) 😆

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Your point about what the breakdown of those numbers is is really interesting. I might have to do some digging and trying and find out. I’m also really interested to know what portion is new vs reprints. And yes, dragons are everywhere!

[@rickcroucher]

not yet.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

😂

[@sgriffin9960]

Nope. There aren’t too many books!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

You may well be right!