Our house is being overrun by books. No matter which direction you turn, you see a book. I swear, as soon as the lights go out, they get together and do things that result in them multiplying. Well, that's our excuse and you're sticking to it.
S reckons it's my fault. She says I force her to buy books, or, alternatively, I don't exercise enough control over her and prevent the purchase. Then she says they're mostly mine, anyway. Uh huh.
Anyway, to accommodate the abundance of reading material, we came to the conclusion we needed another set of shelves in the hallway. This meant emptying the overflowing monster you see below, moving it along the floor so we had room for the extra shelves, then repacking the whole thing.
How many books do you reckon would fit in this bookcase, bearing in mind that there two more shelves below the one you can just see at the bottom of the picture?
Well, let's start with these.
Then add these.
We'll put these ones in, too.
Oh! And don't forget these ones.
And just for something different, we'll shove these in as well.
As you can see, we had a task ahead of us. One that took all afternoon, and still isn't finished. S's Virgo-osity demands we don't just put the books back in the case willy nilly. They must go in alphabetically by author then title, subdivided into fiction, non fiction, children's.
Around one-hundred books got their eviction notice and will either be sold on E-Bay or evacuated to the Op Shop, but there are just so many.
I've always dreamed of owning a book shop. I don't think this is quite what I had in mind, though.
3 comments:
looks like heaven to me.
I have posted on this in Comments over at S's Beyond the Blank Page so you can pop over there, if you haven't been already, and see Miss Eagle's guide to culling bookshelves. I think the photos are hilarious. I'm sure you've managed by now. Do your visitors have to walk past the bookshelves? Studying someone's bookshelves can give a great insight into their personality and interests. The worst case I've ever seen is the collection of a friend who is an international speaker and writer. The living room has a collection of books much like anyone's generalized collection. But you ought to see what's in his study! Books are neatly stacked on as many bookshelves as can be fitted. There are books on shelves two deep and then some placed horizontally on top of them. He doesn't lend books because he says they are his tools. Then you can go down to the garage where there are filing cabinets upon filing cabinets with the cuttings, subject files and references. My mother used to live beside former Minister for Defence, Sir James Killen. Underneath his house he had a similar stash of filing cabinets - a minister's memoirs in the making no doubt.
Pirate: Even heaven gets crowded sometimes.
Miss Eagle: I have read your guide to culling, but getting rid of books is like getting rid of friends.
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