<p>3 TV’s in the house. (DS also has one at college).</p>
<p>All are basic TV’s - no HD, no flatscreens. We’re not opposed to those, but we’d wait for one of our existing TVs to die first before replacing it.</p>
<p>Family room - where most TV watching is done.
Master BR
Basement - mostly used for video games or teen friends watching DVDs. </p>
<p>The rule in our house: you cannot have a TV in your room until you graduate from high school. Allows DH & me to have a TV in our room, without allowing the kids to have one, without being hypocritical!</p>
<p>We currently have a bigscreen in our family room, where most viewing takes place; one in our finished basement (actually two but one is only ever used for video games when Ds boyfriends are visiting); one in our gym/exercise room; one in master bedroom; and one in one other bedroom which is now a guestroom since that D is now married. Two other Ds have taken theirs’ with them, one at college and one living in another city. </p>
<p>We like tv. We like to watch movies and dvds of series which we haven’t originally watched. Also love sports on tv (am watching the World Series as I type this! :)).</p>
<p>I estimate that my family owns only about 300 books. (That might not sound like a lot, but–excluding my childhood book collection–it’s about 290 more books than my parents owned!)</p>
<p>My daughter’s collection of childhood books, school texts and AP/SAT/ACT test-prep manuals, fiction (prose and poetry), and miscellaneous reference/nonfiction totals about 125 books. Most of her books remain packed from our July move. She was able to take only a few to college.</p>
<p>I had to abandon my childhood book collection when I fled my parents’ hornet’s nest for college thirty-seven years ago. I relinquished my college and grad school text collection when I moved out-of-state (again) twenty-five years ago, and had to reduce shipping costs. Since that move, I have always had to weigh my desire to own books against the need for adequate storage space, as well as the estimated cost of shipping the books to my next residence. I now own only about 150 books–mostly rare/out-of-print miscellaneous reference and nonfiction books, some current reference books, and a handful of rare/out-of-print murder mysteries (my favorite fiction genre).</p>
<p>My daughter’s Other Parent–who hates to read–owns about 25 books–mostly old junior high school and high school texts, and a handful of impulse-purchase “coffee table” bargain books which are scattered in odd places around the house, and of course, remain unread.</p>
<p>I have always made liberal use of the public library (as does my daughter), so I don’t feel “book deprived” just because a book I want to read isn’t sitting on my shelf at home. As long as I can find that book at the public library (or borrow it through public interlibrary loan), I’m satisfied.</p>
<p>P.S. To BCEagle91: My state also regulates the manner in which TV sets can be discarded. Our one local hazardous waste recycling center’s limited (appointment-only) hours have provided OthPar with years of excuses for holding on to the broken TV sets and other junk.</p>
<p>I couldn’t even begin to guesstimate how many books we have.
From baby board books to college texts- we have passed on many over the years, but others keep finding their way here.
;)</p>
<p>TV’s: Two. One that we really use, plus one Sony Watchman that we received as a gift about 20 years ago. It still works and I’m old enough to enjoy the technology that it represented.</p>
<p>Books: Thousands. 11 book cases that are about 7 feet high and three feet wide, plus 9 half-height ones, plus stacks all over, plus the bookcases in our offices. Despite the number of books we still have, we’ve donated quite a few books already, and will donate more as sorting time permits.</p>
<p>PS to Timecruncher: That’s how I grew up, with some books, but mostly books borrowed from the local public library–which was considerably better than the ones near home now (aside from the University library).</p>
<p>Family Room
Home Office
Kitchen
Our Bedroom
D’s Bedroom</p>
<p>Okay, we have 5. 4 have digital cable, 13" in kitchen is still regular cable (no place to put the box.) None of our TVs (including the one my mom bought for D’s college common room) are flat screen. Won’t replace any unless one dies.</p>
<p>I have one in my office at work, too. We got cable for the OJ trial and never had it disconnected. </p>
<p>I confess to having it on for noise sometimes and when H is out of town, I tend to fall asleep with it on. Covers up exterior noises in addition to the ones I dream up!</p>
<p>One TV in the living room. Not big tv watchers here. However, ask me how many stereo systems we have? Each S has stereo speakers set up on their computers in their rooms, S2 also has stand alone stereo in his room, main stereo system in family room, and my computer/stereo in computer room. There there are the primo stereos in each vehicle. We always have music on, and sometimes dually music through out the house.</p>
<p>The old rear projection one with the rounding straight line at the bottom of the screen was replaced by a plasma for the family room and can be used while on the basement treadmill. The old CRT TV is in a spare room, had it for inlaws when they stayed with us. The cheap LCD bought several years ago now sits in our master bedroom (married a bedroom TV man) where bifocals limit the former viewing angles- it has old boombox speakers replacing the defunct detatchable speakers that came with it. And a good LCD TV in the guest room with H’s computer makes a marvelous large monitor (do I count the TV tuner in the computer?). Our house was built in the days of paying for every cable outlet so we have added outlets to some rooms, but never a TV (or computer until home from college) in child’s bedroom. We have more TVs than we need/use simply because we don’t dispose of old ones, some not even charities would take.</p>
<p>Book count- many</p>
<p>Someone mentioned books. I don’t count them by the book but recently figured out the number of filled full sized bookshelf equivalents at about 6 (maybe 30 30" shelves worth), this doesn’t include numerous library books at any given time (we would have more, but we cull books every 5 or 10 years, disposing of outdated texts). Like another poster we had just a few books in my childhood home- kept on a shelf two deep in the end of the hall linen closet, plus a set of cheap Funk and Wagnell’s encyclopedias stored so you had to pull them all out to get the required volume. We lived on frequent trips to the library. </p>
<p>My version of TV watching usually includes reading a book at the same time. Cable is great for the weather channel, home shows and other reality based shows, BBC… without cable PBS would be the only channel watched most of the time.</p>
<p>Oh, I missed the book question. Well over 5,000, at a conservative estimate. I wouldn’t want to have to make an exact count. (In this case, the shoemakers’ children are well shod.)</p>
<p>Books, way too many to count. Boxes in basement, bookshelves full. AND we really don’t buy books for ourselves, big library users, but because we love books, all of us get many as gifts.</p>
<p>Had to think about this one because I forgot about one. We have four TVs in our house.
Family room…42 in plasma…main TV</p>
<p>Finished basement…big screen…when kids come over to watch movies or shows that have been Tivoed. Best thing we ever did was have this one as the kids will hang here and we know where they are!</p>
<p>Master bedroom…big old school one that must be ancient! H watches ESPN and news before falling asleep.</p>
<p>Finished basement…old, old one that is used only when boys come over to play video games…rarely!</p>
<p>We tivo a lot of shows and watch them on our schedule. We also have a gazillion books! We read a lot in this house!</p>
<p>i guess that I am about to horrify you all and will take plenty of grief for it, but in our house alone we have 7 TV sets and every one of them is used.</p>
<p>60" flat screen w/ surround sound that competes with the movie theater.
15" kitchen
20" den
13" workroom
25" playroom
20" master bedroom
15" daughter’s room (she got before brother left for college since he hogged the playroom TV)</p>
<p>Then, car has 2 independent headset TV’s</p>
<p>Son at college has 1 in his bedroom, while apartment has 1 in the living room.</p>
<p>That is just the abbreviated list.</p>
<p>D and S have both done well despite these distractive instruments. S is graduating from Tufts this year with strong grades in engineering and is currently on a 4 hour job interview and D is #1 (though a tie and no #2) in her high school class. I have always needed background noise and this has rubbed off on the kids. I got this habit from my father. If a TV is not on then I probably have talk radio on in the background.</p>
<p>Thousands of books - in two langauages and lately the third is being added as my kids are becoming more fluent in it.
Many years ago when we moved long disance from Canada, two guys that were unloading our moving truck were making funny comments as to the number of boxes that they had to leave in the library. When they were done the room, and our library room is LARGE, was full!!! Then one of them picked up a new box from the truck. On it it said - Books - Boy’s room - Upstairs, and you should have seen the expression on his face Priceless. He followed it with a question if our son had as many books as us (H and I). I answered - of course not, he is only a toddler, but then I added - but we also have a daughter - and I laughed in his face.</p>
<p>We constantly add new books, but I am getting rid of most of the kiddie books regularly. Only keep the treasured ones.</p>
<p>I grew up in a house where the tv was always on. We would drive 3 hours to visit my Mom and she would not turn off the TV. Eventually I got to the point of turning it off when we entered her house. Drove Mom crazy.
Our house. I have to really think. We have 2 tv’s that get used. One in the family room and another in the study. The one in the study is where son and husband have surround sound and the xbox 360. This is a flat screen. Where we watch movies. Also only tv with HD cable box.
The family room TV is probably 15 yrs old maybe more. It is where I watch the Amazing Race on sunday. That is about my only tv viewing.
We also have an old tv in a cabinet in our master bdrm. The remote stopped working about 10 yrs ago and it is rarely turned on. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
An old tv down in an detached extra guest room with no entrance from the house. Used once or twice a yr. We once envisioned this room as a playroom for the kids as teens. Has the air hockey table and an old treadmill. This tv should have gone long ago but my spouse does not get rid of things.
We also have sitting in the garage an old tiny tv/vcr unit that we used to plug into the car lighter when we drove long distances for the kids to watch movies. Don’t know how long since that tv has been used.
Total tv’s-5
total hours watched in our house in a week.Less then 4. Way more TV’s then we need. No tv or computers in kids room prior to college.
Older two did not have tv in dorm.
Don’t know how many books. 4 out of 5 family members are big readers. All of us read daily. My two D’s call reading their TV. They read for pleasure.</p>
<p>One large HD tv in the living room, used almost exclusively by S2 to watch sports and play Xbox.</p>
<p>One very small tv in S2’s room, unplugged and never used.</p>
<p>S1 has just wired the house to connect his computer to the DVD player that’s plugged into TV #1, so he can watch TV (upstairs) through his desktop computer. Does that count?</p>
<p>I never watch TV, but occasionally watch Youtube. The line between TV and other entertainment is getting more and more blurred.</p>
<p>One old 27 inch in living room, basic satellite. Used for baseball season, occasional movies, and Daily Show (when S is around, used much more.)</p>
<p>One very old one in MBR, no cable or DVD. Turned on maybe a couple minutes on the morning sometimes, when H is dressing, for noise. Really hardly used.</p>
<p>books? Thousands–bookcases, piles, boxes, everywhere. Plus, I go to several libraries regularly, nevermind the too many magazine subscriptions.</p>
<p>Those of you with high multiples of televisions which are on often–does that make much impact on your electric bills?</p>
<p>I, too, missed the book question when I first replied to this thread. I’ve never counted individual books but I did a quick count in my head of bookcases and I think it’s about 17.
This doesn’t include my study which has built-in bookshelves on every wall. Books are, in a sense, my downfall. I don’t indulge myself with many things but I do buy lots of books. I ready about 50-60 books a year, always have a large pile of to-read books, and a constant list (or two!) of books I want to buy. I have a large group of friends, and family members, who pass books along. I keep my absolute favorites and I give the rest to a couple of local hospitals, to my hairdresser (who has a lending library in her shop!), and to a women’s shelter.</p>
Well over 5,000, at a conservative estimate. I wouldn’t want to have to make an exact count. (In this case, the shoemakers’ children are well shod.)</p>
Priceless. He followed it with a question if our son had as many books as us (H and I). I answered - of course not, he is only a toddler, but then I added - but we also have a daughter - and I laughed in his face.</p>