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I have a decent amount of books (used to have way more, I've pared down) and we have a small house. I have one small bookcase in our dining room and a few shelves in our bedroom.

We have far more than necessary and we've basically run out of room to store them. They're in our extra bedroom, although since were out of shelves there are basically just piles on the floor now.

I'm going to cry reading this because I had a collection of about 800 books that were displayed in some Ikea bookshelves (not Billy - they are open solid wood bookcases that cost more but looked beautiful), with some random candles/art/photos/whatever at the ends. Unfortunately the roof and ceiling in our old apartment collapse during a storm and soaked and destroyed nearly all the books and warped the bookshelves.
To answer your original question I think books are stunning on the walls and are great decoration for any room. If you want to be fancy you can organise them by spine colour to make a pattern, when done well I think that looks so good.
Gonna go cry in a corner now.

I used to have thousands and I collected them. In an attempt to lighten life I donated all of them!

Now we use the library.

We build shelves as well!

My personal collection of books isn't very nice looking, it's really mostly paperbacks. I am deciding what to do as they are largely at my parent's house in a book case in a spare bedroom and there is little chance I will actually look at them again.

I personally would rather have cabinets as opposed to open shelving...less dust in the books.

We probably have around 600-700. Most fit on one large bookcase behind our couch. Most of the others are on a bookshelf in my office and the rest are on nightstands or shelves in the kids' rooms.

We have a lot of books. I have a lot, my husband has a few, and now my son has a lot. We have 4 bookcases in the living room and 4 more in the basement (both mostly books, although some shelves have photos/knick knacks), and my son has a bookcase in his room. Lately, though, I've been biting the bullet and donating a lot of them to try to organize/pare down the collection. Anything I don't think I'll reread I've been getting rid of. I figure if I really miss something and no longer have it I'll be able to justify buying it on my Kindle.

We have four bookcases in the living room, two in the dining room, two in my DH's office, and one in the basement, along with several plastic tubs. We already bought one for the nursery, too.... I feel like I'm drowning in books!

@lamariniere: whoa, that must be a big bookcase!

I have a lot. Most are on two 7 foot bookshelves in our room with no name (an odd space when you walk in from the garage. it has a fireplace and adjoins the kitchen, dining room, and living room).

I used to have more than those bookshelves would hold, but a few years ago I seriously downsized because I got tired of moving them all. I still have too many though.

This thread makes me feel better because whenever I go to someone's house I'm thinking, "I can't be the only person whose house is overrun by books?! Where are all the books??"

And I've mostly just reconciled with the fact that our house will look like a library instead of a house!