5 ms·

- Anecdote - A while ago, a coworker was excited to move to another flat but there was a little something that was going to be complicated: books. He and his g

- Anecdote - A while ago, a coworker was excited to move to another flat but there was a little something that was going to be complicated: books. He and his girlfriend were both avid readers and their two already impressive collections fused years ago into a massive beast. As we were discussing the "problem", I asked him for a ballpark estimation of the number of books to move, expecting something like "1000 books", but he replied after a couple seconds with "about 12 or 15 Billies".

masklinn 10y ago
I'm still nowhere near that, but I've taken to count my books in linear meters (currently ~15). They're mostly stored in kallax (formerly expedit) bits and three kallax cells is a metre, so that's convenient. (incidentally, a billy is 80cm wide and 6 shelves high, so each billy is close to 5 linear metres, which means your friends have 60~70m worth of books)
- ptaipale 10y ago
  60-70 m of books, assuming he uses only one layer in Billy. I have two, and occasionally three (though it's not Billy but another higher-quality shelf maker Lundea).
  - masklinn 10y ago
    True, I assumed single-layer as billy isn't open-backed and I prefer seeing all my books. Also billy seems a bit short for two layers to be comfortable and not risk damaging books, even with small-ish paperbacks.
    - johncoltrane 10y ago
      The exact number of Billies may have been a bit different but the discussion quickly shifted to the ubiquity of the Billy and what it said about the global economy and how easily we adopt custom standards. I remember being surprised by that new unit but also astonished by the fact that I instinctively understood what he meant.
hueving 10y ago
One thing I lament after switching to ebooks is the lack of books. Sounds silly, but I think a wall with shelves of books was quite nice looking and colorful.
- aedron 10y ago
  I am happy to not have to store books in physical form. They are heavy, take up loads and loads of space, and do not keep well. And that's not even getting into how impractical they are to actually read (or search) compared with e-books. And still, something is missing in the home. A book collection might be the most personal touch a person can have in the home. Some of it is vanity, you want to show people what you read, but somehow it is also delightful to casually look over all the old gems and sometimes get the urge to pick one out to read again. This doesn't really happen in the same way with the Kindle. I guess it's the same with record collections vs. digital distribution.
  - hueving 10y ago
    A bookshelf is like a hash-table to memories of the books you've read. A quick glance at a given binding can bring up lots of thoughts... or it could be a dead reference if the book was crap. :)
  - freehunter 10y ago
    My wife is an avid book collector, we we are both avid nomads. In the four years we've been together, we've lived in six places. Most of her books have not survived the repeated moves, with boxing, unboxing, storing, trips in trucks or trailers, etc. She's lost a lot of her physical books, most of which were paperbacks. We've since condensed to only keeping hardcovers. Anything we would have bought as a paperback is now an ebook or is donated when we're done reading it. Our bookshelves only contain hardcovers, which looks a lot nicer and travels better too.
  - ciupicri 10y ago
    How can physical books be impractical to actually read compared to e-books when text looks so much better on paper than on screen?
gdulli 10y ago
He might have to provide more info. When I looked up Billy to find out what it is I found over a dozen variants/sizes: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase I don't understand if the article is talking about a specific one or the whole product line, and what makes one or the other special. I don't see anything notable, other than the impressive simplicity and packing innovation that applies to Ikea products in general. Personally, I love these and have a few: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/10275862 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/102758...
- masklinn 10y ago
  > He might have to provide more info. When I looked up Billy to find out what it is I found over a dozen variants/sizes: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ is the one most people mean when they talk about "a billy": a neutral person-tall thin enough to be flexible bookcase. > Personally, I love these and have a few: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/102758.. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/102758.... I also like Kallax, not the 4x4 or 5x5 though (too inflexible imo) but I've got multiple 2x4, 1x4 and 2x2.
- johncoltrane 10y ago
  He was referring to this one (color unspecified): http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ There's nothing notable with that bookshelf except the price. That model has simply been the most basic/cheap bookcase at IKEA (and elsewhere) for decades, a must have for young adults moving out of their parents'. I still have two after many years. Incidentally, I'm getting that very same KALLAX you linked to in a couple of weeks as a room separator.
  - cestith 10y ago
    I've always thought that "Billy" unqualified meant that one.

masklinn 10y ago

I'm still nowhere near that, but I've taken to count my books in linear meters (currently ~15). They're mostly stored in kallax (formerly expedit) bits and three kallax cells is a metre, so that's convenient. (incidentally, a billy is 80cm wide and 6 shelves high, so each billy is close to 5 linear metres, which means your friends have 60~70m worth of books)

ptaipale 10y ago
60-70 m of books, assuming he uses only one layer in Billy. I have two, and occasionally three (though it's not Billy but another higher-quality shelf maker Lundea).
- masklinn 10y ago
  True, I assumed single-layer as billy isn't open-backed and I prefer seeing all my books. Also billy seems a bit short for two layers to be comfortable and not risk damaging books, even with small-ish paperbacks.
  - johncoltrane 10y ago
    The exact number of Billies may have been a bit different but the discussion quickly shifted to the ubiquity of the Billy and what it said about the global economy and how easily we adopt custom standards. I remember being surprised by that new unit but also astonished by the fact that I instinctively understood what he meant.

hueving 10y ago

One thing I lament after switching to ebooks is the lack of books. Sounds silly, but I think a wall with shelves of books was quite nice looking and colorful.

aedron 10y ago
I am happy to not have to store books in physical form. They are heavy, take up loads and loads of space, and do not keep well. And that's not even getting into how impractical they are to actually read (or search) compared with e-books. And still, something is missing in the home. A book collection might be the most personal touch a person can have in the home. Some of it is vanity, you want to show people what you read, but somehow it is also delightful to casually look over all the old gems and sometimes get the urge to pick one out to read again. This doesn't really happen in the same way with the Kindle. I guess it's the same with record collections vs. digital distribution.
- hueving 10y ago
  A bookshelf is like a hash-table to memories of the books you've read. A quick glance at a given binding can bring up lots of thoughts... or it could be a dead reference if the book was crap. :)
- freehunter 10y ago
  My wife is an avid book collector, we we are both avid nomads. In the four years we've been together, we've lived in six places. Most of her books have not survived the repeated moves, with boxing, unboxing, storing, trips in trucks or trailers, etc. She's lost a lot of her physical books, most of which were paperbacks. We've since condensed to only keeping hardcovers. Anything we would have bought as a paperback is now an ebook or is donated when we're done reading it. Our bookshelves only contain hardcovers, which looks a lot nicer and travels better too.
- ciupicri 10y ago
  How can physical books be impractical to actually read compared to e-books when text looks so much better on paper than on screen?

gdulli 10y ago

He might have to provide more info. When I looked up Billy to find out what it is I found over a dozen variants/sizes: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase I don't understand if the article is talking about a specific one or the whole product line, and what makes one or the other special. I don't see anything notable, other than the impressive simplicity and packing innovation that applies to Ikea products in general. Personally, I love these and have a few: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/10275862 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/102758...

masklinn 10y ago
> He might have to provide more info. When I looked up Billy to find out what it is I found over a dozen variants/sizes: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=BILLY+Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ is the one most people mean when they talk about "a billy": a neutral person-tall thin enough to be flexible bookcase. > Personally, I love these and have a few: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/102758.. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30275861/#/102758.... I also like Kallax, not the 4x4 or 5x5 though (too inflexible imo) but I've got multiple 2x4, 1x4 and 2x2.
johncoltrane 10y ago
He was referring to this one (color unspecified): http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263850/ There's nothing notable with that bookshelf except the price. That model has simply been the most basic/cheap bookcase at IKEA (and elsewhere) for decades, a must have for young adults moving out of their parents'. I still have two after many years. Incidentally, I'm getting that very same KALLAX you linked to in a couple of weeks as a room separator.
- cestith 10y ago
  I've always thought that "Billy" unqualified meant that one.