<p>Wow, I am still the winner.</p>
<p>We have 5; one in the living room and one in each bedroom but as 2 kids are in college only 3 are actually watched. D keeps hers on as background noise as her siblings’ rooms on either side of her are unoccupied and it makes her feel less alone at night. H is the tv watcher and I watch with him while I read message boards and surf the internet on my laptop.</p>
<p>Okay, one little old one that used to be in our trailer that I use to watch CNN while on the treadmill.</p>
<p>One in the bedroom that we use to play the P90X DVDs every morning (except Sunday).</p>
<p>One in the kitchen that is on whenever I am in there but is largely ignored by my husband.</p>
<p>On large console TV that is hooked up to Satellite in the family room.</p>
<p>One in the basement. No cable - just hooked up to an antenna in the attic. It’s hooked up to a VHS machine so old that it isn’t Y2K compliant. Cost of the TV was under $200.</p>
<p>Three months ago, my family moved long-distance into a very small, very cluttered (I’m talking Sanford and Son!), 50-year-old house my daughter’s Other Parent inherited from a parent four and a half years ago. My daughter’s Other Grandmother was a TV addict, so my family now has five (perhaps more, buried somewhere under the piles of trash and junk OthPar has allowed to accumulate both inside and outside the house over the past four and a half years) TV sets.</p>
<p>Set 1: Ours. 19" Zenith tabletop. 17 years old. Living room set. Last watched three months ago. Sat in a brown cardboard box in the middle of the living room’s moving mess until finally unpacked by me last week. Now sitting on the far side of the dining room-turned-TV room’s moving mess, attached to a tabletop rabbit ears antenna. I’ll wait for OthPar, who packed and had the set transported *screen side down<a href=“!”>/i</a> to plug it in and turn it on.</p>
<p>Set 2: Ours. 13" Emerson tabletop. 15 years old. Daughter’s bedroom set. Last watched more than three years ago. (The set started making crackling noises and delivering painful static electric shocks, so my daughter wisely stopped using it.) Now sitting in its manufacturer’s box in the middle of the living room’s moving mess. My daughter wants to throw the malfunctioning set out; OthPar insists it’s “fine” to use. I will be throwing the set out (after first cutting the cord).</p>
<p>Set 3: Other Grandmother’s. 13" RCA tabletop. Somewhere between 5 and 10 years old. Used to be in her bedroom (now OthPar’s bedroom), then moved into the living room, then moved into my daughter’s (formerly her Other Aunt’s) bedroom, and then–after my daughter left for college–moved into my (formerly the Revolving Guests’/junk storage) bedroom because there is no longer room for it in OthPar’s enter-at-your-own-risk junk and trash-filled bedroom. I watch news, old movies, selected sports (Go Phillies! Go Bills!), and reruns of better-quality sitcoms (most recently, Home Improvement, to which I can personally relate these days). OthPar wanders in to watch late night programming from time to time, but stays quiet enough not to wake me up.</p>
<p>Set 4: Other Grandmother’s. 19" Emerson tabletop. Probably 15 to 20 years old. Used to be in her bedroom until moved into living room to replace her old, malfunctioning 27" console TV. Dumped outside (uncovered–except by a rusted-through wheelbarrow) by OthPar several years ago when the set started to malfunction. OthPar insists the set is still in good enough shape to donate to charity; I’ve said, “No way!” (I’ve already cut the cord; the only recipient of that “donation” will be the local scrap yard.)</p>
<p>Set 5: Other Grandmother’s. Titanic-sized 27" console TV. Manufacturer unknown. Probably 25 to 30 years old. Dominated her living room until the set started to malfunction, and she decided to donate it to charity. She had the console set moved into her garage, but only because OthPar promised to “take care of” the donation. The console set is still in the garage… somewhere.</p>
<p>Additional TV sets belonging to Other Grandmother: Could be anywhere (OthPar’s bedroom, one or both of the camping tents set up in the back yard, OthPar’s RV, and/or the property’s two-car garage–all of which are filled-to-the-gills with old, broken junk and other assorted trash). At this point, I don’t really know how many TV sets we have, but do I know that one of these days–the day OthPar’s long-suffering neighbors arrange for the county health department to haul OthPar’s junk away in a dumpster truck–I will find out. In the meantime, if any of you want a broken TV set, a rusted wheelbarrow, or a long-deceased woman’s entire wardrobe, let me know.</p>
<p>Frankly, I can live without a TV set; I prefer listening to the radio.</p>
<p>One, in the living room. But it has three remotes (!!) 'cos nobody can figure out how to make the “universal” remote work for everything.</p>
<p>Three. One in the family room. One in the basement - that one is where the boys play Playstation. One in the master bedroom, which H bought for me when first child was born - so I could feed the babies in bed & not be bored (babies don’t converse much while eating).</p>
<p>Much to our kids’ chagrin, our tv’s are all relatively small & quite “old fashioned.”</p>
<p>It’s illegal to dispose of television sets (and CRT monitors) in our state in landfills and dumps since this past summer. Consumers are supposed to take them to recycling businesses which will charge about $25 to recycle them. Of course in cities, this means that people dump them in vacant lots, on the sidewalks, and in any dumpsters that they can find.</p>
<p>For a companion question: how many books do you have. I would estimate about 1,500 to 2,000 in our household.</p>
<p>Oh, I have boxes and boxes of kids’ books in the basement. I gave some to my friend when she started teaching, and I put some away to read to my future grandkids. I need to find a good home for the rest.</p>
<p>I don’t have as many adult books. We tend to pass those around.</p>
<p>Three TV’s - one in living room, one in family room, one in Kitchen - all are hooked to Cable.</p>
<p>There is one TV at work in the lunch room - no cable - and I just bought a digital TV tuner to get ready for the February nationwide shut down of over the air analog TV signals.</p>
<p>I was surprised - the digital picture really is much better - and there are many more channels - each broadcaster has the ability to send out 4 different over the air programs at the same time. CBS has one - NBC has four - ABC has four - Fox has Four - PBS has four - all told over 38 different over the air channels just from the old roof top antenna in suburban NY.</p>
<p>Embarassed to say we have six. One in Family room that faces the kitchen, one in basement where the kids hang out and play video games, one in guest room that is rarely used (I think it’s an older one from another room), one in each child’s room-rarely watched except for movies or when sick, one in our bedroom. We probably watch the one in our bedroom and the family room the most. Sometimes our king size bed turns into the “family room” with all of us finding a spot somehow and watching a movie together or some show. I think this started when the kids were young. I would sit them on the bed watching Sesame Street so I could shower.</p>
<p>Two-one in the living room (with basic cable), one in the kitchen (that only really gets a couple awkward channels-it’s mostly there for noise when we cook). I used to have one in my room (I’m the teenager), but it broke about five months ago and no one’s ever felt any desire to fix it. Me and my mom watch a lot more TV now that my brother’s off at college-it’s usually on at least as background noise every night. </p>
<p>As for books, who knows. Thousands. We’re all big readers in my family.</p>
<p>We have 4 TVs, only one of which is watched regularly. One TV in master bedroom and one in each of kid’s rooms. However, satellite dish hooked only to the one in living room. S1 uses his to watch DVDs. We occasionally watch the one in the bedroom when we want to watch something on network TV stations (with horrendous reception) that we don’t get on satellite. </p>
<p>Thousands of books. Between H & I, I would estimate about 3000-4000. Not counting hundreds of kids’ books.</p>
<p>I wasn’t able to find estimates for the average number of books in US households but did find some research by Pearson Education (textbook publisher). It showed a correlation between test scores and three subjects with the number of books in the home. The categories ranged from 1-10 up to 100. I would guess that CCers are off the charts as to the number of books in the home. Their study seems to tell me that the average number is under 100 but that’s just my hunch.</p>
<p>OT…we have a ton of books but most of them are science fiction. I doubt seriously that anyone in the family had higher test scores because of these:) We DO frequent the library and we DO buy books…but usually when we’re done with them…we give them away.</p>
<p>Must admit that I am a book hoarder. I still have every textbook I ever used in college (through Ph.D.). As a college prof I got sample textbooks, most of which I still have (I did finally get rid of multiple editions). </p>
<p>S2 was writing a paper and asked me if I had read a certain classic. I said I had but that it was not very fresh in my memory. I found my copy and saw that I had purchased it in 1974!</p>
<p>Two and sometimes 3. One in the kitchen, it is mine, when I’m in there I get to say what will be watched. One in the family room, where my husband usually is. And my son has one for video games, mostly, and sometimes it is here and sometimes it is a college.</p>
<p>One in the family room, not much of a TV person.</p>
<p>Well, books <blush> I’m on the other side of the spectrum on that one.</blush></p>
<p>We have at least 20 full size double parked bookcases in our house. I’m thinking probably 7000 or more books. I can’t get rid of a book, just can’t do it. The few times I have, I regretted it <lol></lol></p>
<p>Books - at least 2000. And unlike Thumper I’m pretty sure that those sci fi books have contributed to all of our high verbal scores. Especially mathson - who only reads sci fi, fantasy and computer manuals by choice and got 800s twice on the SAT verbal. (And didn’t manage to get an 800 in math once!) We also have hundreds of magazines.</p>
<p>I once measured a house which had three books. These were regular middle class people living in a split level in a part of town where houses sell for more than mine. The books were Good Night Moon, Pat the Bunny and The Joy of Cooking. As I recall they had a TV in just about every room including at least one of the bathrooms. My youngest son was helping me measure and was appalled. I’ve got some of my college textbooks, but most of them I ditched. I do have quite a few of my favorite childhood books. For a while I tried not to buy books and use the library, but then I discovered that the library was tossing my favorite books, so I couldn’t count on them being there.</p>