2
Apr

B is for Bibliophile

   Posted by: Faith   in Rye Thoughts

For the past few years, I’ve been piling books in various locations around the house. There are shelves in the basement, but they’ve been double and triple stacked, with more books on the top, and piles on top of those.

IMG100Upstairs, there have been books on the coffee table, under the coffee table, inside the hutch (which we bought for appliance storage… oops!), on the kitchen table, in the office, on two different desks, on the floor of the office, in the bedroom, in the bathroom, under the couch… books everywhere!!! I spent my life in fear that one of these days, I’d wake up being smothered under a pile of fallen books, trapped, with no one to hear my screams because I’d probably just read whatever book was closest until I ran out of oxygen… heh…

Anyway, a few weeks ago, El Husbando finally said “ENOUGH!” and we went out and bought five new bookcases from Ikea. FIVE. Those big Billy ones.

And, umm, you know what?

They’re all full.

Oh, crap.

IMG101There’s a tiny bit of space on one shelf that we took a few books off of, that’ll fit about… oh, I don’t know… thirty to forty more books. That’s counting the twenty or so I have out on loan to various friends and family members. Plus the five next to me at the kitchen table. And the two that came from the Scholastic book order. And the three I got with a coupon last week.

There is literally nowhere else we can put bookshelves. The house is full. And, uh, I have another gift certificate I need to use…

 

…solution?

Clearly, I need a bigger house. Winking smile

 

Please, share your book storage woes (and solutions) with me!!! I can’t be the only one with this kind of, uh, “issue’”…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at 1:30 am and is filed under Rye Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

12 comments so far

Diana
 1 

Clearly, you need a bigger house. :)

Examining your photographs in closer detail, you’re not using all the available space on those shelves. See all that dead space between the top of the books and the shelf above it? You can cram books horizontally on top of the ones that are sitting vertically. :)

Rolling bookcases would be nice like the carts the library uses. Then you can push them out of the way to get to the shelves along the wall. And they’re double-sided.

But really you need a bigger house… with a library… with floor to ceiling bookshelves and a rolling ladder to get to the top shelf.

Sigh, even if I had all of that, I’d still be in need of rolling bookcases…

April 2nd, 2012 at 6:09 am
Justin
 2 

Yes, a bigger house would do. Or an addition with like 10 levels. Please do not tell me the books are in Alphabetical Order? Or Dewey Decimal?

April 2nd, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Horst Peters
 3 

I can relate. When my wife and I sold our house 18 months ago, I had to clear out most of my books. I donated most of them to a fundraiser book sale raising money for our Children’s hospital.

The books had to go because we were moving from a 6 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom seniors apartment. There’s very little space here.

the number of books I’ve accumulated since we moved in here is ridiculous – the only room that doesn’t have piles of books is the kitchen (well — there are a few cookbooks).

My wife has told me that from now on I have to get rid of 2 books for everyone that I bring in to our place.

I guess the Children’s hospital will be the beneficiary again.

April 2nd, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Susan Barclay
 4 

I feel your pain; I too am a bibliophile with not enough space for books. However, the library was a wonderful invention! I get to borrow books and return them to their place of permanent residence when I’m done with them. Truly, I hardly ever re-read a book I’ve already read – do you? Also, there’s that not-quite-the-same, but nonetheless marvellous, invention called the e-reader :D

April 2nd, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Gyran
 5 

Your house sounds exactly like my room when I was young! At first the bookshelves were put inside when we moved just because the space was handy and the promise of
“We’ll shift them out later” just never happened.

Its no wonder I grew up a voracious reader!

April 2nd, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Konstanz Dalrymple
 6 

Made me laugh. I need another bookshelf. The one I have is piled with books (all double stacked). Sadly my room does not have enough room for another book shelf yet so I have been getting rid of stuff so I can get another shelf.

Konstanz Silverbow
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April 2nd, 2012 at 8:12 pm
Stephanie Pace
 7 

My current solution is to store the majority of my books at my parent’s house. The thought of getting rid of any of them literally brings me to tears, at which point my boyfriend accuses me of being a hoarder. I don’t think he’s going to go for a bigger house ;)

Long term, I won’t be buying anymore hard copy books. I have an kindle now, and will most likely relegate all future book purchases to the electronic variety. Oh, the time’s are a changing.

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Gina
 8 

Nice piece of writing. Luckily, I have a library in my house, so I don’t ever have to worry about books overflowing. You should consider building one yourself.

April 2nd, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Candace Gauger
 9 

You don’t need a bigger house, you need a library. How I wish I could have that many books!

April 3rd, 2012 at 2:15 am
Faith
 10 

Diana — The idea of getting more bookshelves was to AVOID double-stacking!!! I’ve had them double and triple-stacked for so long, I couldn’t find anything. The new shelves are supposed to help me organize! But… I guess I’ll have to use that space eventually…

Justin — The are partially alphabetical and partially Library of Congress organized. Then when there were too many books and not enough shelves, it got impossible to do. Yep, my plan is to fix that very soon… :D

Horst — But at least someone is getting value out of your books! It’d be hard to let them go… but you know they’re going somewhere to do some good, rather than just getting set in a box at Goodwill.

Susan — I also use the library, and my eReader. Doesn’t help… it just means more books. LOL!!!

Gyran — I’m envisioning you as a small child, surrounded by stacks of books, looking slightly terrified you’ll get buried alive, but also rather content to be in a room full of books… haha.

Konstanz — Luckily, we have an Ikea nearby, so it means cheap shelves! I hope you’re able to get one soon. :)

Stephanie — I find the eReader just means I buy electronically-available-only books, but I still prefer paper. So it just means more books all around. Storing books at your parents’ house is a good idea! I tried that, but they caught on and gave them back…

Gina — A library in your house! That sounds amazing! I’d love that, but there simply isn’t room.

Candace — I know, I wish I could have a library. El Husbando has promised that someday we’ll move to a house with a room just for my books and space for a rolling ladder. Really, I just want a rolling ladder like the one in Beauty and the Beast. Someday…!

April 3rd, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Juliana
 11 

Hooooly crap, girl! You’ve definitely got a library there…can I come visit?? ;)

I can’t believe you had five bookcases worth of books just piled around the house. Incredible.

April 4th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Faith
 12 

Umm… yeah… El Husbando could barely believe it either — he was the one that moved all the books onto the shelves… *hangs head in shame*… lol

April 4th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
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