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Author
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Comment
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gigi
Unregistered User
(2/2/05 5:27 pm)
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How many Bookshelves ?
I recently have been having an animated discussion on the Great books thread about how many bookshelves we have to hold our book obsession.
I would like to pose this question to all of you ...
How many bookshelves do you have?
What kind are they ...floor to ceiling or fits under the window kind?
Do you share them with husbands, brothers, mothers, or fathers?
Where do you buy beautiful bookshelves that are sturdy and won't fall on top of me? (Laughs nervously)
gigi;)
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redtriskell
Registered User
(2/3/05 1:28 am)
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Re: How many Bookshelves ?
As I mentioned previously, I have twelve. Four almost to the cieling with 5 shelves apiece; four middle height; and four small with only 2 sheves each. Which is why I also have books living on flat surfaces and the floor... I need more shelves. As to buying cases, I get inexpensive ones at Target- they can usually be had for about thirty bucks for the large ones. They aren't beautiful, but they do the job. I've also found a great place to get shelves is at retail shops that are going out of business- they are almost always selling the store fixtures for fairly cheap prices. Or at a used office furniture place. Granted, the shelves are usually functional rather than pretty, but that's why paint exists.;)
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GailS
Unregistered User
(2/3/05 7:29 am)
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Wall of Books
I have a Wellington Wall by Wellington Hall covering one wall in my living room, making it a library. It's pretty expensive. One day, I'll get the ladder.
www.wellingtonhalldesigns.com/
I've got a couple of smaller shelves in my home office, and one smaller shelf stacked on a dresser in a guest bedroom.
GailS
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(2/3/05 10:52 am)
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Re: Wall of Books
In my office/library I have 13 bookshelves--10 are all mine and 3 are shared with my husband--as well as a small curio cabinet that contains books. The shelves have six shelves each and are 2 1/2 feet wide. Then I have two four footers in another room filled with my overflow of children's books. (Most of the bottom shelves in the office are filled with picture books--half of them folkloric in nature. My niece appreciates having them at her height.) Of course, I also have books stacked on top of each shelf, usually the oversized books stacked another foot high. My book inventory is currently holding steady at about 3,000 books. It would be more, but I have weeded continuously since getting my library degree for personal sanity and also to slightly lighten two cross country moves. If I haven't read it in three years--or used it for reference--it gets reconsidered as a space taker.
The office, where I spend most of my time and is ideally next to my bedroom, is 14 by 20 feet although I do have to share it with my husband. Our entire house hunt last year was centered around finding a house that had a large kitchen and a big extra room for a combined office and library. We found it and had to spend two months getting it livable, but now it's home. All that for less than our rent in California was on a two bedroom apartment.
Gigi, as for good shelving, another popular option for quality bookcases is to try unpainted ones. You can choose your color as long as you do it yourself. The quality is much higher with usually no warping shelves. I've also made do with the inexpensive white shelves that sell for about $40 each at Wal-Mart and Target. The shelves can warp with too much weight, but it is nice that they are adjustable, lightweight and easy to move.
My dream is for barrister shelves (less dusting!) or something like what Gail has.
Heidi
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aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(2/3/05 2:35 pm)
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Re: Wall of Books
We bought our house for two features: its skylights and its two 5-foot wide built-in floor-to-ceiling bookcases. They look a lot like Gail's WWall, but more rustic (it's a lodge-style house). Those hold about half our books, maybe a bit less. We've also got the old cheap college bookcases in my office--two short, one tall--plus the 'hutch' or top part of a desk serving as bookcase, and a desk with shelves for the same. These hold a hodgepodge of research materials for previous novels, and books from childhood.
We've found a good middle road solution--not the uber-cheap bookshelves, but not break-the-bank, either: Build-it-yourself furniture from Sauder and other companies. We have an entertainment center that's incredibly sturdy (it's been taken apart and moved three times and still going strong)--this was about $250 and has a center compartment to hold a TV, and two 6-foot-or-taller bookcases flanking it. Most of our regular reads are crammed on here, three thick sometimes. When the pile of books on the floor on my side of the bed got so deep you could wade through it, we bought a 4 1/2' wide, 4-shelf unit from Target (Sauder, I think) for about $60. Source materials for my novel-in-progress live here, more or less.
I have a dream, though (though dream it be)--I want to build matching bookcases to the built-ins all along my office walls (the office is adjacent to the loft/library). Just about three feet high, nothing extravagant :lol . Anyone have a handy husband (or daughter, whatever) to lend me?
(oops--forgot to mention the cookbook shelf in my kitchen. ;) )
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GailS
Unregistered User
(2/3/05 2:48 pm)
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Cookbooks
Ah yes, I too have a cabinet full of cookbooks in the kitchen. I try to keep them contained. Before a new one can go in, and old one must go out.
In theory anyway...
GailS
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Crceres
Registered User
(2/3/05 2:50 pm)
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Boxes
My house only has three or four real bookshelves--the vast, vast majority of our books are kept in a dozen plastic under-the-bed boxes, another dozen cardboard apple boxes, not to mention the five piles hiding under various pieces of furniture. Oh, and the stacks on the desk that change with what has been read recently. (The under-the-bed boxes just get stacked on top of each other; there's no room under the beds for them)
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gigi
Unregistered User
(2/3/05 4:02 pm)
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shelves
Thank you so much for replying. I shall look into the Target and walmart bookshelves immediately, as we are in dire need of a bookcase.
I always dreamed of a bookcase under my window...
Maybe soon I shall be able to relax in my yellow bedroom flooded with the afternoon sunlight and My Golden retriever at my feet. As the window panes cast dancing shadows on the white rug and the sun warms my face as I sit and read the stories of far far away.....
dreamin largely
gigi:)
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Jess
Unregistered User
(2/3/05 5:02 pm)
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Costco has great bookshelves
Gigi,
I have 6 shelf, double bookshelves (2 sets) for one set of books. I got them at costco for a pittance. They have the front aprons that increases the load-bearing capacity by 300-400% (you can do this yourself by gluing a 1 X 2 inch solid wood apron to the front or back of the shelves. This will prevent most sagging.
My bookshelves are made by plycraft Bookcase Model #4884-FM2
Hope this helps.
Jess
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(2/3/05 6:20 pm)
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Re: Costco has great bookshelves
I'm beset with jealousy and drooling over all of your bookshelves. Having been a student for far too long, my bookshelves, with the exception of a small fold-out one from Target, are wooden planks and cinder blocks. Several books live in mostly-organized rows along the bottom of the walls in my bedroom, but sometimes they work their way toward the middle of the room. The other day I stubbed my toe on Anna Karenina.
Erica.
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redtriskell
Registered User
(2/5/05 1:12 am)
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Re: Costco has great bookshelves
Erica, I'm sure Anna didn't mind.;)
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(2/6/05 1:14 pm)
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Re: Costco has great bookshelves
I'm sure Anna has better things to worry about:) My toe, however, would rather have been stubbed on a lighter work, and preferably not one bound in hard cover!
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(2/6/05 1:32 pm)
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Re: Costco has great bookshelves
You know, that's how I broke a toe once: we didn't have enough bookshelves so we kept books in boxes strewn all over the place (well, mostly in closets and corners). After I broke my toe by tripping over one of the boxes, my mother yelled at me to go buy some @#%&! bookshelves, adding something along the lines of "you'd think by now you'd know how." :D Shamefaced, my husband I complied... although there's still that box in the corner... and the books falling out from our nightstands... and all the children's books stacked on the edge of the sofa, and chairs, and the floor... Perhaps we had better go shopping again. :lol
Best,
Alice
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spoonmoonhollow
Registered User
(2/7/05 12:45 am)
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there is no furniture so lovely as books
every year my mother or husband buys me a new bookshelf for my birthday (usually the nice ones from Lowe's) - i buy my own books (it is too important a task to leave to the under read) however, my bedroom is now all bookshelves (five) and we are having to build a studio to hold them (and the artwork, of course). but really i can think of nothing i would rather have in my home....when i go to other people's homes i seek out their books (if they have none i know more about them and whether i should visit again or not). it sounds like all of you would be people that i would enjoy snooping through your shelves and talking shop.
so if you had to get rid of your collections, your obsessions- if you could only keep-oh let's say-five books, which would it be?
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Jess
Unregistered User
(2/7/05 2:03 pm)
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Unfair!
Picking 5 books is sort of a Sophie's Choice for me - I could never pick just 5! They are so different and dear to me! I could probably get rid of 5 though. :lol
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lgerling
Unregistered User
(2/9/05 3:45 pm)
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Five books
Can't do it. No matter what I do, I can't limit myself to a top five books. I have top five authors in each subgenre I consider important, but even that can be limiting. My books are worth more than my house, literally. I have shelves, boxes, filing cabinets, and stacks of books. They are everywhere. There are series that I reread annually, those that are bi-annual reads, and those that pulled me through so fast I turned around and read again from the beginning after the closing pages. There are old authors who have sudden resurrections after I finally found them and gone out and bought every book they'd written that's still in print. There are those I sit and tap my mental foot at since they aren't writing fast enough (Can you hear it, Jane?). There are those new authors who I hope made enough to get the second book published because I want it. I'll spend my last dime on a book--and frequently have. No five isn't enough.
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Kel
Unregistered User
(2/10/05 11:54 am)
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Only 5? Impossible.
Mostly, I've been using wooden crates stacked on top of each other as my book shelves, and stacking the rest along the walls. I've got one book shelf from Target about 4 1/2 feet tall. It's lasted well and looks all right.
I do have a habit of leaving them in my bed and stacked beside it so I always have more than I think, and not enough space to put them away. They have also started to move out into the living room and my parents' office.
I don't know what I'll do when I move out- they won't all fit in a dorm or apartment but I can't figure out which ones I want to bring with me.
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Lotti
Unregistered User
(2/10/05 4:14 pm)
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How many...?
For me, the answer to the question "How many bookshelves do you have" is simple:
Never enough!
What is worse, though, is the fact that I always run out of walls
or spaces where I can put up more... Sometimes I fantasize about
putting them up, library style, in the middle of my living room...
:o
I remember a cute postcard of a room, where every bit of furniture
was built from books stacked on top of each other - the bed, the
armchair, ... Sometimes, I feel my flat is turning into that postcard.
:eek
Greetings, all you likewise-afflicted!
Lotti
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spoonmoonhollow
Registered User
(2/10/05 11:07 pm)
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it is a matter of selection....
i have thousands of books and they are so dear to me, as i can tell your own collections are dear to you... but if you had to save yourself from your burning house, or were stranded at the end of all things and could only choose five - who would it be? at work my friends and i come up with top fives... just to pass the night and learn more about each other and ourselves. i work at a bookstore. and though i found my own question difficult to answer, this is what i came up with:
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Stardust - Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
Faeries - Brian Froud and Alan Lee
The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany
The Newford Stories - Charles de Lint
Those are my five that i would not want to be caught without.
There are atleast 500 more that i can barely stand the thought of not living with.....but
you can do it - pick five. :smokin
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Black Sheep
Registered User
(2/11/05 11:20 am)
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Re: it is a matter of selection....
Easy! I didn't post before Spoonmoonhollow because they're not a very useful list:
1 Emily Dickinson's complete poems (old Faber & Faber pbk ed with cool blue ff design on cover),
2-5 The four most promising looking books off my to read pile.
Told you it wasn't very helpful. :)
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spoonmoonhollow
Registered User
(2/12/05 1:29 am)
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interesting...hmmmm
blacksheep
i find it very interesting that 4 out of 5 of the books you would save from the edge of doom are as much a mystery to you as to me. perhaps books you have never read before? while my own are old friends that i would not live without. ok, i'm biting. emily dickinson - your favorite poet and favorite poem by her being...?
i like emily, especially the poems Sunset and Hope 1.
however, i am a slack-jawed devotte of e.e. cummings and rainer maria rilke.
spoon
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