The other day I was going through my book shelf to add more books that I’ve read to my goodreads read shelf.  I shocked myself at how quickly I got through it and started to think of books that I read and didn’t own.  At first, I started to think about the journey that my books may have made – did I sell the book on half.com, had I borrowed it from someone?  Was it part of a collection?  Had it gotten lost somewhere.  Being a concrete thinker who loves statistics, I decided to come up with a ratio – and this ratio is called the Shelf Ratio.

Like any good ratio, it comes with a few friends.  I’ve decided to outline those ratios and explain what they might tell you about yourself:

The Shelf Ratio: The amount of books you own and have on shelves (lost or in boxes don’t count) divided by the number of books you’ve read.
The Wanting Ratio: The amount of books you haven’t read and have on your shelf divided by the number of books you have on your shelf that you have read
The Pack-Rat Ratio: The amount of books you do not plan on reading again that are on your shelves divided by the amount of books you do plan on reading again that are on your shelves.
The Good-Friend Ratio: The amount of books you have lent out divided by the amount of books you are currently borrowing.

To share a bit about me, I will share with you my ratios:
My Shelf Ratio: 20%.  I’m a big fan of borrowing/renting books.  As well, most of the books I get, I don’t want to keep, so I resell.
My Wanting Ratio: 30%.  This is very high, but mainly because I keep my shelf so slim.
My Pack-Rat Ratio: 20%.  The only reason I hold onto a book is if I wish to read it or if I wish to give it to someone else.
My Good-Friend Ratio: Ignoring the books my wife has “lent” me to read, I’m on a 10:1 or 1000%.  I am pretty quick to lend a book to a friend, but between my lack of time and my BookSwim membership, I tend not to need to borrow books.

What are your ratios?

Some milestones and what they mean:
Wanting Ratio > 50%: START READING!
Pack-Rat Ratio > 100%: Get rid of those excess books.  Sell them, lend them to friends, that’s good books being wasted!
Good-Friend ratio < 50%: Read and return those books to your friends, and hand out your old books to friends as gifts!

-Nick