A Tour of Redheadedgirl’s Bookshelf

Well, bookshelves.  Who can possibly have just one?

I have recently moved (well, recently, like six months ago, but I lived in my last place for six years before that, so recently is relative) and as such I have had my hands on every book I own- twice. It’s a lot of books, and one of the requirements for a new place was enough places to put up my bookshelves… and roommates who would understand that I can’t keep them ALL in my room. Happily, my current roommates are almost as big bibliophiles as I am, so we have quite a lot of books in the living and dining room.

I mean, there are a LOT of books in my room, too. We’ll get to that.

I don’t understand people in the HGTV renovation shows who don’t seem to need bookshelves? Like, I get that maybe showing all the books once they’re on the shelves would need to be blurred out due to lack of permissions, but to not need a bunch of bookshelves at all? Who ARE these people?

I do not understand.  At all.

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Lets start with the living room. This is my history shelf. It’s mostly Roman history, but on the top shelf is all my food history books. I do a decent amount of historical cookery (it’s why Vikings eating potatoes gets me so angry) and to do it right requires research! And books! Do you want to know about Anglo-Saxon food? I can look that up for you. I can also wax rhapsodic on Roman cooking for hours. I once did a Roman feast for 150 people, and that was so much fun.

The middle two shelves are loosely sorted into subjects- law, medicine, women, clothing, general, philosophy, and a couple of antique textbooks I picked up.

You may notice that the bottom shelf has Roman books (and some weaving technique books and a few binders left over from research during college), but the second shelf isn’t Roman at all. That does bother me, but they are still history books and the big books go on the bottom. The visual is just off otherwise.  (So I guess an unbalanced visual is a bigger problem than a shelf in the wrong place?  That probably says something about me.)

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Other items on the shelves include artifacts gathered during an authorized mudlarking expedition in London (an Elizabethan tile, a nail, a chunk of chalk and another of flint, an old oyster shell), a pugio, and souvenirs gathered during various trips or others brought back for me (the bottles of sand include sand from Iraq, Afghanistan, Hawai’i, and Israel). I really am an acquisitive person, and I like having a thing to bring back my memories of a trip.

This pair of shelves is in the dining room, and they are full of books that I’m a little bit smug about owning. There’s my set of Gabaldon and Harry Potter, my annotated Dracula, my collection of comic book trades, law and crime and policy books and textbooks from college, grad school, and law school, and my collection of locally published ghost stories. (I’ve been collecting those since I was 13 or so? Now my mom brings me back one from the trips SHE takes and that’s awesome. My mom is great.)

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These shelves are also next to my sewing table, which is how random ribbon and scissors and other cruft ends up there, as well.

Oh, and here are my modern cookbooks. The middle shelf is mine, the rest are the roommates’.

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In my room, I have three shelves. But not like, generic Ikea Billy shelves. No, no. I mean I have this one, which has all the mass markets. No, it is not organized at ALL. There’s romances mixed in with sci-fi, with fantasy, with mystery and I could organize it, but why? Everything is double-stacked anyway.

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This is my desk unit, which has my travel books (left) and my Swedish immigration and genealogical research stuff (right).

On top is mostly family mementos- one of my grandfather’s bowties, a recipe from my grandmother’s, a birchbark horse my parents got me in Alaska, a collection of pewter horses my grandmother had, stuff like that.

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But this next shelf is my favorite shelf. It’s a brick-and–board that some of my friends who have helped me move many times HATE, but I love.

Look at this sucker! It’s huge! It’s seven feet long! I can move it all by myself in many trips!

One friend threatened to buy me a bunch of Billys and I lit in to him because HOW GENERIC and because I stained the wood myself and also those patio stones came out of my parents’ yard and HOW DARE YOU SIR GOOD DAY. I SAID GOOD DAY. Also moving the Billys would be harder than the brick-and-boards, come on.

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On the ends there are my children’s books- Little House, Trixie Belden, Drina, and others. The middle sections are primarily fiction, though there’s a few non-fiction on the top shelf. This is just a mix of everything but it’s organized by author last name now.

The top shelf is more souvenirs and things. I told you I was acquisitive.

So that’s all my books. I did winnow out five groceries bags’ worth before I moved, and I have a constant donate bag going now (well, right now it’s two bags).

The funny thing about this group is there are a number of books I’ve bought more than once. Some because I read copies to death, and some because I got rid of them, then discovered that I couldn’t live in a world where I didn’t own Clan of the Cave Bear or The Runaway Jury. This is not LOGICAL, and I got my replacement copies for like a dollar, but still, unless I do a drastic move (like overseas) that requires a truly massive purge of my stuff, I guess I’m doomed to cart copies around until I die. I feel bad for whatever poor soul gets to go through my crap: “Why does she have a copy of anything by Dan “My italics are different” Brown?” Because I can’t help it.

And this is why when I move, the banker boxes of books number somewhere around 30, and everyone gets tired.

Comments are Closed

  1. Aimee says:

    Oh man, I am coming up against this same situation fast–we are moving 2800 miles in June. Right now, after a MASSIVE purging spree and a moratorium on buying new books, we have 45 short boxes of graphic novels (not counting the oversize Sandman, Hellboy, etc) and 30 cubic foot boxes of all the other books. We actually weighed this nonsense and it comes in right under 2500 pounds. I think we are going to have to hire movers; otherwise no one will ever speak to us again.

  2. Nic Dempsey says:

    The reason I don’t have a TV is ’cause when I moved, I used the money for the TV to pay movers, all of my friends were fed up with moving my books. They say that I have too many books, I say that there is no such thing, just too small houses! E-books (and the library) have helped me keep it to ‘reasonable’ levels but some books you have to have the paper copy, it just can’t be helped!

  3. lawless says:

    I was feeling bad about the unsightly two freestanding bookcases, bookcase built into the side of the computer desk, and cupboard with doors with books on popular media and my manga collection as well as DVDs and CDs I have in my apartment, but looking at this makes me feel positively virtuous.

    I think the reason they don’t have bookshelves on such shows, besides the one you point out, is that if they’re actually used, they’re not attractive enough visually. Also because most people don’t read. The houses I lived in before moving to this apartment both had built in bookcases in the living room; that was a big selling point for me.

  4. Trish says:

    When we went from a four-bedroom house to a two-bedroom condo I did a mondo book purge, and it occurred to me that about 90% of the books I had I’d only read once (and I had a lot). I own maybe seven or eight actual books, the rest are on my Kindle.

  5. Francesca says:

    I did a massive purge when we moved two years ago, even though it was to a larger place and we bought four more sets of shelves. Since then, I’ve been pretty good; I bought only five or six actual books last year and one of those will be going in this year’s mini-purge.

    The hardest ones to give up were the books that made me feel smug and my academic books. Fortunately, my son has a close friend who is studying in a somewhat overlapping field, so these are going to a good home.

  6. yota armai says:

    Tag your porn! 😉

    I’m in the middle of moving, and holy hell that’s a lot of books. Makes my sized down stash seem small. I fill two little bookcases and a three drawer cart. I switched to digital after moving 3 years ago, which was the first great purge. I used to love hitting the thrift store in my hometown and play 25 cent crazy sauce romance roulette. Haven’t found a thrift store locally with quite the same selection.

  7. I have moved 12 times in the past 25 years with the military, including two oceans. I tend not to keep paperback books unless they have an extra special significance other than autographing. I have kept travel guides, books from my children’s youth, and a few of my father’s favorite tomes (he passed away 4 years ago from Alheimer’s). I give books away to the base thrift shop, base library, and Walter Reed National Military Hospital. World Book Night is April 23 and the US will host a BYOB Book Drive in select cities:

    http://bookriot.com/2015/03/29/celebrate-world-book-night-byob-book-drive/

    Great opportunity to put your donations to use!

  8. Venetia says:

    I love seeing other people’s book shelves. I’m always squinting to make out titles. (My brother and sister-in-law have three children and no bookshelves. I find this disturbing.)

    Friend of mine commented the other day that it was weird to hear me talk of needing to visit the library since my house pretty much looks like one! Between my mum and myself, we have bookshelves and piles of books in … every room and hallway except the bathrooms and laundry. And a few years ago I finally ditched all my old plank and brick shelves for Billys and I have so much more bookspace! Not nearly enough of course and we gave twelve full boxes to the booksale last year (and I came home with three bulging bags … and just brought home two from the latest charity sale.) I have an ereader but I don’t really like it for anything but fanfic.

    I’m getting better at putting books straight in the donation box instead of back on the shelf if I’m really not keen on them. But I am a rereader. It doesn’t help.

  9. denise says:

    love it! am jealous!

  10. Verity W says:

    I have a lot of books. And a shelf just for the unread stuff which is full and overflowing into piles.

    But the bit of this post that makes me happiest – the mention for the Drina Books – I’m hoping you mean Drina Ballerina – because they were my childhood favourites. It took me 20 years, but I finally have a matching set of paperbacks. Not that I could get rid of the 3 non matching ones though…

  11. rachel says:

    I have a friend who recently crowed about how her husband built her a reading nook and bookshelves, so I went for a visit to check it out. Her bookshelves were two corner units that held maybe 40 books. WHAT?! I went home and loved on my library full of books. I use IKEA billys, but I have a compulsion for things to look organized even when they really aren’t. I can’t help it.

  12. Karen Lauterwasser says:

    And I thought I was bad! I have a houseful of books that my husband would mostly cheerfully throw away, I think. Several bookcases of cookbooks, two bookcases of fiber arts books, and bunches of other random books everywhere. In the attic are the books that haven’t been unpacked since we moved here in 1986. I blame all this on the fact that when I was a kid, I owned very few books, depending on the library and a few Scholastic books to keep me busy. Now I am the grownup I can overreact and can keep the books around if I want to. This is not to say that I am not one of my local library’s favorite people, since I help to keep their circulation numbers up. And not to mention the bookcases and boxes of books belonging to my kids, (high school through college). One daughter has three bookcases in her room, organized by genre, author, and I think by color…

    My secret wish is to someday live in a house with a library, and a staircase wide enough to have bookcases all the way up the wall side of it. It would be heavenly, wouldn’t it?

  13. Redheadedgirl says:

    @Verity W: Yep, those are the Drina Ballerina books! I only have through book six, because after that they start getting expensive. I love them so much, when I went to London a few years ago I took a picture at Red Lion Square for another friend who is super into them.

  14. Heh. I have been in the same apartment since 1991…and before I moved into it, I did a Great Winnowing which produced twelve banker boxes of books (mostly paperback, mostly SF/fantasy). Those went off to Powell’s, where I did what the buyer on duty at the time (he’s still there) describes as the biggest deal he’s ever consummated over the counter.

    Now, after the ensuing decades, I’m back up to a library of several thousand volumes (six bookcases in the living room, six in the front bedroom, two in the back bedroom/study). And I am a piker compared to a friend of mine, who refers to the process of cataloguing her collection as the Great Work (presently in the 27,000s somewhere, I think). [She bought a house for her library, and incidentally to live in….]

  15. HelenMac says:

    I moved sixteen months ago, and the first thing I built was my bookcases, and the first thing I unpacked was my books. (but not the comics – they still live semi sorted in their long boxes. IT IS TOO DAUNTING A TASK. I will get to it eventually). I already have a great need for more shelving space – eeek! I had a massive purge when I moved, but my friends still hated me – I had more boxes of books than any thing else. One of them still complains darkly about ‘Kitchen: Box 1’, which was all hardback cookbooks.

  16. Verity W says:

    @Redheadedgirl I hope you’ve managed to read the others – …Paris, …on Tour and …Ballerina are my favourites. And you’ve only got to the start of the Grant-based angst in book 6!

    I have been known to accidentally plan walking routes that take me through Red Lion Square…

    One of my earliest posts on my blog was a love letter to Drina – complete with picture of the finally matching set!

    https://verityreadsbooks.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/childrens-bookshelf-the-drina-books/

  17. Abby says:

    Your shelves are so cool! I live suuuper far from an ikea, and now I’m inspired to do some brick and boards. I’m not a naturally acquisitive person, and we moved 2000 miles last summer, so there was a major purge for that. The bookshelves didn’t even get to come. So now our remaining books are in boxes in the corner of my brother’s garage, since we have yet to buy bookshelves. We have books piled by the foot on all the end tables–I’ve been buying used ones for yoga projects I’m working on. I hope we can buy a house this year and proper bookshelves for it! Also, I really love that you’re so attached to the Runaway Jury. I still love that one and the Rainmaker, but didn’t really enjoy anything else I read of Grisham’s…

  18. Mudlarking!!!

    I am so happy to see it mentioned! I’ve done it too and I felt like a treasure hunter – basically like an Amanda Quick or Elizabeth Peters archaeologist, or like the heroine in Mr. Impossible – it was like stepping into a romance novel (and into muck, but still). I have a Roman shoe that I unearthed (thought it was junk, but then the Museum of the City of London told me it was a freaking Roman shoe and showed me their example and it was identical). I have to figure out how to display it. And I’ve been toying with the idea of having some of the pretty pottery fragments made into a necklace charm.

    Okay – books – I have bins in the scary basement of paperbacks going all the way back to my childhood Louis L’Amour collection, my kids have Billy shelves that are popping out with their stuff, and we have built-ins in the library/guest room that are nicely arranged but then have more books shoved sideways on top.

    Last summer I passed on 50 books in a basket to a friend turning 50 – and that enabled me to make enough space to get almost everything off the floor. I highly recommend the “50 for your 50th” idea – I haven’t missed them.

  19. Dee says:

    Does anyone else feel like you find kindred spirits that you never knew you had? I too have a huge library that I am currently packing up for the 5th time in 11 years… hopefully to a house that is more permanent. I have gotten rid of some, but really, what can you do? Everytime I unpack them and put them on their shelf, it’s like I’m discovering old friends again. Also, I’d love to get some titles of the food history books, RedHeadedGirl.

  20. Coco says:

    Never let anybody talk you out of your brick-and-board bookshelves! They’re awesome!

    We had some when I was growing up, a million years ago, and to this day I miss them. Ours weren’t nearly as pretty as yours either. Those are one of the things that I most frequently think of building in my own space, but I don’t have actual paper books, because I can hold them, so in my tiny apartment I can afford have them all over the place just to look at.

    “What!? Those aren’t shelves, they’re ART!” says I.

  21. Coco says:

    …because I *can’t* hold them…

  22. Coco says:

    …I can’t afford…

    Also, I missed a “to” in there.

    I’m going to stop looking at it now.

  23. Karen Lauterwasser says:

    When I was in college I ran across the plans for a bookshelf that went together something like Lincoln Logs (just fitted – no glue,screws or nails) – and hence could be moved readily (from home to dorm to apartment, etc.). My dad and I built it and I had it for years. I guess the advantage over brick and board shelves is that it didn’t weigh as much (as the bricks, anyway). I think it appeared in Popular Mechanics (no idea how I happened to see it). Thought the information might help some folks who need more shelves. Most of mine these days are the flat pack particle board things you can buy at Target. Not the most attractive, but they do the job.

  24. Hannah S says:

    Did I see the box set of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles sitting on your bottom shelf? Love those books!

  25. roserita says:

    Everyone who spent time trying to read the spines of the books in Redheadedgirl’s shelves (and was thrilled to recognize some), raise your hands.
    One of the things I like about Library Thing is that I can look at other people’s book collections (it’s not snooping if it’s allowed).

  26. LauraL says:

    I’m always happy to see a copy of the New Basics Cookbook on a bookshelf. Personal favorite of mine.

  27. Jamie says:

    We just moved. Our friends are still recovering; we have several thousand books, and about 90% of them came with us.

    We were also sick of particleboard bookcases, so ours are all wood. We even have a section of barrister bookcases, which are actually easier to move, as they simply slot together and can be lifted out one glass enclosed shelf at a time.

    I’m pretty sure we’re never going to be forgiven.

  28. Wench says:

    Similar to the people who don’t need bookshelves, I don’t understand all of the people on Pinterest and blogs who “style” bookshelves. With knickknacks and painting and decorative objects and such. And maybe a few carefully selected books – SELECTED FOR APPEARANCE ONLY – stacked in such a way that you can’t actually get them out easily.

    I JUST. WHAT. WHO ARE YOU.

    @Venetia I am also disturbed. Baby of Wench is not even a year old and has an overflowing book rack, and some books that live on the bottom shelf of our cocktail table. And we’re going to the used book store this week to get some more. I JUST. I JUST.

  29. Melanie says:

    First: Mudlarking! I’m envious; I’ve wanted to do that since I first read about it in National Geographic years ago.

    Thank you for the tour of your shelves. Like so many others here, I love getting a peek at people’s shelves. We have the same Riverside Shakespeare.

    I just found out that I will need to move yet again. The news is particularly painful because my current apartment has built-in shelves, something I’d always dreamed of having. It’s somehow oddly comforting to read your and others’ stories of moving all their books.

  30. Diane Fairbanks says:

    When I downsized houses 1.5 years ago, I did NOT downsize my library of 7,000+ books–I am not counting the 8,000+ e-books I also own! They took up 150 boxes and because I needed a huge area of wall space to build bookshelves upon, I bought the duplex I now call home and turned the downstairs into my new library. Unfortunately, after putting in 380 lineal feet of floor to ceiling shelving, I still have 60 boxes of books that need bookcases to hold them! Most of my friends think I am crazy to hold on to them, but I just cannot bear to get rid of any of my books! A house without books is just…..empty.

  31. Kelly S. says:

    I had all the Trixie Belden books, but my parents gave them away or something because when they moved, they gave me all my childhood stuff they saved (much I wish they had thrown away because I can’t throw out my stuffed animals from when I was a kid). Nowhere in the boxes of books were the Trixie Beldens. So, I asked my mom. She thought I already had them. Nope. So they are lost to me.

    Also, I have 17 bookshelf units of varying size. Roughly 3,000 books. Doesn’t include media shelving or other shelving.

  32. megsan says:

    Thanks for sharing – I am utterly jealous. One day I will own my own house and with it my own library. Until then it’s ebooks all (ok most) of the way though I did get a book voucher for my birthday and really I should start investing in my collection…

  33. Theresa says:

    I don’t think I realized how many books I had until I moved. I had a log of all my boxes and when I was on book box 20, I realized i had problem. Well, its 5 years later and I think i’ve built up any books i gave away and have even more now. Not sure how that happened give the volume of books on my kindle…

  34. Karen Lauterwasser says:

    Hey, I have the same Riverside Shakespeare as well; I could never give that up. I bought it for a college class – we read 22 plays in one semester, and also listened to recordings of them. I know this is showing my age: we played recordings on vinyl and listened on headphones in the library’s listening room. They were wonderful performances – Sir John Gielgud, the Redgraves, etc. One of my favorite classes, even if I was an engineering student.

  35. chacha1 says:

    I do love a good book collection. 🙂 I have reduced from a high of over 1400 to just over 1000 titles – with a growing proportion of those being e-books. Used to have books in a bunch of kitchen cabinets, the linen closet, the bedroom closet. The “real” books are distributed thusly.

    kitchen: small collection of cookbooks in the cupboard over the sink (also Jancis Robinson on wine)
    dining room: 6-shelf glass-fronted bookcase, one shelf occupied by 1:12 scale roombox, art books.
    entry: antique Chinese cabinet, aquarium-keeping books behind one set of doors.
    living room: 2 giant vitrine bookshelves totaling 32 linear feet, science and SF and history and travel and children’s lit and more art.

    bedroom: 3 rosewood bookcases, each 22 linear feet, mostly mysteries in hardcover first editions behind upper glass cabinets; one with photo albums and wedding-related crapola in lower cabinet; one with CD collection in lower cabinet; the last with pinup art books in the lower cabinet.

    linen closet: one shelf still occupied but now by husband’s hoard, not mine.
    mancave/home office: god only knows.

    I have a goal of reducing the collection sufficiently to turn one of the rosewood bookcases into a china cabinet for a future residence. I used to be extremely attached to my books, but after all these years and knowing that very few of them have any value even to other collectors, it has gotten much easier to let them go. I don’t want to pay extra rent just to store books anymore.

  36. LenoreJ says:

    When my aunt died I was responsible for clearing her house. She had over 150 linear feet of bookshelves packed solid.
    Sadly, many books suffered from her aversion to a/c and Sydney’s high humidity. It was a huuuuuge job. I came away with a first edition Charlotte’s Web as my reward. I recommend you leave a buried treasure like that in your collection. Your relatives will deserve the reward!

  37. Karin says:

    Wow, that was a great tour. I don’t have anywhere near as many books as some of you. I’ve got 3 big bookcases, but some of the shelves contain LP records. The books are roughly sorted into categories, one shelf is mostly nature and survival guides and travel books, one is art books, one is mystery, a couple are general fiction, a couple are non-fiction, and then there’s my collection of obscure biographies. The romances mostly live in boxes, there’s a keeper box, a TBR box, and a couple of boxes that are waiting to be swapped at Paperbackswap.

  38. lijakaca says:

    I’m very jealous of your lovely brick and board bookcase! SEVEN feet, that sounds like heaven.
    Also, I was happy to ‘recognize’ your bookcases, as they all have unmatched sizes and various items in front and above them, like the bookcases in my house and my family’s house. On reno/homebuying shows, they’re all so stark and generic and orderly…it makes me wonder whether people bought books to match spines or something instead of to read.

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